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Mental health and mountains

As I’m developing my mountain film skills, I’ve had little time to devote to blogging lately. Here, however, is my latest project: a short film about the Lake District, mountaineering and mental health. And to go with it, here’s the story…

Back in April I failed to complete the Cape Wrath Trail. The awful truth is, I barely even started: after a wonderful and exhausting hike across Knoydart, I fell on snow in the shadow of the Forcan Ridge, wrenched my left knee and had to abandon my attempt. Two months later I am still struggling to master my disappointment, and have yet to summon the words to describe my experience. As I slunk back to London I felt I’d left my hopes, confidence and credibility behind me. These difficult emotions could all too easily play into my long-term experiences with mental illness – a problem for which hiking is usually a help, rather than a cause.

Cape Wrath Trail kit and preparation

As I write I have just finished packing my Cape Wrath Trail kit – a full five days before I hit the track. I find that the last few days before a very long hike always fill me with trepidation – there’s nothing worse than the fear I’ll be en route before realising I’ve forgotten something essential.

There are plenty of places to find good Cape Wrath Trail kit lists and I don’t plan to replicate full lists – but as other hikers prepare to set off from Fort William I thought I’d share some of my own plans and choices, with a focus on specialist kit. (Please also take a look at these blogs by Alex Roddie and Stuart Grieg (whose excellent Pennine Way guide got me through that trail last year) – packing philosophy differs from hiker to hiker and it’s as well to consider all options.)

travel photography of the Pennine Way by Andy Wasley — Back to Scotland: my final day on the Pennine Way in 2018

In April I will be hiking the Cape Wrath Trail – a 430km route in Scotland from Fort William to Cape Wrath. It has a hard-earned reputation as one of Britain’s toughest long-distance walks: wild, remote, magnificent. Perfect for an 18-day stretch of photography and writing.

I decided I wanted to walk the Cape Wrath Trail as I reached the end of the Pennine Way last year. The PW is no walk in the park: there were many days last year when I felt so beaten down by bad weather and boggy fells that I just wanted to quit. But as I sipped my pint in the Border Hotel – thank you, Mr Wainwright – I knew I’d soon crave an opportunity to recapture the intoxicating feeling that goes with crossing an unbearably remote finish line. Nothing seemed likely to live up to that need in the same way as the Cape Wrath Trail. Back in November I committed to the hike, and have been preparing ever since.

Travel photography of Svörtuloft lighthouse, Öndverðarnes, Iceland. — Svörtuloft lighthouse, Öndverðarnes, Iceland.

Hailstones lashed down from the graphite-grey sky, stinging my face; I winced as the wind whipped the storm up into a blazing fusillade of ice. Above the rattling of hail on my raincoat I heard the Atlantic exploding furiously against serrated cliffs. Then, as though a switch had been flicked, the storm was over. I uncapped my lens, fitted an ND filter, and captured one of my favourite photographs: the Svörtuloft lighthouse at Öndverðarnes, gleaming bright orange against the stormy sky.

Travel photography by Andy Wasley: Iceland plane wreck at Sólheimasandur, Iceland. — Crashed US Navy DC-3, Sólheimasandur, Iceland.

This is a story of an air crash, wild beauty, film photography and selfies. It’s my recollection of a visit to the famous Iceland plane wreck site at Sólheimasandur – and of my view on the popularity of ‘abandoned’ places and the ubiquity of the selfie.

The story behind the Iceland plane wreck might already be roughly familiar to you. In November 1973 a small US Navy DC-3 transport aircraft ran out of fuel over southern Iceland, and ditched on the pristine black sand beach at Sólheimasandur. The wreck is still there – a weather-worn, graffiti-clad monument to Iceland’s inhospitable terrain.

I visited the Iceland plane wreck in 2016 during a two-week solo tour of the country via the ring road. It was my first ‘proper’ photography expedition; I’d been seduced by countless blog posts and travel stories pitching Iceland as a pristine wilderness: a place where I might find limitless solitude amid the glaciers and snow. For much of my trip, that’s precisely what I found – but not always. And the DC-3 wreck rings in my memory as an example of what can be a dispiriting experience at the hands of people who wield selfie sticks like rapiers.

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Mental health and mountains

Cape Wrath Trail kit and preparation

The Cape Wrath Trail: my next adventure

Svörtuloft lighthouse, Iceland

The Iceland plane wreck – a selfie story

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