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Sixty Years in the Mountains
The author (left), John Proom, Iain Robertson and another, JMCS Glencoe bus Meet, 1957.Image RNCMy first acquaintance with mountains grew from flight from the dullness of weekends at home, especially...
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The Summit and William Blake
Lakeland Fells: Delmar Harmood Banner-The Lakes TrustThe Climber Climbing mountains was climbinghimself. From the summit he could look down and see belowthe problems he had left behindThoughts were...
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The Last Hillwalker...reviewed
John Burn’s ‘The Last Hillwalker’ has been out for a while now but only recently dropped through my letterbox. Currently still sitting pretty in the Amazon ebooks best seller list, the author's well...
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The Climbers.... 'The Ogre' Extract
I took a first tentative step towards the Ogre in the spring of 1968. I felt the need to go off climbing on the really big mountains of the world following on from my experiences in the Hindu Kush with...
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Ask the way to Cold Mountain: The Ben Nevis Story
I know now, from my own experience, that your memory of youth gets sharper as you get older. Wandering about the Highlands it happens to me more and more, and nowhere more sharply recently than on Ben...
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Doug Scott's 'The Ogre'...Reviewed
Making plans at Base Camp. L–R: Tut and I intend to climb the South Pillar; Nick with Chris, and Clive with Mo, are planning to climb up to the West Col together.The OGRE. Doug Scott. Vertebrate...
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Snowdon in Winter
Tainted by the city air, and with gases not natural even to the atmosphere of London, I gladly chimed in with the proposal of an experienced friend to live four clear days at Christmas on Welsh mutton...
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The Battle of Winter Hill
Will Yo' come O Sunday Mornin' Fo a Walk O'er Winter Hill? Ten thousand went last Sunday But there's room for thousands still!O the moors are rare and bonny An' the heather's sweet and fine An' the...
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Solstice Greetings.....See you in 2018!
I'm taking a break until the new year so thanks to everyone who has contributed to the site or even just dropped in occasionally to see what's going down hereabouts. Have a non too stressful holiday...
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Run Fast..Run Free!
I SHALL be pilloried for this piece, I know it, but I have set it down; come out into the open about what it is in the hills that really fascinates me. This piece is all about travelling fast over...
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Karakorum Matters....
If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite William Blake. Two books recently published are focussing a new interest in the Karakoram Mountain Range;...
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Stuck on a Life Raft
'Hole in the Mind with Ysfa Symbolism: John Redhead Time of mine spent with those of the past that is over? Given to those in the present that live in the past? Or to those who will be there to see...
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The Mallory Legend
GL Mallory second left, back row, with leading members of the 1924 expeditionIn 1883 W. W. Graham took Swiss guides to India and the history of climbing in the Himalayas began. Previous explorers had...
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Counting Crows
Footless Crow was launched in 2010 and initially was aimed at bringing long forgotten quality essays, previously published in journals, outdoor magazines and anthologies, back into the spotlight, to be...
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The Iron Lung
In the late 1930s my brother Ron bought a motor-bike and sidecar for £5. It was an old side-valve Ariel which never went very fast but slogged away all day without any trouble. We called it the 'Iron...
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Andy Kirkpatrick's 'Unknown Pleasures'...Reviewed
‘Unknown Pleasures’ Andy Kirkpatrick. Vertebrate Publishing.... £24 ‘I want to be me, I want to be free’... Toyah Wilcox... Jubilee.I guess if anyone in the climbing world wants ‘to be me’ then that...
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We Dented the Samovar....
'Just dangerous, stupid and scary. Underdressed, ill-equipped, no guidebook, blizzard, sub-zero.”Филипп Петрович скорер.We were staying at Wern, near Trawsfynydd. I drove fast up the narrow,...
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Nick Bullock's tides....reviewed
To live your life is not as simple as to cross a field’ Boris Pasternack.Nick Bullock has made something of a reputation as one of the leading chroniclers of modern mountaineering and rock climbing;...
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Full Hot
Henry Barber bouldering at John Smith's Bay:Photo-Grant FarquharFull Hot: 1 adj. Archaic English: Heated; Fiery; Hotter than hot. 2 adj. /fuhl-hah t/ Bermudian: A person who has had too much alcohol to...
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The Ascent of Stack-Na-Biorragh...St Kilda
'The man who cannot climb it never gets a wife in St. Kilda.' So said Maclean in his 'Sketches of the Island of St. Kilda,' a scarce book, published in Glasgow in 1838. In view of the fact that the...
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