The living mountian

Some books give you a sense of place.  This one by Nan Shepherd does just that.

Notebook for

The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland (Canons)

Shepherd, Nan

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Introduction

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‘They come to me most often,’ she says, ‘waking out of outdoor sleep, gazing tranced at the running of water and listening to its song.’ But the best way of all to uncouple the mind is to walk:

Chapter One: The Plateau

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To pit oneself against the mountain is necessary for every climber: to pit oneself merely against other players, and make a race of it, is to reduce to the level of a game what is essentially an experience.

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The sustained rhythm of movement in a long climb has also its part in inducing the sense of physical well-being, and this cannot be captured by any mechanical mode of ascent.

Chapter Two: The Recesses

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The inaccessibility of this loch is part of its power. Silence belongs to it. If jeeps find it out, or a funicular railway disfigures it, part of its meaning will be gone. The good of the greatest number is not here relevant. It is necessary to be sometimes exclusive, not

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behalf of rank or wealth, but of those human qualities that can apprehend loneliness.

Chapter Five: Frost and Snow

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the gamekeeper’s dictum is: if you can’t see your own footsteps behind you in the snow, don’t go on.

Chapter Seven: Life: The Plants

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Birch, the other tree that grows on the lower mountain slopes, needs rain to release its odour. It is a scent with body to it, fruity like old brandy, and on a wet warm day, one can be as good as drunk with it.

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there as where a native horse, tended by a man deep-rooted in the place, drags the chained trunks down from inaccessible corners, and is led back for the night to one of the ancient farms on the edge of the moor.