Robert Macfarlane’s and Marjorie Hope Nicolson writings and pieces evoked in me a new wonder and enjoyment for mountaineering that I had not known was there. His wonderful imagery and the way that he recounts the history of mountains and the human race stirred something in me. This coupled with his obvious passion for the subject made me begin to find a new enjoyment for reading about mountains that I had not had previous to this work.  In addition to this I thoroughly enjoyed how honest he was about mountains and the sport of mountaineering and how he attempted to take away all the benevolent feelings that are so often associated with mountains and the sport of mountaineering.

In the first reading by Marjorie Hope Nicolson he describes how the mountains have often been seen as unsightly and dangerous objects throughout much of history.  This is in stark contrast to how mountains and the sport of mountaineering are viewed in modern society which I believe is generally overlooked.  I believe that so often in modern thought we associate mountains as being benevolent things of beauty, however, we ignore the fact that this is only a relatively new idea that has only emerged in the past couple of hundred years with the advent of people much later in history.

In the work by Robert Macfarlane’s I greatly appreciate how he as a climber takes an almost more scientific and worldly view on mountains that has not been presented yet in this course.  He unlike all other authors that we have read before attempts to explain mountains and the sport of mountaineering in a manner that takes the benevolence out of mountains and makes it a tangible subject that is more accessible, at least in my eyes, to the average person.  By using Lyell and others to help assert this argument and this way of thinking by using people that are inherently scientific in their thinking and using their works in the manner that he does he allows for us to see mountains in a new and almost refreshing fashion that has not been seen before.  In the writing by Major Nicolson he recounts the relationship between religion and mountains and how intertwined the two seem to be at times and how they have always throughout history been viewed as things that are bigger than us not only in the literal sense, but also in a metaphorical sense as well. This idea of mountains as benevolent and otherworldly objects has been a common theme that has been very prominent in the reading thus far.  However, with the introduction of a new theme of a more realistic view on mountains was a breath of fresh air that was more than welcome.

The common thread that I was able to draw in these readings was the idea of how personal the idea of a climb can be to each individual.  In addition to this thought I thought that it was interesting how even though Robert Macfarlane deromanticized the idea of mountains in both works they are still seen to a certain degree as romantic things that are beautiful and almost benevolent in a sense. I believe that mountains and mountaineering as the Major would agree through his writings will always be intrinsically interlaced with religion and benevolence.