MUCH OF OUR MOUNTAIN LITERATURE places people at the centre of the experience. Historically, we westerners have ‘conquered’ summits and tested our mettle through personal struggle with the elements. In some ways, centring our own stories shouldn’t surprise – after all, it’s us that do the recounting – but reading some of those accounts nowadays can feel a little, well, short-sighted.
Wild and mountainous places are not just venues for our adventurous exploits: they are also some of the last bastions for rare flora and fauna, and locations where we witness some of the most extraordinary atmospheric effects this planet can produce (they’re also, of course, often home to distinctive human cultures – but that’s one for another feature!).
But little by little, our outdoor stories seem to be changing. There’s a matching awareness that we’re not alone out there and expanding our view of the world can only enrich it.
We asked a few of our contributors to describe some of their most wonderful natural moments in the mountains; from night-time inversions under a sea of stars, Brocken spectres to close encounters with the animals that roam the hills, both at home and abroad. We’ve also included some pointers for how to experience these wild things yourself.
MOUNTAIN POSER
Ryan Simpson is joined unexpectedly for a summit photo shoot in Mourne Mountains of Northern Ireland
For me – as for many of us during the pandemic – enthusiasm seemed like a commodity in desperately short supply. Keen to kick the habits of the previous eighteen months into touch, I booked a random weekday off work (any day would do!), draped my OS map across the kitchen table and started to plot my return to the mountains. My aims were modest – hike the circular route over Slieve Binnian, grab a few sunset photos and then retire to the tent for the night with a warm brew. As luck would have it, my solo trip
