A Tribute to Charlie Ramsay, of Carnethy Hill Working Membership, and his useful legacy The Charlie Ramsay Spherical.
Via Adrian Stott
The Scottish operating neighborhood used to be saddened to listen to of the hot passing of Charlie Ramsay on the age of 81.
Charlie, in addition to being a reliable mountain runner, used to be perfect identified for growing the Ramsay Spherical. “The Ramsay,” as it’s also incessantly known as, is a circuit of the Mountains of the Lochaber area. It incorporates 24 summits and an approximate distance of 56 miles/90.123 km and 28,500 ft/8686.8 metres of hiking. The problem is to finish it in underneath 24 hours.
At the 9 July 1978, Charlie finished the circuit in 23 hours 58 mins. His ultimate descent of Britain’s perfect mountain, Ben Nevis, has change into mythical.
Ben Nevis is the overall summit of the spherical run in an anti-clockwise route. Then you need to descend nearly 1400m in 3 and a part miles to achieve the unique start line, The Glen Nevis Early life Hostel, on the foot of the mountain.
With lower than two mins to spare, one can debate whether or not Charlie used to be reducing it superb or it used to be very best timing!
Via nature, Charlie used to be a non-public, humble individual. The Ramsay Spherical site does no longer let you know an terrible lot about Charlie. It nearly performs down his function whilst making The Spherical itself the primary tale.
That’s in line with the traditions of Scottish hill operating. There are by no means any giant public pronouncements about data or research of instances.
Certainly, exposure is nearly kept away from with many opting for to take on the problem underneath the radar with little fanfare.
Charlie epitomised this. He used to be there to provide lend a hand and give a boost to to the early pioneer completers of the Spherical and, lately, with the rising acclaim for other people heading to the outside to hunt demanding situations, he used to be additionally there providing give a boost to, and would incessantly pop up impulsively for those who had in the past instructed him about your try.
There’s a record at the site of the 273 completions of The Spherical in underneath 24 hours to this point.
If you happen to have been a success for your try, you can write to Charlie with transient main points, and he would upload your identify to the record, all handled as equals.
One Ramsay Spherical runner has described it thus: ‘There is a strange dedication and obsession, just to have your name listed on a pretty niche website that only crazy hill runners look at anyway!’
For that determination and obsession, many owe due to Charlie for being the unique inspiration.
Amongst many tributes to Charlie are those two from Finlay Wild and Jasmin Paris.
Finlay, of Lochaber AC, who set the present males’s report of 14 hours, 42 mins in August 2020, unsupported, stated: ‘Charlie used to be a captivating, attractive personality who all the time had time for other people and loved sharing his enthusiasm for the hills. He’ll be unfortunately overlooked.
‘The Ramsay Round rightly sits at the top table of U.K. endurance hill running. Charlie’s fulfillment in 1978 no longer most effective produced a long lasting, much-loved vintage problem however used to be a large step up for the 24-hour Munro report.’
Jasmin Paris (photograph via Bobby Gavin)
Jasmin, like Charlie, additionally a member of Carnethy Hill Working Membership. She set the present girls’s report in June 2016 of 16 Hours, 13 Mins, introduced this tribute: ‘The Charlie Ramsay Round is Scotland’s solution to the Bob Graham in the case of 24-hour demanding situations.
‘It comes to a circuit of Glen Nevis, itself referred to as a Tranter spherical, in conjunction with some tops round Loch Treig. In evaluating the Bob Graham with the Ramsay, the characters of the 2 rounds are, then again, reasonably other. The Ramsay options larger hills, with fewer trods, and has a extra far flung really feel to it.
‘My very own Ramsay Spherical enjoy is one of the maximum memorable and fulfilling of my operating profession, 2nd most effective to completing the Barkley Marathons. The entire day felt like an actual crew effort, a bunch of excellent buddies operating smartly in combination on Scottish mountains on a fantastic day.
‘I didn’t know Charlie that smartly earlier than my Ramsay try, so I used to be shocked and thrilled to look him looking forward to me via the Glen Nevis Early life Hostel on the unhospitable hour of two.45am when I used to be because of get started.
‘I used to be similarly happy to look him on the end, the place he shared within the champagne and euphoria of a crew of buddies and a task smartly performed. That used to be Charlie.
‘He was a true legend of the hills and incredibly generous with his support and time. In the years that followed, I met him many times on his walks in the Pentland Hills, when I was out training. After a stop to chat, I’d all the time run on with a grin on my face. He’ll be a lot overlooked.’
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A easy message used to be posted at the Ramsay Spherical site, informing guests of Charlie’s passing.
‘He loved these hills and was proud of Ramsay’s Spherical, however his largest pleasure used to be to inspire and give a boost to others making an attempt the Spherical and discovering their very own love of the hills.’
Charlie used to be an honorary lifestyles member of each Lochaber AC and Carnethy Hill Working Membership. He’s survived via his spouse Mary, and kids Grant, Fergus, and Ashley.
His funeral will likely be at Mortonhall Crematorium, Edinburgh, on Thursday 6 March at 1 pm.
With Because of IRUNFAR. the American ultra-running site for permitting us to make use of the quotes from Finlay Wild and Jasmin Paris which firstly gave the impression on their longer tribute to Charlie.
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Tags:
hill operating, mountain operating
