Into the sublime...... on mountains and the mind

from the wild and wonderful Scottish highlands | ©Caroline Fraser 2024

​What is it about mountains that draws us?

Both I, and my children can't get enough of them. My daughter has emigrated to western Canada, where every weekend is spent in the mountains. Son has created a lifestyle that allows him to live surrounded by majestic peaks wherever he chooses, be it in Canada or the Alps. I am happy for them both.

I have not quite achieved this, although it still remains a dream. Ever since I spent time as  a student in the highlands of Scotland I have dreamed of living in such an environment. I blame falling in love with my other half (OH) for a change of plan, settling for a life down south, and coping with this compromise by visiting the mountains whenever possible. It is not a coincidence that I choose to spend my holidays in cold remote places such as Iceland and the Scottish highlands. It is in these places that my heart fills up. The first trip that I took after one of the covid lockdowns and a 14 day quarantine in Vancouver was a road trip to the Rockies with my son.

Why are some of us drawn to mountains, while others are happiest on a beach, gazing at the sea?

I asked Google, and Google said it was because I am an introvert. No surprises there.

I asked chatGPT about the psychology of mountains with reference to artists, and it churned out several paragraphs within a few seconds about the sublime; something I have thought about on many occasions. 

But what is the sublime? And how do we know when we have found it?

from a hike on the north face of Ben Nevis | ©Caroline Fraser 2024

​I would describe it as a sense of awe and wonder in the presence of something vast, powerful and transcendent. A reminder of how small and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things.

Artists have sought to express the sublime for many years, some of my favourites being JMW Turner, Ansel Adams and Sebastien Salgado.

Clearing winter storm | Ansel Adams 1959

More recently the sublime has been expressed in more abstract forms by artists such as Rothko, and by fellow artists at Rye Creative Centre such as Jenny Pockley, whose paintings of mountains are both ethereal and sublime, more reminiscent of a memory than of a specific place.

Jenny Pockley | Powder Study, 2018 Oil on canvas 50 x 40 cm

Mountain imagery is a metaphor for personal growth and transformation, inspiring us to overcome hurdles and reach for new heights in our lives.

Mountains also remind us our past. Our ancestors would have relied on mountains for  fresh water, game, and shelter, making them an essential part of everyday existence.

​Today mountains continue to evoke a deep-seated sense of connection to the natural world. It would not be an understatement to admit that several members of my recent hiking trip in Scotland got absurdly excited to see stags on the mountainside; so much more excited than they would have been if they had seen them in a local park down south where they also thrive. For me, the excitement was greater for encountering multiple puddles filled with toad spawn on the path, way up on the hillside. A sign of how fragile the balance of nature is, for toads to lay their eggs in such a seemingly inhospitable  spot.

Mountains require one to face one's limitations. I have been trying to get fitter ready for hikes in a variety of mountains over the course of this year. You will find me standing on one leg as I wait for a train ( working my gluteal muscles)  and doing press-ups before I soak in the bath at night. I spend half of my week feeling exhausted in response to my feeble efforts to get 'mountain ready'!

​Son takes this to new levels; setting himself challenges beyond that which he feels comfortable to achieve. Living in the mountains he finds himself surrounded by individuals setting themselves really tough challenges; running up mountains, long distance trail runs and alpine hikes from hut to hut; generally pushing themselves to the limit. Way beyond what most people would consider possible. Not to mention cycling from Chamonix to Khatmandu, as two of his friends have recently embarked on. 

A cycle challenge; from Chamonix to Kathmandu

With the ever changing political situation, this feels like an immense challenge.

​I, though, will just be happy to complete a week of hiking without painful knees; something that happens on the Scottish hills with the incredibly rough paths and endless twisting and turning on the long descents after the exhilaration of the peak. 

toadspawn beside the path, Scottish highlands

When I get back home I crave the mountains. I walk on the beach and realise that although the sea and sky are calming and refreshing, I feel at my best when a mountain is looming before me. enveloping me.  I feel unsettled.

So much so that I turn to my photographs and write some words.......starting with a line from my favourite poem by Raymond Carver -  'Late Fragment".

Mountain

.And did you get what you wanted from this life?

To stumble cloudwards
tramping tangled grasses and twisted heather
squelching by bog's edge
as you wind 
 upwards 
between tumbling granite boulders
laced with myriad geographies of jade green and grey.
Territories and oceans, continents and seas
marked by cities of citrus and white.

Eyes cry out against the bitter easterlies;
boundaries blur
the heart beats faster
and faster still.

Scanning the skyline for peaks and ridges
watching them rise into view
Sharp edged, imposing, 
dark and forbidding.
Later,
snow and cloud softened
sun tipped and golden
as one with the sky.

untouchable
inhospitable
indestructible

extraordinary
magnificent
life affirming.

Mountain.







​

And once that is done, I start planning my next mountain adventure.

​Next stop, Chamonix.....

​And if you would like to read more about the psychology of mountains and the people who are drawn to conquer them, then I recommend this book by Robert Macfarlane 'Mountains of the Mind'.
​

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These images were taken on a walking holiday in Spean Bridge with 'Distant Hills Guest House'. 

A nicer place and kinder people would be hard to find.