Max Landsberg - The Call of the Mountains: Sights and Inspirations from a journey of a thousad miles across Scotlands Munro ranges

MAX LANDSBERG is a former partner at McKinsey & Company and consultant at Heidrick & Struggles, he now works as a leadership consultant and is the author of The Tao of Coaching and Tools of Leadership, both classics in the field of self-help for professionals. He is also an enthusiastic hiker, mountaineer and adventurer, and has trekked across ranges mountain ranges worldwide, including the Himalayas. He compleated his round of the Munros in 2012.

Other books by Max Landsberg:

The Tao of Coaching

The Tao of Motivation

The Tools of Leadership

Luath Press Limited

EDINBURGH

www.luath.co.uk

First published 2013

ISBN (hardback) : 978-1-908373-70-0

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-909912-59-5

The publishers acknowledge the support of Creative Scotland towards the publication of this volume.

The authors right to be identified as author of this work under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has been asserted.

Text, photographs, illustrations and maps Max Landsberg 2013

Dedicated to the memory of my father,

Peter T. Landsberg

whose advice was to be always

at least a little bit adventurous

Further photographs, videos and fly-throughs are available at
www.thecallofthemountains.com/graphics.hml

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,

places to play in and pray in,

where nature may heal and give strength

to body and soul alike.

JOHN MUIR, The Yosemite

Every day is a journey,

and the journey itself is home.

MATSUO BASHO Narrow Road to the Interior

THE MOUNTAINS OF Scotland: towering in grandeur above ancient foundations, born two billion years before the first plant saw life; rifted and faulted by earthquake and then gouged and pock-marked by ice; once home to the Gaels and their kings and now haunted by their spirits and the stag.

You can walk into these mountains, but you never come all the way back. For though Scotlands mountains may not be the highest in the world, they are certainly amongst the most awe-inspiring and enchanting. From the towering pinnacles of Skye, to the high rolling plateau of the Cairngorms; from the bonnie braes of Ben Lomond to the weeping cliffs of Glencoe; from the rocky battlements that encircle Loch Arkaig, to the gentle folds of Ben Lawers as it spills down to Loch Tay: on offer here are scenes of unrivalled splendour, landscapes of unparalleled variety, and a magic ground for personal connection, inspiration and transformation.

These are places of accessible adventure we leave behind the safety of the lush glen to cross the swooping moor, clamber up through craggy corridors, and with tinkling burn then spatey cascade as our sometime guide, we reach at last the grand summits of these lands.

It is through these realms that I hope you will accompany me on a journey for body, for mind and perhaps for something more.

* * *

My own journey started by way of the accident described in the next chapter. Then, having fallen into the wonderland of Scotlands mountains, I was quickly captivated and drawn into an ardent adventure that called me northwards from my home in London, to the land I had left when I was just three years old. My mission eventually became a series of expeditions to climb all 282 Munros Scotlands mountains of 3,000 feet or more in height. Working my way through the list of mountains that Sir Hugh Munro had originally published in 1891 became my vast and roving obsession. More importantly, it brought me to the highest vantage points from which to embrace the best of Scotlands landscapes.

Just as I had not originally intended to climb all those peaks, neither had I intended to write about them. But several years ago, my neighbours children clamoured so loudly to hear of my recent trek to Everest Base Camp that I agreed to give a short presentation at their school. I could not resist mentioning Scotland too, and so wide-eyed with excitement were the kids as my own passion for those nearer hills became evident that I resolved to share these life-affirming experiences.

So with field notes, sketches, photos and maps spread out before me, with memory as a guide and with pen and paper as company, I recalled my circuit of the hills set out in this account.

The Call of the Mountains is intended as an impressionistic companion for your forthcoming Munro journey, whether you are about to embark on it in earnest or in your armchair or perhaps it will be a reminder, as you recall the outings you have already completed.

This account offers you: 1) short stories that conjure a sense of place in these magical lands; 2) anecdotes that give you a comprehensive sense of the drama and adventure involved in climbing all the Munros; 3) some digestible sandwiches along the way, for as I take you through each walk-scape I also aim to give you a hint of history here, a gist of geology there, and a bit of flora, fauna and culture in between, and 4) a reflection on the stages by which any interest can swell into a passion and escalate into an obsession.

To share the sense of expedition, of discovery and of growth, I have sequenced the chapters around the actual journeys and side-trips I made in compleating the round of Munros. You can of course climb the Munros in any sequence, and though they may be visited piecemeal by those who live in Scotland, those who live abroad will require longer visits. This account is therefore typical rather than prescriptive.

Primarily, though, I want to take you where the scenic ingots are buried: a few are overgrown, some overlooked, all under-visited.

* * *

But what can you expect from such an adventure, beyond the delights and inspirations I have already mentioned? If you walk these routes in full or in part, you will certainly witness the soaring eagle, and perhaps the birth of a fawn; you will share the camaraderie of canny ghillies; you will gain benefits to health and heart, and you will have unexpected adventure.

Whether you want it or not, there will be adventure. Though Scotlands mountains are not as high as those in some other countries, they are among the highest in Britain: of the 1,000 highest peaks in Britain, all bar 58 are in Scotland. As you walk for more than 1,000 miles horizontally, and over 100 miles vertically; as you expend half a million calories; as the weather changes within a few minutes from brilliant sunshine to storm-force wind, rain and hail and back again: there is bound to be adventure, and something will go wrong! So take a detailed guidebook, maps and compass, and take the precautions indicated in the section on Safety, so you will not have to call on the Mountain Rescue Service, whose excellence and professionalism probably saved my life, as you will soon see.