Main image: Cairngorms in Autumn creates ideal camping conditions atop Braeriach | Credit: Paul Skea
Sometimes, when adults talk about art, you can almost hear the ‘A’ being capitalised. I admit to speaking it aloud it myself as a naïve student of art history with a lot to prove, and even more so during an offshoot job hobnobbing with artists in our capital cities, from Glasgow to London to Cardiff. Through the haze of warm white wine, it quickly became clear that the simple act of making something belongs to us all – a democratic instinct – and that there should be no capital when it comes to creativity in all its guises. As I’ve been drawn away from the capitals (municipal and alphabetical) nowhere do I feel like as strongly as in the universally awe-inspiring company of mountains.
Much like art, the mountains are at their most thrilling when they don’t play by the rules. We hope this issue inspires a creative impulse in you, whether it’s cooking up some delicious grub outdoors, penning a quick poem on a summit camp, taking a sketchpad out with you, photographing golden Autumn light as it hits the crimsoning leaves just so, or simply whistling a little tune as you walk. Perhaps even try colouring outside the lines.
Highlights of this issue:
- Artists, poets and musicians share their personal mountain muses
- Norman Hadley confesses to a Cairngorms faux pas
- On Mount Kinabalu, Phoebe Smith climbs to a sacred summit shrouded in controversy
- Read first-hand tales from the TGO Challenge – a truly unique backpacking event
- Break bad navigation habits with these tips from Alex Roddie
- Sunny Huang explains how she stays motivated to bag a Full House – again!
- Mapped section hikes taking in highlights of Britain’s finest long-distance trails in a single day
PLUS: Jim Perrin paints a portrait of Fiacaill Couloir; our gear team tests the best stoves, midlayers and gloves; Nadia Shaikh looks towards winter in praise of hoar frost; Juls Stodel helps another reader with their own Uphill Struggle; we share the latest news from the mountains; check the calendar of outdoor walking events we rate; and get inspired with our reviews of new outdoor books to inspire.
Framing the view: The connection between nature and creativity can take many forms. Here, artists, writers and musicians talk about the different ways in which they take inspiration from the outdoors – and share the places that fuel their imagination.
Art and adventure are almost synonymous for Tony Foster, who paints in places that most people would never even be able to get to. He has hiked the John Muir Trail, rafted for 415 miles down Idaho’s Salmon River, retraced the footsteps of Lewis and Clark and trekked to Everest; all while carrying a folding drawing board and a miniature paint box. “Most of the painting is done on site,” he says. “I might be working for 10 days; or the longest I ever worked on one site before I brought it back to the studio was 23 days. I worked out I’ve spent seven or eight years living in a North Face Tadpole tent.” Tony’s career as a ‘plein air’ watercolour diarist began when he realised that people were more interested in hearing stories of adventures he’d been on than they were in seeing his paintings. So he began incorporating maps, notes and souvenirs into his work, making it as much about the journey as the landscape. Painting in the wilderness isn’t easy. He’s been rushed by black bears and attacked by an angry herd of white-lipped peccaries. The extra weight of painting equipment can leave him carrying up to 50 pounds on thru-hikes, although now he tends to enlist a little help (“I can’t carry that up mountains anymore, I’m 79 for God’s sake!). But the end result is both powerful and hauntingly beautiful...
Not All Who Wander Are Lost… But Some Really Are: Norman Hadley shares a tale of youthful misadventure, when a navigational mistake on the Cairngorm Plateau seemed to defy all constraints of space and time.
My guess is that somewhere in your hill-going past, you’ve messed up your navigation pretty spectacularly. As you descended, the mist cleared, with its attendant raising of hopes. But then the contours and woods arranged themselves into the shape of the wrong valley or glen. Maybe you have a couple such memories that make good bothy tales when the fire starts crackling and the whisky gets uncorked. You may even have a memory filed under ‘Never Tell a Living Soul’. Well, if you have, I’m here to make you feel better. Hunch a little closer to the stove, take another nip of Ardbeg and listen with wonder to this tale of orientational woe…
Across Scotland: After crossing Scotland on foot following their own bespoke routes, graduates of the TGO Challenge Class of 2025 tell first-hand tales of heatwaves, high camps, and bog-trotting through the landscape on this truly unique journey
We do always ask the weather gods to be kind to us for those two special weeks in May. Often this plea falls upon deaf ears. This year our request was granted. It was headline news that one or two Challengers experienced rain from an errant cloud, but generally, we had wall-to-wall sunshine, and dry weather greeted intrepid walkers each morning. Stopping for a break did not mean huddling behind a rock with layers and waterproofs on during warm days and warm evenings allowed us to sit outside our tents to eat and enjoy our surroundings. Once the sun went down, however, the nights were cool. The skies were clear and wonderful for star-gazing. Long nights on previous Challenges, lying in the tent listening to rain beating and the wind roaring, seemed a distant memory...
Sacred Summit: It’s 60 years since Mt Kinabalu became a national park and 20 years since UNESCO recognised its cultural and spiritual significance to the indigenous Dusun community. Phoebe Smith sets out to climb the peak and learn more about its place in Dusun culture.
The air was thin and cold. Every breath required a concerted effort, and even then it felt like something was lacking. In the darkness, beneath the grip of my gloves, the rope I was clutching as I scrambled up a steep face of rock was frozen, its icicles coming loose between my fingers. “I don’t think I can go on,” said one of the party. Another started to be sick. The altitude was real. And we were also racing a clock. “If we don’t make the check point soon we will have to turn back,” said our guide. With thunderstorms the rule rather than the exception on this peak, it wasn’t just about seeing sunrise from the summit; it was about getting off before the rains and lighting would make it unsafe to be here. That summit was Kinabalu in Borneo’s Sabah region. It was thrown into the spotlight back in 2015 when a group of western backpackers decided that they would get naked on the summit for some celebratory photographs. What they failed to realise was that Kinabalu isn’t just a mountain to locals; it’s the place their deceased relatives journey to when they die. Showing a lack of respect to the peak – and the actions of that group were perceived as disrespectful in the worst possible way – is believed to cause catastrophic events in the natural world. Just a couple of weeks after the incident, the area was hit by a magnitude 6 earthquake...
