Advertisement
Published: September 22nd 2007
Edit Blog Post
Picked up the little rental car this morning. Quick side note:
never rent from Enterprise UK. Total scam, from what I saw. They wouldn't accept anyone's insurance and made everyone who showed up buy their additional insurance. Both when I picked up and dropped off the car, there were irate customers at the counter. You have been advised.
Took the nice, slow drive up to Glen Coe, threw on the rain gear, and headed up another trail. This time, the goal was the peak of a Munro. The weather was fine at the start, some misty clouds now and again. But by about halfway up the thicker stuff really started closing in. After about 2 hours I got to the ridge top to make my attack on the summit (still another 500 or so feet vertical up), and briefly caught a glimpse of the next valley to the east. It took my breath away. Soon after, the clouds had completely socked in the mountain and valley below, and anything more than 50 feet in front of me was invisible. The path, largely stone and scree at this elevation, started to get really scary wet with moisture. I could feel my
Bidean nam Bian
The peak is only a few hundred feet away...and totally inaccessible. Bummer. legs working harder than normal to stay upright, and the going was really slow. I got just below the summit and had to give up - without the proper equipment, I wouldn't even think about trying the ascent up steep, solid, soaked rock.
At first it kind of bummed me out - here I had done all this work, climbed over 3000 vertical feet, to stare at the inside of a cloud and an occasional passing sheep. The view from the top of this summit is supposed to be absolutely phenomenal, Glasgow to the south, the highlands to the north, and the islands and coast off to the west. And I was totally missing it.
But as I sat up there in that thick Scottish air, I got to thinking about this idea of Beauty. Why did I decide to hike in Glen Coe today? Just to attempt a high peak? I can do that at home, just as easily. I decided that one principal reason I did this would have to be the
possibility of seeing, experiencing
Beauty. Which I did, though not in the striking 360 degree way I had pictured.
The possibility of Beauty
pushed me to risk. I took risks as I continued to push up the slick, rocky trail. Why? A route, obscured by mist, as I fight tiredness, the desire of comfort and dryness - all risks and small sacrifices taken in pursuit of the possibility of experiencing beauty. And of course, I risked going through all that effort with the possibility of not experiencing Beauty.
I am almost thankful that I didn't get the spectacular view at the top, b/c I think I have stumbled upon a huge truth in my life as a consequence. I feel I have much more to explore with this idea of Beauty and risk, and how they play upon each other.
Now, the Hostel Pig. I will include my drawn depiction of the hostel tomorrow, and Hostel Pig will most definitely play a role. He was just some guy staying in my room. He came in around 2 am and started talking at the top of his lungs about some French girl, presumably also staying in the hostel, that he wanted to take advantage of. That was her only value to him, as some object to use and toss. I wanted to
say and do awful things to him. So after he left I followed him down the stairs to see if he was actually going to follow through with this. As I'd hoped, he was full of crap, and ended up leaving the hostel by himself. I still wanted to hurt him - badly. But this is a pleasant journal, let's not go down this road any more.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.116s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 12; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0639s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb