They impersonate flowers, they trill like birds and they marvel at ant-hills. Our writer dons her boots and heads for the Highlands – to meet the artists taking the macho out of the mountain
A cloud is touching the tip of the mountain up ahead and, even though it’s the end of May, pockets of snow still dot the horizon. The rain, which is falling steadily, runs off Simone Kenyon’s jacket sleeve, landing in fat drops on the pages of the book she’s holding. And yet we sit, three of us, our bottoms sinking into the sodden heather, listening intently to the words she is speaking. Written by the poet and novelist Nan Shepherd, the lines were inspired by the sweeping mountains that surround us, the Cairngorms. Soon I am as lost in the words as I am in the setting.
These are the rehearsals for Into the Mountain, a nature-immersed arts event taking place around this part of the Scottish Highlands this week. Produced by the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, it isn’t easy to define. Journey or performance? Guided walk or adventure into the unknown? What we can say for sure is that, across four days, audiences will first pull on all-weather walking gear (as Robert Macfarlane has said, this area of Britain is its Arctic Circle), and then follow one of three routes. The hardest takes six hours, reaching (but not conquering, of which more later) the colossal 1,118-metre peak of Sgòr Gaoith.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Xaikst
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