Trail Dec 20 mini-mag

OUR TOP MOUNTAIN PHOTO SPOTS
An Stac MOIDART WALKED BY Ben Weeks, Trail senior writer
Moidart was an area I knew and cared little about. We were
going there to walk some Corbetts – small, stunted hills that
had never grown into Munro status. They sounded boring. I
already knew they’d look dull and uninspiring and, joy of joys, on
this particular day it was my job to capture enticing photographs
worthy of publication in a Trail feature. I was not thrilled at the
prospect. But I soon discovered two things: one, I’m an idiot,
because two, Moidart is amazing. As soon as we had gained
some height the views just exploded, increasingly getting better
and better all day until they climaxed in the impossibly picture
perfect summit of An Stac. With the peak’s rocky crest
leading the eye out over the island-studded waters of Loch
Ailort, which in turn lead onwards to the Sound of Arisaig and
the haze-softened outlines of the islands of Muck, Eigg and Rum
beyond, it was a photographer’s dream and a view that had me
begging Moidart’s forgiveness for my ignorant prejudice.
Being able to simply point the camera in the
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right direction and push the shutter button,
letting the landscape itself do all the hard work.
Watson’s Dodd
LAKE DISTRICT
WALKED BY Oli Reed, Trail editor
I actually had to look up the name of Watson’s Dodd before writing
this, because it’s so nondescript that I remember nothing at all
about climbing it. But just look at that view above. The whole of
the south, west and northern Lake District laid out before us,
summits crusted with a fresh dollop of late winter snow,
with more peaks in shot than I’ve ever been able to name.
The view is over the Thirlmere valley, with Watson’s Dodd one
of the long chain of summits north of Helvellyn that make up the
bulky spine of the Eastern Fells. Every time I look at that image
I pick out a new mountain. Possibly my favourite photo ever.
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The second I was allowed to stop posing for that
photo, because my face was frozen solid by wind.
South Ridge SNOWDON
WALKED BY Jenna Maryniak, Trail deputy editor
Choosing a favourite photo view is hard! Every moment high on a
mountain has been pretty special in its own right, especially if I’ve been lucky
enough not to be engulfed in mist. A cloud inversion from Buachaille Etive
Beag in winter, the sea and the Cuillin Ridge from Bla Beinn, the lochans from
The Merrick… oh and Assynt in the far north-west, from anywhere. But I
refuse to pick Scotland. Scotland doesn’t even have to try, and boy have I had
to earn those views with a whole day trapped in a car to get there. So, I’m
going to have to say Snowdon. And in particular from the South Ridge. The
pointy arête provides the dramatic foreground, the views take in the
Snowdonian mountains and then go past them right out to sea, and of course
the sights to be seen from the top – well everyone knows about those!
An obvious choice, but there’s a reason Snowdon
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is Britain’s favourite mountain. For me those views
are hard to beat, especially from the quieter south side.
Sgurr na Stri
ISLE OF SKYE
WALKED BY Sarah Ryan,
Trail contributor
Sgurr na Stri looks straight
into our most forbidding mountain range,
tracing all 36-odd peaks on the 12km
Cuillin Ridge. This particular evening,
those sawtoothed peaks were silhouetted
against a soft peach sky, the sun a drop of
gold sinking slowly behind. Loch Coruisk
gleamed pale blue below, catching the
last light of the day. And from the other
side of the mountain, I discovered the
flat blue of the sea and the Rum Cuillin
crowning the horizon; Bla Bheinn and the
pale sweep of Camasunary Bay; and the
rounded humps of the Red Cuillin rust
coloured in the setting sun.
From this peak, really
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anywhere you look
you can find a great picture.
112 TRAIL DECEMBER 2020
DECEMBER 2020 TRAIL 113