MOUNTAIN MUSIC

FROM THE COMFORT of my desk, I plotted my first ‘proper’ winter adventure since lockdown, tracing my finger around a notional route on the map. Naturally, there were grand designs. I’d be on the first Munro for early afternoon, no doubt, and from there rollercoaster up, down and along the connecting ridges west before dropping into the glen for camp. From there, I could head up that north-easterly spur to the second Munro and contour around a dramatic-looking corrie in the direction of a remote but prominent Corbett. Two nights and three days with a bit of spare change, I thought – no problem. Oh, what an elegant line on the page it was. My very own back of beyond would of course abound in snow, silence and rocky challenge. Stories other than Covid had been sorely lacking for us all. I was eager for a new mountain romance, a Scottish songline.

Hindsight is always 20:20. I’m not consciously into the ‘tea and medals’