Climbing in the Cuillin
ExcErr for the Scottish Mountaineering Club's Guidebolk there has been a lag of a quarter of a century, during which a great deal has happened, in the documentation of Skye climbing, and this book does much to rectify it. Its author,; the founder of the Lakeland Mountain Guides, and the first professional mountain guide in this country, is in many respects the best man we have got for the job. For the last ten years he has been the head guide of the English Lake District area, and has to his credit over 2,400 rock-climbing ascents, in the Lake District, North Wales, the Isle of Skye, Switzerland, the Bavarian and Austrian Tyrol, and the French Alps. His chapters here are each the account of some actual climb in the Cufflins, and are illustrated by sixty really splendid photographs, while the book is also equipped with useful maps and a set of practical appendices, including a- very necessary one interpreting the nomenclature of the
Cuillin passes and corries. "
" The Black Cuillin hills are unique," (as Mr. Wright says), "but they are too far removed from civilization to attain the popularity of Great Gable in Cumberland or Tryfan in Wales. Their inaccessibility is one of their greatest attractions. The traverse of the main ridge must be the finest walk in Scotland. . . . With the exception of the North ridge of Brunch na Frithe and the West ridge of Sgurr Dearg, all the Cuillin summits are difficult of access, and ascents are not to be recommended for people who possess no mountain sense and have no knowledge of rock-climbing daft. For those who are able to scramble over Striding Edge to Helvellyn, or climb up Sharp Edge to Blencathra, or clamber over the Crib Goch Ridge to Snowdon, Skye provides a paradise beyond their wildest dreams."
Mr. Wright's book would have deserved a greater measure of respect if he had been more austere in the writing of it. There is too much very hackneyed description and cheap jocosity—as out of place as a litter of orange skins and lemonade bottles would be on these' lonely summits. Charles Doughty did not write Arabia Deserta in the day-tripper spirit.
. Mr. Wright says his book is not intended to include the technicalities of mountain craft. This is a pity ; he is always at his best when he is most technical. This sort of thing, for example, is worth reams of commonplace description and hotel jocosities " There is nothing more delightful to the mountaineer than riding down a long steep moraine of small stones. On occasions you May attain a speed as high as 20 miles per hour. All that is required of you is heavy footwork, by digging your heels into the small stones and delicate balance because of the necessity of riding on one foot. It gives you a thrill equally exhilarating as those which Come from ski-ing and glissading. If the scree runnels are irregular they entail all kinds,pf freak movements—treadling, slow striding, running, swerving, turning, jumping, and hopping. What joy ! But the ascent of the same scree entails the most laborious kind of drudgery. If you tread lightly the scree sinks under your weight ; if you tread heavily the scree holds, but you sweat and strain like a blast-furnaceman ; every 100 feet seems like a 1,000 feet, and you are grateful for every foot of grass and hard dirt that intervenes to relieve the dreadful monotony. You know that rhythm will reduce the strain, but the uneven, collapsible surface prevents the capture of rhythmic movement."
Elsewhere Mr. Wright confesses that the view of the Seven -Peaks of Scotland from the North ridge of Sgurr nan Gillean makes him want to say ; " It is like the view we saw from the Matterhorn, from the Nebelhorn, from Mont Rosa, from -Ben Alligan, from Scafell, on such and such a day, but such a statement would not be the truth. It is quite different. Nature never copies her best pictures. . . I felt its power and glory although I was - ignorant of its purpose. In the same way and with the same feelings I have listened to the 'music of Stravinsky and looked upon the creations of Epstein."
The trouble is that Mr. Wright has no means of conveying the differentia of the wild Scottish landscapes, but happily his material in such chapters as " Stormy Hours on the In- accessible Pinnacle " and " Night Hours on Alasdair -redeems a considerable part of the book from that facetious and flat-footed approach which is happily so different from the author's actual physical approach and professional expertness.
HUGH MACDIARMID.
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