Simon Ingram

Whilst Britain may not have the same dramatic peaks as the Alps or other mountain ranges, the mountains that it does have are no less significant. But they have not always been held in this regard. Until the advent of sightseeing and the picturesque they were considered to be the leftovers from the hand of creation. It was only when people started to climb them that they started to take on a greater importance.

Seeing mountains is one thing, but the only way to truly appreciate them is to climb them. As part of this book, Ingram sets out to climb 16 of them; Beinn Dearg, The Black Mountain, Cadair Idris, Crib Goch, Cnicht, Cross Fell, Schiehallion, Ben Loyal, An Teallach, The Assynt Hills, Askival, Ladhar Bheinn, Loughrigg Fell, Great Gable, Ben Macdui and the highest of them all Ben Nevis. As he walks and climbs, he explores what makes them noteworthy, through their history and their place in mountain folklore. There are chapters on the weather, where he walks across the Peak District hoping to experience and hear the legendary Helm Wind, on art where he meet a third generation artist who now explores the texture of mountains in his pictures. Other chapters cover the advent of the sport of rock climbing and where contour lines were conceived, and of course the Ordnance Survey is mentioned frequently. The chapter of Terror is about Ben Macdui and the unreal things that happen to people whilst on the mountains, from hearing footsteps in the snow as they walk, to voices and other creepy things. The chapter on Danger is about the astonishing kill rate of our hills. Even though they are substantially smaller than others, the problem here is the weather and the way it changes so rapidly from calm and dry to driving wind and rain. The final chapter, Summit, is the assent of Ben Nevis in the depths of winter, and is a fitting end to the book.

Thought that the title of the book was slightly odd, it didn’t really fit with the central premise of the book. It did also take a couple of chapters to get into, but after that you really pick up Ingram passion for these mountains. The research and detail that he has gone into are good too. Some of the subject he covers I know of because I have read around the subject, but there were lots of other things in the book that I didn’t know of. I liked the way he used each climb to introduce and talk about each subject, but this is primarily a book about climbing and you feel that you are with him every step of the way.
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