A collection of interesting, thought-provoking, and beautiful essays, articles and blog posts from around the internet I’ve found or were shared with me over the past few months. This season, it’s mostly been pieces that examine the balance between different forms of recreation and conservation, and the perceptions we hold of certain activities versus their realities, that I want to pass on to you.
Mountain Matters
Is the first winter ascent of K2 a turning point for Sherpa mountaineering?
Reporting on the historic winter first ascent of K2, Mark Horell examines the collaborative summiting by a team of Nepalese climbers, and reflects on the often overlooked presence of Sherpas in the history of high-altitude mountaineering.
Can we see past the myth of the Himalaya?
Akash Kapur explores the notion that our romantic perceptions of the high Himalaya obscure the realities of the people who make the region home, and how histories, geographies, and ecologies or mountain areas are often shaped by expectations.
Is it time to stop climbing mountains? Obsession with reaching the summit is a modern invention
An interesting piece by Dawn Hollis that dives into mountain history, mountaineering, and managing mountain environments against the backdrop of the global climate crisis. Are we prepared to ask ourselves hard questions about factors that drive us to stand on summits, and the sacrifices we’re willing to make to do so?
The remarkable Gwen Moffat shares a valuable lesson on walking the fine line between difficult and deadly.
Killing in the Name of
A longform essay from 2018 by Cal Flynn on the culling of deer in the Scottish Highlands, that dives deeply into the local and national politics of killing for conservation, slaughter tourism, the culture and tradition of sporting estates, and the long-standing inequalities of land ownership and community participation.
How the Shooting Industry is Exploiting the Legacy of the Clearances
Reducing the number of red deer in the Scottish Highlands is a necessary step in the ecological restoration of the landscape, but can be seen as an unpalatable activity. David Lintern reports on the thought-provoking film The Cull for TGO Magazine.
Who Wants to Shoot an Elephant?
A masterful longform piece by Wells Tower, exploring the mindset of those participating in trophy hunting, and the ethics of commercial hunting for charismatic species as a tool for wildlife management in conservation. It includes a powerful description of the death of an elephant.
Staying with a Hunter Showed Me Greenland Beyond the Tourist Brochures
Nancy Campbell writes about living with subsistence hunters in western Greenland as a rapidly-changing world reshapes their traditional knowledge and experiences.
A Dark Miracle in the Forest of Dean
In most of the UK the likelihood of encountering large animals with the potential to cause us harm is very limited. Chantal Lyons explores where potential wildlife encounters are shaped by fear rather than wonder, and the rewilding of our senses.
Remembering Barry Lopez
Best known for the seminal Arctic Dreams, a natural history of northern lives and landscapes, and how these shaped and have been shaped by human experience. Lopez died from cancer in December 2020.
Why the World Needs Barry Lopez
A deeply thoughtful profile of the writer and his last book by Kate Harris. Horizon explores the almost unbearable beauty of our planet through moments gleaned from Lopez’s lifetime, and contemplates the point where true places meet myth and speculation, where earth, sky, sea, ice and sunlight merge.
My goal that day was intimacy—the tactile, olfactory, visual, and sonic details of what, to most people in my culture, would appear to be a wasteland.
Barry Lopez
Love in a Time of Terror: On Natural Landscapes, Metaphorical Living, Warlpiri Identity
Powerful words from Barry Lopez about turning ecological grief into fierce passion, and passion into advocacy for the natural world on our besieged planet.
These Vagabond Shoes. 