The Steppes of Space

"...that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and mid-nights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain..."

Spindrift was cascading down the icefield and bursting over its edge. By the time it reached the beams of sunlight touching the edge of the Balcony, it was dispersed by cushions and up-draughts of air. It hovered all around me, in a million sparkling points of light, dazzling me as I looked over my shoulder across the sweep of the Wall.

— From The Shining Mountain by Peter Boardman

The Compass Caddy, designed by Peter Knight, is a simple way to keep your compass handy whilst both hands are using walking poles - a fairly typical scenario for someone navigating across open country as part of a backpacking trip.

Under these circumstances you might be tempted to refer to your compass less than you really should, or to stash away your poles so that you can focus on navigation. If you have the Compass Caddy fitted you won't have to worry about making such a choice.

The Caddy is a simple, lightweight plastic holster for your compass that clips around your hiking pole just below the handle. This keeps it out of the way until you need to refer to it when swinging your pole up 90 degrees gives you a quick look at the compass to check your bearing. Once this is done you'll quickly be on the move again.

Peter is using Kickstarter to get together the funds to make an injection mould and turn out the Caddy in increased quantities and with a better quality and finish than he can currently manage with a 3D printer.

Both Mud and Routes and Tramplite have done comprehensive reviews of early prototypes of the Caddy and these are well worth looking at if you are thinking of backing.

That jagged expedition through mountain pass. The inclines steep and ragged. Chance of cloud pulling darkness overhead but at peak - that view.

— From Ascent by Sam Kolinski

In The Shadow Of The Good Shepherd is an album of music inspired by a journey into the heart of the Cairngorms and by the book ‘The Living Mountain’ written by Nan Shepherd. Drew Wright, aka Wounded Knee, made field recordings whilst staying at Corrour bothy in the Cairngorms. The music mixes found sounds, acoustic guitar and lyrics drawn from Shepherd's book. It was made as part of the Atomic Doric project with support from Woodend Barn and Creative Scotland.

Corrour Bothy below The Devil's Point, August 2012

Buy the album on Bandcamp

Northwest was a heart-rending vista, a landscape from the imagination: the Coigach Hills, Stac Polly, Suilven and Canisp all seemingly strung in a row, floating on a sea of moorland like a line of tall ships.

— From Hell Of A Journey by Mike Cawthorne

The hills of Assynt and Coigach from Seana Bhraigh, November 2014

Dawn doesn't flood serenely in, as in a low country or on a great plain; here it gathers behind the mountain like the clans themselves, building force and energy, a presence luminous and kinetic, waiting to happen like a war. Then it comes tipping in, molten and clean, as a lake overflows its dam.

From Song of the Rolling Earth by John Lister-Kaye

Sunrise over Ben Avon in the Eastern Cairngorms, October 2012

→ Trip Report

To apprehend things - walking on a hill, seeing the light change, the mist, the dark, being aware, using the whole of one's body to instruct the spirit ... it dissolves one's being. I am no longer myself but part of a life beyond myself.

From The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd

Robert Macfarlane profiled Nan Shepherd's wonderful work of mountain prose in The Living Mountain: A Cairngorms Journey. The programme was excellent and can be viewed on iPlayer for the next 6 days - well worth catching.

When I rov'd a young Highlander o'er the dark heath, And climb'd thy steep summit, oh Morven of snow! To gaze on the torrent that thunder'd beneath, Or the mist of the tempest that gather'd below;

This recipe came from a post on the Garden World forum. It makes a delicious cake for eating on the hill...

Ingredients

225g of sultanas

170g of castor sugar

170g of sieved plain flour

115g unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of almond essence

Method

We were standing in the drum time when the pibroch's turning blade caught the sunlight like a bright wing on the waves of Boreray.

--From The Drum Time on the album Hirta Songs by Robin Robertson and Alasdair Roberts

They gave up on sleep at dawn.  Outside their tethered Ripstop den the lochan's mouth Still champed and foamed. The wind

Is surgeon to its own unhappiness They knew. They could Hardly stand, breaking Camp to return, or to go on.

-- From The Winter Camp by Wayne Price

From The Peninsula by Seamus Heaney, in ‘Door into the Dark,’ 1969.

A couple of shelves of my outdoor, adventure and mountaineering books.

I've changed up the home screen of my phone so it is more suited to my needs during the upcoming TGO Challenge.

I think this originally came from an issue of Good Food Magazine...

Ingredients

175g of light brown unrefined sugar

150g butter

3 tbsp golden syrup or honey

1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda

200g plain flour

200g oats

A couple of handfuls of your choice of dried fruit (sultanas/raisins/cranberries/cherries etc)

Method

Preheat oven to 180C (fan 160C)

Melt the butter, sugar, syrup and soda in a pan over a moderate heat

Turn down the heat and add the flour and oats a little a time and mix thoroughly

Add the fruit and mix to fully incorporate

Spread into a baking dish (I use a deep 20cm square tray from Asda)