“The piano, that was easiest, despite the keys
rattling like dice beneath the lid, so next
I strapped a toffee-coloured horse across my back,
ferried a coffin with the body still inside
pitching from left to right with every move.”From “Items Carried Up Ben Nevis” by Helen Mort
Luckily, I did not have to carry any of these objects up Tower Ridge (for more on the story of the piano, see BBC News), though there were times when I wished I had a better camera. But then, perhaps no camera could quite have captured the quality of light that bathed the snow covered cliffs of the North Face of Ben Nevis on Tuesday night through Wednesday morning, during probably the most spectacular climb of my hitherto short climbing career: a night time ascent of Tower Ridge.
Today is World Book Day, so I’ve decided to write a review of a book I read recently, Steve House’s “Beyond the Mountain” - winner of the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature in 2009.
As I write this, the Scottish winter is not just hanging in there, it’s colder now than it was in any of the Winter months and it’s likely I could yet get some more winter routes in the bag before the season is over, however I wanted to write this up while the memories were still fresh.
MathsJam is a monthly meeting for people interested in recreational mathematics, and drinking of beer. At the Edinburgh meeting in August, we were presented with this Listener Crossword, from The Times Crossword Club. At the time of writing, there are plenty of solutions on the web from those who tackled the puzzle in the traditional manner of brain, pen and paper. I opted to cheat.