UKH

Hi all:

I'm a California-based climber headed to Scotland in late Feb to check out the winter climbing. I'm wondering if you might have some reading recommendations for me. Not guidebooks--I've already got all of those--but books about climbers and climbing. I've read Tom Patey and Hamish MacInnes, and I've read the 2 volume history of Scottish Mountaineering. And the book by the same author on Ben Nevis. 

I've just ordered Crazy Sorrow, a book I've only just heard of here on UKC. We just don't have much in the way of Scottish / UK-based climbing literature here in the states, probably because we're a bunch of philistines.

Anyway, do let me know if books come up for you. I'm a novelist by trade and love armchair climbing. Keeps my stoke up for the snows to come in.

From California, where it is currently 75 degrees and sunny. Bleh.

Christian Kiefer

In reply to xiankiefer:

A couple of my all-time favourite climbing reads focus on Scottish climbing:

Julian Lines: Tears of the Dawn - the prose is often as poetic as the title would lead you to expect. Beautifully written and the best insight into the hard soloist's psyche that I've ever read.

W H Murray: Mountaineering in Scotland & Undiscovered Scotland - one of the great stylists. His work is studded with passages of gorgeous description, shimmering with spirituality, set alongside enjoyably dry humour. First-hand accounts of early ascents of some truly classic routes.

In reply to xiankiefer:

One of the most interesting times in Scottish climbing history for me is the interwar years, as much because of the social history as the climbing history.

Always a Little Further by Alastair Borthwick is a classic account of this time.

May the Fire Always be Lit by Ian Thompson is a biography of Jock Nimlin one of the leading lights of this time.

Mountaineering in Scotland and Undiscovered Scotland by W.H. Murray are about similar times but with a different perspective.

In reply to xiankiefer:

If you haven't already found them, many of the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journals are on line at https://www.smc.org.uk/journal/downloads - many hours of reading.

Maybe not climbing as such but I'd recomend Nan Shepherd's ' The Living Mountain' as a wonderful invocation of the Cairngorms

In reply to xiankiefer:

Cold Climbs is a big, historic picture book showcasing the famous routes with some excellent essays by the good and the great.

In reply to xiankiefer:

As already said above, W H Murray's books are definitely a must read for the historical and philosophical content. He wrote a first draft on toilet paper while a POW which was lost. I'd also consider Hamish Brown's book about the first continuous walk over all the Munros (Hamish's Mountain Walk). It inspired me to get out on the Scottish hills.

In reply to xiankiefer:

A bit of a left-field suggestion, but as a fellow creative writer you might find it interesting to check out Getting Higher - The Collected Mountain Poems, by the Scottish writer Andrew Greig. As the title suggests, there's plenty of climbing as sex n' drugs n' rock n' roll. One of the key influences is Gunslinger, by Ed Dorn. It's a very enjoyable trip.

In reply to Andy Clarke:

from memory more hill walking than climbing, but for more rock & roll, see Graham Forbes' (ex Incredible String Band) 'Rock and Roll Mountains'.

In reply to DaveHK:

In a similar vein, Mountain Days and Bothy Nights and A View from the Ridge, by Iain Mitchell & Dave Brown. Both excellent short stories.

In reply to xiankiefer:

High endeavours : the life and legend of Robin Smith

In reply to xiankiefer:

I'd pick up a copy of 'The Black Ridge' by Simon Ingram.  It's a fantastic book about the Black Cuillin mountains on Skye. Beautifully written, engaging, interesting - I loved it. Full of history, geology, folklore, mountaineering and climbing history and the author's personal quest to discover more about this most alluring of Scottish mountain ranges.  It's an absolute classic.

"You are standing in the sky.  Beneath your feet is a circle of rock, broken and agleam with rain.  That's all you see. The rest is just whips of fine-grained cloud, riding a wind that comes from everywhere.  Ahead, you sense space: a coldness, where the ground drops away into an abyss you can't look into, but in just there, looking back."

In reply to xiankiefer:

a couple that are not really guide books...

https://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/publications/guidebooks/chasing_the_ephemer...

https://shop.thebmc.co.uk/product/the-great-mountain-crags-of-scotland/

In reply to Doug:

Nan's is one of my favorite books of all time. xo

In reply to Andy Clarke:

Love those Murray books. I've not read the others. Thanks!

In reply to Mike-W-99:

Very much loved that book. Low-key obsessed with Robin Smith!

In reply to xiankiefer:

Maybe you'll get to do some of his routes.

Enjoy your trip.

In reply to xiankiefer:

If you can get hold of it;

A Century of Scottish Mountaineering

An anthology of some of the best articles in the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal. People are people whatever the century...

ISBN 9-907521-21-5

First published 1988 so it will be tricky to find but some of the articles are pure gold.

In reply to rogerwebb:

21 copies on ABE books from £1.97, at least one on ebay.

This thread has a really good set of recommendations IMHO.

In reply to Mike-W-99:

That is 100% my goal! 

In reply to Offwidth:

Found it on eBay with cheap US shipping! Thanks all! This thread is amazing!

In reply to SuperstarDJ:

Amazing! I've not even heard of that one!

In reply to mal_meech:

Love Chasing the Ephemeral. I'll check out the other!

In reply to Doug:

I thought Rock and Roll mountains was really good in a light hearted laugh as you read along kind of way, despite touching some very dark life subjects; recovery from serious injuries and burn out at a young age, trying to run a business, and the call of the mountains competing with commitments. 
It left you with both a grin on your face and positivity.

In reply to xiankiefer:

People don't seem to have, maybe as the author isn't a climber.  I have no idea why it's not more widely read. 

In reply to xiankiefer:

By the way, what did you think of fellow Californian climber and (first time) novelist Jonathan Howland's Native Air, which won the Grand Prize at last year's Banff? I was impressed.

In reply to xiankiefer:

"The Ridiculous Mountains" by GJF Dutton.  An essential for anyone venturing into the Scottish hills.

In reply to xiankiefer:

Can't see that its been mentioned but Creagh Dhu Climber by Jeff Connor has lots of hair-raising tales from the Creagh Dhub Club as well as charting the life of one of the less celebrated climbers of his era, Johnny Cunningham. A good read too.   

In reply to xiankiefer: Area specific but Greg Strange’s The Cairngorms 100 years of Mountaineering published by the Scottish Mountaineering Club is a great read. Runs from the 1890’s to the 1990’s.

In reply to SuperstarDJ:

The Trail factor

In reply to felt:

I suppose, but it's very sad that we'd reject such a great book in favour of (franky) far inferior books with gnarlier authors. I wonder what else I've missed.

David