Last journeys, the right words on climate, connection and conservation, and skipping the boring parts | The Pinnacle
This week’s links include pieces on climate change, bad things happening in the mountains, why a personal connection with nature is vital for conservation, and a range of other topics. Enjoy.
The last journey – Paul Mags on the world of long-distance hiking and its moment of reckoning with climate change. Some people think that this moment is still in the future, but I agree with Paul; I think it’s already here, perhaps even in the UK, where the May Highlands backpacking season is not as reliable as it once was. ‘I think of shrinking glaciers, burnt forests, trails flooded out or no longer accessible, and magnificent seasons becoming a part of the past remembered by fewer and fewer people as the years march on … And it makes me wonder if we are in the waning days of thru-hiking some of the established trails in the traditional sense.’
All The Right Words On Climate Have Already Been Said – an important piece on a related topic here from Sarah Miller. For many people, catastrophic climate change is here right now, yet global action remains lacking. ‘What kind of awareness quotient are we looking for? What more about climate change does anyone need to know? What else is there to say?’
Never Say Never - Mistakes in the Mountains – ‘How can you be so brass to expect someone scared of scrambling to trust you to make the crucial decisions that will keep them safe, when you unarguably made an error in judgement that could have cost you your life? In fact, if you are honest with yourself, aware that you are human and can make mistakes, why would you work in this industry?’
What Capercaillie Mean to Me – the link between personal connection and conservation. ‘These are good answers and the ones I give again and again in my role. These are the ones that bring the money in. However, what I don’t say, is that since that first moment when capercaillie crossed my path, they have captivated me. What I don’t communicate are the tears of relief that fill my tired eyes when I finally hear this call echoing through the dawn forest. What I can’t face is the thought of walking through Highland forests, knowing that these majestic birds are not silently watching from the canopy. This is why I cannot let these birds go.’
A Night on Slioch – Sarah Jane Douglas spends the night in a million-star mountain-top hotel.
Andrew Terrill’s The Earth Beneath My Feet reviewed – a fab review here from Dave Mycroft at MyOutdoors, including an extract from the book. I’m glad that it’s getting rave reviews. I knew that it was something special when I was working on it earlier this year. ‘It's the first book in years that I've set 30 - 45 minutes aside for each evening, knowing that within a paragraph the worries of the everyday world would fade away and it would be me transfixed by fireflies or contemplating the enormous forces that drive continents together.’
The infinite scroll – we’re in the long dark October of the web. Where did it all go wrong? ‘It all happened in the way that decline generally happens in American culture, which is one anxious, hopeful, cynical capitulation at a time … It goes without saying that everyone involved is perpetually maxed-out and stressed and scrabbling for a dwindling and finite amount of money in an arbitrary and artificially constricted ad economy that runs on wobbly, untrustable, and easily manipulated data … It’s a rolling, desperate, iterative exercise in seeing how bad things can become before readers finally stop coming at all.’
Skip the boring parts – ‘The way to be interested in writing again is to find something interesting to write about. Time to go out in the world and notice something.’
Recently published
It was a pleasure and a privilege to be asked to judge the ‘Wild and Well’ photographic competition by the John Muir Trust. Very much not a pro competition – most of the images were taken by non-‘serious’ photographers, using phones, in their gardens or out walking – but I was struck by these simple and effective compositions.
My next book, The Farthest Shore, is available to pre-order with Vertebrate Publishing. If you’d like to help me out, please tweet/Facebook/Instagram about the new release – it really helps!
Until next time,
Alex
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