TACit Tables: The Hewitts and Marilyns of Wales
Some people argue that climbing hills in order to claim their summits has little to do with the actual experience of hillwalking; that it reduces hillwalking to the sedentary status of stamp collecting or trainspotting. Healthy and harmless but perhaps a little sad and obsessive.
An alternative view is that tables such as in this booklet represent a key, or maybe a door handle. They can help guide you toward your objective just as reliably as any signpost or guidebook. The lists convey more than names and numbers. Every hill is different, every route is different, every day out is worthwhile. Each entry may represent smooth grassy slopes or rough bouldery heather, crags or bogs, sunshine or snow, trees and flowers, birds and rabbits, tumbling streams and shimmering lakes, winding paths and forest tracks.
Sometimes it is easy to forget all this. Lists of hills can help to remind you, for they provide an incentive to get out more often, and guidance about where to go. All you need is a list, a map and a pair of boots. And at the end of the day, you will have more than memories - you will have new dates in your list to remind you where you have been; the icing on the cake. This in itself can be strangely satisfying, providing a sense of achieving something as well as enjoying it. Those who choose to keep records can appreciate and enjoy their walks just as much as anyone else, but their reward is a little greater than for those who are too proud or too principled to bother making a note of which hills they have climbed. After all, enjoyment is temporary but achievement is permanent.