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blockonthenewkid's review
4.0
3.5/5
Solidly engaging and compelling stories of the journey of a hillwalker into a mountaineer and back to a hillwalker.
There is a sense of the 'old guard' from Burns, a rhetoric in the book that comes from someone who wishes for that unchanging nature of the hills to apply to those he hiked and climbed with. A very nostalgic 'back in my day' look at the formative days of his youth and even on into his middle age, struggling to come to terms with the next generation of walkers forging ahead in the path he and others of his ilk have carved.
The sentiment of the book is summed up in the retelling of one of his and his friends first snow hike in the Scottish Highlands, where the crew slog up through the barely compacted snow, creating the path in their wake. The hike takes them a good 5 hours of sweat and hardship according to Burns, and all involved are a little soured when two other hikers follow their path up in only 2 hours. They decide then and there to no longer be the first up the snow.
While it would be disingenuous to claim that Burns and co. were the progenitors of the hiking craze, their is a clear through-line of gratitude owed by current hikers to those who have gone before - those who have mapped the hills and mountains, explored the glens and fells, even those who have just continued to walk and wear the path, bringing business and a tourist economy to hiking hotspots and allowing for the continuous upkeep of the hiking paths for the dabbler and the novice on their path to wild hiking or mountaineering. There is a certain debt owed to them, although they may struggle to understand the new generation who have come to take up the standard in their place.
The writing style holds firm echoes of Burns' past exploits as an aspiring comedian, and also of his performative storytelling from his days writing and starring in a one man play. This doesn't always serve him well, as some of the jokes are a bit worn or repetitive in nature, similarly with the formula of his storytelling through flashback/flashforward.
These nitpicks aside, the writing is quite engaging and extremely digestible, while there is the underlying theme of one generation struggling to understand the next this does not bog down the text, nor make it inaccessible to anyone. Burns is far from a snob, perhaps being more of an anti-snob, wishing for a return to scruffy scraggly hikers, kitted out in whatever burlap sacks they can find. This unpretentiousness makes for quick and sometimes captivating reading.
Solidly engaging and compelling stories of the journey of a hillwalker into a mountaineer and back to a hillwalker.
There is a sense of the 'old guard' from Burns, a rhetoric in the book that comes from someone who wishes for that unchanging nature of the hills to apply to those he hiked and climbed with. A very nostalgic 'back in my day' look at the formative days of his youth and even on into his middle age, struggling to come to terms with the next generation of walkers forging ahead in the path he and others of his ilk have carved.
The sentiment of the book is summed up in the retelling of one of his and his friends first snow hike in the Scottish Highlands, where the crew slog up through the barely compacted snow, creating the path in their wake. The hike takes them a good 5 hours of sweat and hardship according to Burns, and all involved are a little soured when two other hikers follow their path up in only 2 hours. They decide then and there to no longer be the first up the snow.
While it would be disingenuous to claim that Burns and co. were the progenitors of the hiking craze, their is a clear through-line of gratitude owed by current hikers to those who have gone before - those who have mapped the hills and mountains, explored the glens and fells, even those who have just continued to walk and wear the path, bringing business and a tourist economy to hiking hotspots and allowing for the continuous upkeep of the hiking paths for the dabbler and the novice on their path to wild hiking or mountaineering. There is a certain debt owed to them, although they may struggle to understand the new generation who have come to take up the standard in their place.
The writing style holds firm echoes of Burns' past exploits as an aspiring comedian, and also of his performative storytelling from his days writing and starring in a one man play. This doesn't always serve him well, as some of the jokes are a bit worn or repetitive in nature, similarly with the formula of his storytelling through flashback/flashforward.
These nitpicks aside, the writing is quite engaging and extremely digestible, while there is the underlying theme of one generation struggling to understand the next this does not bog down the text, nor make it inaccessible to anyone. Burns is far from a snob, perhaps being more of an anti-snob, wishing for a return to scruffy scraggly hikers, kitted out in whatever burlap sacks they can find. This unpretentiousness makes for quick and sometimes captivating reading.
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