Julia
Kolodziej
Studying
in Glasgow, Scotland, Fall 2012
The rugged Highlands of Scotland may be abounding
with photo opportunities to the traveler, but to the Scots these fairly
abandoned hills create a boundless playground for outdoor fun. The Glasgow University Mountaineering Club,
with a history of 71 years, has made the most of its prime location just south
of Loch Lomond, the start of the Highlands, by taking biweekly trips to places
frequented by “hill walkers,” “munro baggers,” “scramblers,” and climbers
alike. Pictured is a GUM Club member,
Angus, free-bouldering near Ardnamurchan Point, the most westerly point of
mainland Scotland and an area only accessible by a very long windy, mostly
single-track road complete with sheep and shaggy highland cows. Angus may be trying to live up to his
nationality’s claim of creating the sport of rock climbing in the late 1880’s
by Walter Parry Hasket Smith’s first solo climb of Nape’s Needle in Lake
District, England (ironically the location of the previous GUM Club meet). In the background: more GUM Clubbers, the
sea, and a rare Scottish blue sky.