Comments on: Memories ??? Misty, Water-Coloured and Unreliable

By: McEff

McEff — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:37:53 +0000

Hi Pedantry.
Yes. When I typed those words “the permanence of cyberspace” exactly the same thing crossed my mind. Perhaps I should have inserted a “seemingly” or “apparent” or something similar.
Thanks for your comments. If you ever come across that big book I wouldn’t mind having a look at it.
Cheers now, Alen

By: pendantry

pendantry — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:59:10 +0000

I have this idea that somewhere, there’s a big book containing all the detailed life histories of everyone who’s ever lived. What reading that would make! You have a knack for descriptive narrative; your purpose in recording your own memories is a worthwhile endeavour.

I’m not as convinced as you, though, about the ‘permanence of cyberspace.’ Though it’s comforting to think that what we create here may remain, I’ve seen too many technology changes wreck old systems to believe that what you create here will be as accessible in a couple of centuries’ time as Wordsworth’s are, give or take some language hiccups, to us now (via them old-fashioned ‘book’ thingummyjigs). WordPress support talks tongue-in-cheek about what would happen in the event of a meteor impact on its data center — but reality is often so much stranger than fiction.

Thanks for sharing!

By: mountaincoward

mountaincoward — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 01:30:05 +0000

A home for ex-outdoor folks could be a great thing! :-)

I actually found a long, but really pleasant way down off An Teallach (also on my blog – I’m not advertising honest ;-) ) – it was down a valley to the north from the most northerly top and was fine but a bit pathless in places.

By: McEff

McEff — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 21:38:33 +0000

I bet that was an ordeal ??? getting off An Teallach without a map. I had a map and still had trouble. I got down pretty safely but not in the place I had intended to get down, which was a bit mystifying at the time. Mind you, it was a very misty day. That’s my excuse anyway.
Don’t think about the old biddies home thing. I hope I’ve lost my marbles before I get that far! Or perhaps someone should open a home for ageing outdoor types ??? like a big bothy with beer instead of milky tea. Now there’s an idea.
Cheers, Alen

By: mountaincoward

mountaincoward — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 01:13:35 +0000

I’ll NEVER forget all the false summits on Schiehallion! I found them the pits! I won’t forget An Teallach either as I got abandoned by the group I was with and didn’t have a map – picking a descent was fun without sufficient knowledge of the routes!

Great post but, although I’m getting pretty old myself and forget most things, I don’t seem to forget my times in the hills. Maybe I’ll be fortunate enough to sit there in the old biddies home seeing my times in the mountains again and not noticing anything else? ;-)

By: McEff

McEff — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 18:19:06 +0000

Hi Mark. I’d forgotten about the false summits. When you look at Schiehallion from the west it forms the perfect pyramid. But from the east, which is the way most people, including myself, climb it, the hill just goes on and on and on.
Having a record is my most important reason. And sharing it with like-minded people on the internet makes it all worthwhile.
Cheers, Alen

By: McEff

McEff — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 18:07:42 +0000

You’ve been at this lark nearly ten years longer than me Alan, so potentially you’ve got more stuff to forget and have already forgotten more. There again it might just be me. Good luck in your hunt. I expect an entertaining report.
Cheers, Alen

By: beatingthebounds

beatingthebounds — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 00:21:56 +0000

Schiehallion was my first Munro – back in 1978. And I sort of remember it – the many false summits anyway. Since then there have been many more days on the hill, many of which I have no recollection of at all. That was my motivation to start blogging too – what keeps me going is a little more complex, but having a record is still the most compelling reason.

By: alan.sloman

alan.sloman — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 21:51:21 +0000

My first real hill walking memory is from the summer of 1965 when I was on top of Cadair idris as a ten year old boy with a group of older boys. I recall, somewhat vividly bracing myself for ten minutes to step over the edge for a huge scree run down to a lake. For the life of me, I have looked at maps of the hill and I cannot work out where I went.
I’m just going to have to go back and have a look.

By: McEff

McEff — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 18:04:49 +0000

Hi Fromtheden. I???m glad I???m not alone in the world on this one.

???Every act of remembering is an act of creation, a confabulation stitched together from an array of different cues. We know this, really, when we get into a muddle over whether we actually recall an incident from childhood or whether we’ve simply been told about it or seen a photo.
???What is harder to accept is that all our memories are equally provisional, created not out of a stable if sometimes cloudy past, but from the urgent needs of the present. We remember what we remember because it helps us negotiate who we are today and what we might become tomorrow. But that’s not all. Each act of remembering, and especially each act of retelling, subtly changes the memory itself. What we end up with is a smudgy copy of a copy of a copy, over which the officious present has drawn a sharp new outline and now dares us to disagree.???

That???s a fascinating review. The memory is indeed a curious and untrustworthy beast. Thanks very much for that.
Cheers, Alen

By: fromtheden

fromtheden — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 11:06:26 +0000

Lovely post & pictures. You might be interested in Pieces of Light, by Charles Fernyhough :)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/31/pieces-of-light-charles-fernyhough-review

By: McEff

McEff — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:42:32 +0000

Hi Paul. Thanks for that. Schiehallion is a great mountain. It’s one of those that looks like a mountain should look and it was a pleasure to climb. I must climb it again sometime because on my first and only visit I didn’t have a camera with me. Pick a good day because the views are panoramic.
Cheers, Alen