The Great Outdoors – August 2019

The Mend our

Mountains:

Make one Million

campaign is a

partnership

between the British

Mountaineering

Council (BMC) and

the UK’s family of

15 national parks.

It follows the

very successful

initial Mend

our Mountains

campaign, which

picked up the

Campaign of the

Year award in The

Great Outdoors

Awards 2016.

Among the

various sources

of funding for the

campaign was a

crowdfunding

initiative in

which supporters

could choose to

claim a reward in

exchange for their

donation, with

rewards ranging

from T-shirts to

helicopter rides.

REWARDS

OFFERED

BY THE GREAT

OUTDOORS

MAGAZINE

included the

chance to be

photographed for

the front cover

of the magazine

(watch this

space...!) and the

night walking

experience

with Alan Rowan.

Gear Editor Chris

Townsend also

offered a day’s

excursion in the

Cairngorms.

MEND OUR

MOUNTAINS
Munro Top (Bynack Beg). While I still have
hundreds of summits ahead of me before I
reach a full house, every little helps!

What were the main differences you found
compared to walking in daylight?
Not being able to see too far ahead or
behind at any time makes it hard to get
the sense of time passing or the walk
progressing. You know all you can do is walk,
and not watch anything else other than your
next step. The concentration is full on. You
tend to chat less and focus a lot more on
your own thoughts. Your thoughts mix hour
after hour, stride after stride. Sometimes
you feel as if you are not exactly awake;
the circle of thoughts around the light of
the head torch as the hours pass is almost
dreamlike.

What were the highlights?
We were wondering at the start of the
walk where the moon was, since the stars
were there, but she was conspicuous by
her absence. The first highlight was when
Bynack Mor was kind enough to move
out of the way to finally introduce us to a
large yellow moon on the rise. The second

highlight was the sunrise (of course, it

would have been rather disappointing in a

dusk-til-dawn walk if the sunrise was not a

highlight). After waiting for a few minutes

on the crystallised granite boulders of

Bynack Mor's summit, a deep red magma

sphere started crowning on the horizon,

rising slowly as a lava-lamp wax ball, tinting

the sky with a full range of red, yellow and

orange shades. But a third highlight for

me was the exhilaration that came with

reaching the declining gradient of the short-

but-steep ascent of Bynack Mor's slopes –

through heather, wet and slippy with snow-

melt and grass – and realising I'd managed

the hardest bit of the trip. The snow patch

was indeed breaking helpfully ahead of me,

and I could stop worrying about what lay

ahead. Dawn was welcoming us as if on cue

to the Barns of Bynack.

Did you see the attraction of walking

mountains at night?

Yes, and I would be happy to do more. All

I need is the determination!

Skies lit up with

approaching

sunrise

Early sun on

the ridgeline

August 2019 The Great Outdoors 21