The Great Mountain Crags of Scotland
Vertebrate Publishing have recently launched a new edition of Hard Rock, one of the Ken Wilson trilogy along with Classic and Extreme Rock, which set the benchmark for coffee table tick list climbing books. This trilogy set the standard with iconic photos linked to gripping tales often by well known climbers at the top of their sport.
Few authors/publishers have dared to try and meet the Ken Wilson benchmark, fewer still have succeeded but “The Great Mountain Crags of Scotland” certainly takes up the baton and gives Ken a good run for his money. This volume is more than just a “puerile ticklist” in fact it isn’t even that. The authors concentrate on the crags themselves rather than routes so it feel like a more well rounded book with a wider appeal to anyone interested in the best wild and rocky places that Scotland has to offer.
In some ways, the climbing on these fantastic mountain crags is a bit of a back water. Individual climbs may have been written up in the SMC’s journals, magazine articles or blogs but the whole genre of mountain crags deserves a greater audience and this is the book to kick start that. With amazing photos and absorbing reading, this book will appeal to both the hardcore climber with ambitions to explore and the armchair mountaineer.
As a publisher this must have been a huge and expensive project for Vertebrate. It’s a huge book, full of beautiful photos. Due to the diligence of the compilers, authors and publishers, the book explores a grand landscape and does so in a grand style. A large format, coffee table style allows space for big photos and larger than life tales, tall stories and poems.
Wheras in the Wilson trilogy, the routes are very much the stars, here the crags get top bill which is a refreshing change. On the dustwrapper it says, “This is a book for anyone with an interest in Scotland’s wild places, where the mountains and cliffs, rather than the climbs, take centre stage, transporting the reader far from towns and cities and deep into the wilderness. The crags are the tallest, steepest and most majestic in the British Isles.”
As a photographer, the quality of the images throughout the book are superb. From set piece landscapes by to adrenaline climbing shots, the photos are well chosen and stunning examples. Photos vary from shots taken during arduous climbing conditions (Pg 78 showing Rob Jarvis enveloped in spindrift), to stunning climbing shots (Pg 23 with Dave MacLeod on an E7) then there’s an amazing array of landscape photos. Top shots by top photographers including Dave Cuthbertson and Colin Threlfall.
The book is divided by geography into four sections; South West, North West Highlands, The Islands and The Cairngorms & Central Highlands. Each section is sub divided into an initial poem, an introduction to the area by a leading protagonist. Next come chapters on selected crags. Thus the Islands section has 7 crags, 3 of which are in the Cuillin. There are chapters on “The Great Prow, Bla Bheinn,” “Sgurr Mhich Choinnich North Face” and “East Buttress, Sron na Ciche.”
The whole book is linked together not just by the mountain crag theme but each section commences with a poem by Stuart B. Campbell. This was an inspired decision by the compilers who acknowledge, “Stuart B. Campbell’s rich verse provides the perfect lyrical glue for the book, and each of his four pieces draws on and adds to the text that follows.”
The SW Highland section’s poem opens with
“Failte! Welcome, to Bargain Land
where you’ll always get more
than what you reckoned for.
aye, ye’ll pay for it, alright, but
it won’t be all right; you’ll pay for it
with the small change of
frozen-stiff fingers; bivis to die in;
midge infested nostrils.
- and not just once; get this,
it’s on the never-never, this is the life
-long never ever paid off mortgage;
it’s the Faustian pact for a fantasy route.”
Each crag gets a similar treatment and is written by someone with an emotional attachment to the place. The format is the same for each crag; an introductory page with a photo and text subdivided by headings of “The Place,” “The Cliff” and “The Climbing” and “The Routers.” Choice photos fit carefully with the text and finally there is “The Story,” which might be a gripping tale of a first ascent, an historic connection with the crag. Typical is Grant Farquhar’s chapter on “The Great Prow, Bla Bheinn, Skye.” It kicks off with childhood memories of a five year old’s first visit to Skye, there follows a bit about mythology, legend and midges. “The Cliff” gets described as is “The Climbing” then three routes from HVS to E5 are described. “The Story” then follows, an account of the first ascent in 1997 of an E5 that was to be named “Finger in the Dyke.”
The writing throughout the book is all superb and it would be hard to pick any to high light. The compilers have done a fantastic effort prodding top notch climbers to write about their experiences. Thus, there are chapters by leading activists such as Nick Bulloch, Es Tressider, Simon Richardson and Blair Fyffe, to name but a few. Martin Moran and Andy Nisbet write chapters in the NW Highlands section and in a way the book encapsulates an era of high quality, exploratory climbing at the highest levels. It’s a fitting testament to these two prolific climbers who both died last year. In some ways the book encapsulates much of the ethos of Scottish climbing and serves as a counter to the dry guidebooks of days of yore when a major first ascent might just get a very brief description.
Coincidence or not but much about the same time as this book arrived, Robert sent a review copy of Julian Line’s “Tears of the Dawn.” It’s a biography and a totally different book to The Great Crags but it’s right up with there with the best climbing literature ever written. Thus, it was good to see Julian had written the chapter on “Central Gully Wall, Craig An Dubh Loch.” It really puts things into perspective having the words of a good writer alongside some quality images.
In many ways this is the perfect coffee table genre book. It fleshes out the landscape, the climbers and is a smorgasbord to be sampled at will, a book to be delved into and one that not just celebrates the crags but inspires for future adventures. It certainly lives up to the precedents set by Ken Wilson and to my mind is better for the more cragcentric rather than tick list approach. Note I haven’t seen the newly released edition of Hard Rock with new photos and stories which does look as if it combines the best bits of the original with colourful new photos.
Andy Cave wrote the Forward and I can think of no better summary than, “marvel at the images, savour the mystery of the great cliffs and dream of great days past and future.”
