Blog: johnloguk

The Healing Power of Mountains

I was looking through my old slides and found a set of beautiful sunsets from 1986. This brought back some very mixed memories, and I have thought long and hard about whether or not to post this blog. I hope it doesn't come over as too pretentious or depressing, it is simply made so that anyone else who goes through what I went through 20 years ago might find some strength from it.

My first wife had died suddenly in July '86, and it took a long time to recover from the gut wrenching shock of it. But the single most healing experience came over a couple of hours watching an amazing sunset a few weeks later. I had driven up to the Lake District with the intention of camping high and wild, no matter what the weather threw at me. The first night I camped at Sprinkling Tarn, as beautiful as the name suggests. After a meal my dog "Kelly" and I scrambled up the craggy face of Great End, and spent the next 2 hours bewitched by a sunset that played amongst the mist and peaks to the west. I'm not a religious person, but this was a profoundly spiritual experience, I will never forget it. At that time I could easily have descended into a bottle, but instead threw myself at the mountains, a far more constructive approach!

(The following day I used my high camp to advantage again, having the summit of Scafell Pike, the highest point in England, completely to myself while most people were still in bed!)

There are a few photos from that evening on my photo page. I think they are quite nice, but they don't come close to reflecting the true beauty and solitude of those few hours.

by johnloguk on 14:31 on 18th May 2007