Writing

[Jaywizz]

Highly recommend the last suggestion - I still get shivers thinking about the Via Ferrata story (2014?) Really excellent

[inca]

Think most of the prose writing I'd have recommended has been covered already. Maybe a couple of others -

1. 'A Philosophy of Walking' by Frederic Gros (there was a separate thread about this book recently).

2. 'Consolations of the Forest' by Sylvain Tesson. More wilderness than hillwalking - still an excellent piece of work.

I notice you mentioned poetry in the header. Norman MacCaig is an obvious choice for me. 'The Many Days - Selected Poems' is superb.

A compilation worth considering is 'Poems of the Scottish Hills', edited by Hamish Brown. It's out of print now but you can still pick up a second hand copies on Amazon. There's a companion volume on wider British hills; its title escapes me for the moment.

[Graeme D]

"Mountains of the Mind" by Robert MacFarlane is the best book about mountaineering I have ever read. And I've read six.

Seriously though, it's a beautifully written exploration of what makes people climb mountains, almost hypnotic in its prose style. Anything by him is worth a read to be honest.

Agreed 100%!

[OpenC]

Hamish's Mountain Walk and The Living Mountain are both essentials IMO, really excellent - if you know the areas being discussed, anyway. I can't imagine they're as effective if you've never walked in Scotland but Shepherd's work on the Cairngorms in particularly is sometimes breathtakingly well-observed.

[Lightfoot2017]

One of my favourite walking books is ‘The Great Divide’ by Stephen Pern, his account of walking the length of the Continental Divide in the USA

[mrssanta]

bit more lowbrow perhaps but "wild" by Cheryl Strayed of her walk along the pacific crest trail is a good read - full of laughs but also some serious thought as well. It's as much about her personal journey as about the walk.

[Cairngormwanderer]

Highly recommend the last suggestion - I still get shivers thinking about the Via Ferrata story (2014?) Really excellent

If anyone wants similar shivers, Via Ferrata, by Jim Cassidy, can be read online here - https://www.mountaineering.scot/assets/contentfiles/pdf/MWC2014prose3.pdf
In fact you can read all the previous winners... https://www.mountaineering.scot/members/members-benefits/scottish-mountaineer-magazine/mountain-writing-competition
And, as was suggested above, you can write something yourself. The 2017 competition is open now and details are on the webpage at the link above. (Shameless plug time).