|
|
Scrambling on Skye
Last weekend I was over on Skye with Naya and Blazej. We had some very settled weather with perfect still conditions but not too hot. The cloud gradually burnt off each day and it was generally warm by the late afternoon. The Cuillins were busy with lots of folk due to the good weather, bank holiday weekend and English half term.
We had 2 lovely days on the ridge. The first day we climbed Sgurr nan Gillen and Am Basteir and the next day we climbed Sgur Sgurmain, Sgur Alasdair, Sgur Thearlich and Sgur Mhic Coinnich. I have put a collection of the photos on my Facebook Page here: Skye scrambling with Naya and Blazej
|
|
|
Mischief in Greenland by H.W.Tilman
Vertebrate Publishing and Lodestar Books have teamed up for a project to publish all 16 of HW Tilman's books in single volumes. I've read some of the mountaineering books in the collected edition published in the 80's but it certainly was unwieldy. Vertebrate Publishing recently sent me a copy of Mishchief in Greenland about Tilman's first 2 voyages across the North Atlantic.
It was so much more handy to have a 200 page copy rather than reading from a huge tome. Colin Putt, who sailed with him in 1970, writes a foreword (dated April 2015) which gives his personal view on Tilman the man and tells us that he was not in fact the fabled misogynist recluse but in fact the perfect gentleman. Annie Hill's afterword is excellent in its honesty and attempts to read between the lines when it comes to his self-deprecation and his misogynist persona.
Having sailed across the North Sea last year in a 24 foot sail boat and then rock climbed in Jossingfjord before sailing home I was attracted by the oft quoted sentence of Tilman's; Only a man in a devil of a hurry would wish to fly to his mountains, forgoing the lingering pleasure and mounting excitement of slow, arduous approach under his own exertions. I really enjoyed Tilman's understatement and entertaining way with words. Reading of his sailing adventures reminded me of my own sailing experiences which have occasionally been undertakings with an unknown outcome. It is always good to be inspired by folk with a bold sense of adventure even in their 60's. Although the fact that that he disappeared in the South Atlantic in 1977 does make you think perhaps we should not follow wholly in his footsteps.
|
