"Oh the mind, mind has mountains" (Earnest climbs The Three Peaks)
“O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall.
Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed.”?
Gerard Manley Hopkins
It’s an emotional thing, walking up a hill.? More than it should be, given the individual actions involved. Left leg, right leg, and your body follows.? Repeat this for about 1300m of ascent and you’ll end up on top of Ben Nevis.?
Walking up hills is hard (running’s even harder, just ask Kate Bush) and the slow, methodical act of footfall turned to elevation gain can take you to some confrontational places. Take one Grace Adam, for example. Her pitched yells - “I will beat you father! I’m the fastest Adam of all!”- echoed deep across the gloaming slowly swallowing the Grampian mountains. We’ve all got our reasons, I guess.
Again, an emotional thing. But also a worthwhile one. The Earnest team raised money for a range of charities, but in total their efforts earned them ￡3,624 in sponsorship. There’s still time to donate if you feel like it: link.?
With this in mind, I think the most important thing to say about Team Earnest’s valiant attempt at the Three Peaks is that I couldn’t be more proud of everyone.? They’re not small hills; Ben Nevis (1300m), Scafell Pike (978m) and Snowdon (1085m). And it’s no small thing; all three in 24 hrs means over 3000m of climbing and a marathon’s worth of walking.?
The next most important thing is to say that I’ve never seen so few people eat so many snacks in such a short space of time.? Everyone involved should see a GP and get their blood sugar checked immediately.
An incomplete list of things i witnessed the Earnest Team eat whilst walking:
But back to climbing hills. It’s a big and serious thing and not to be sniffed at, but it also (I hope) a thing to luxuriate in.? I’m sure people were bored of me saying it by the end of the weekend, but I’m a big believer in there being two kinds of trips to the mountains.??
The first is goal oriented; climb the thing, ski the whatever, do the stuff.? The second is just to spend time in the hills.? And whilst the first type of trip can be disappointing if you didn’t achieve what you wanted, it’s worth remembering that the second kind of trip is its own reward.? Spending time in the mountains is a Good Thing.??
Which is a moderately long way round of saying: we managed two out of three mountains, failing to set foot on Snowdon due to some nightmarish transport logistics between the Lake District and North Wales. I hope Team Earnest feels the way I do: that the weekend was very definitely a Good Thing even if it wasn’t the thing we set out to do.?
After surviving 18 hrs in Glasgow with George “oh look a pub” Sanders, Team Earnest took (probably) the best train ride in the UK west to Fort William.? After rattling through Loch Lomond and Trossacs, the train creaked its way into Fort William over a deliciously slow 4 hrs. James D and Clara were both delighted to discover that the UK has more diverse scenery to offer than Clapham and the BT tower.
In Fort William we met our dashing mountain guide Jamie (honestly: very handsome).? “Look at his athletic calves!” Gemma kept mumbling, which was all the more confusing as he was wearing trousers the entire time.? Jamie’s official job was getting us up and down the hills and making sure no-one got lost (no-one got lost!).
Jamie’s real job however, was adjudicating a very important, nationally themed prize giving:
The winners of the Most Stylish Ascent Competition:
Most Stylish Ascent of Ben Nevis: Mr Steve Spicer
Prize: A gift set of Talisker whisky miniatures
Most Stylish Ascent of Scafell Pike: Ms Grace Adam
Prize: 5 pieces of Kendal Mint Cake
In lieu of a complete summit of Snowdon, Most Stylish Weekend: Mr George Sanders
Prize: One entire Welsh Leek
From Fort William, we climbed Ben Nevis by the romantically titled ‘mountain path’.? Local historians maintain that the reason for this route name was lost many centuries ago.? The summit of Ben Nevis gets about 6 minutes of sunshine a year, so it was frankly baffling that we had astonishing views and great weather for our entire time on the hill.?
We had slightly worse weather related luck on Scafell Pike, but at the very least everyone got to enjoy the uniquely Cumbrian weather formation known as “Lakeland clag”; a sort of low lying damp that pervades everything and chills you to your knickers, despite it not actually raining.? It means you can’t see more than 8 ft in front of you, despite being in some genuinely beautiful places.??
I myself have summited Scafell Pike several times and haven’t seen anything yet - it makes me very happy.
“Oh the mind, mind has mountains”.? I think about this poem a lot. Gerard Manley Hopkins (a brief aside: what a name) was a Jesuit priest and highly innovative Victorian poet.? His own work made use of something he described as ‘sprung rhythm’; a poetic style purposefully mirroring the scansion of natural human speech. Hopkins worked hard to escape the ‘running rhythm’ of existing contemporary rhyme schemes and free his verse from the weight of expectation.? The subject of his poems could be similarly confrontational attempts to find freedom. “Oh the mind” is his attempt to reconcile himself to the bouts of depression that hounded him for most of his adult life.
For my part, trips to the hills have always been my attempt to find my own sprung rhythm. To move and to breathe a bit more naturally. To think a little differently about the world, if only for a while before the running rhyme scheme of regular life has to return.? It was nice to share that with people.?
Does it matter that we didn’t climb all three peaks? I hope not. I think not.? We got to spend time in the hills together and that's a Good Thing.?
*Books holiday to the Lake District immediately* Great read; it made me miss the lakes! It sounds like a hugely successful weekend - there’s nothing better than being in the hills. Hope you’re well - it’s been an age!
Retired
2 年Epic stuff! My response to GMH would be a slightly different line - "Oh my knees...."
Head of Growth (Sales/Marketing/Client Growth) & B2B Sales Expert
2 年Excellent read mate, really enjoyed this.