Travel journal

Three days on the ridge

The trail leaves the valley before sunrise. For the first hour there is nothing to see but the beam of a headlamp and the next stone, and then the trees thin out all at once.

From the first pass, the ridge runs east for twelve kilometres, never wider than a road.

Morning light over the eastern ridge.

We walked it in three short days, stopping wherever the wind dropped. Nobody hurries up there: the view changes too slowly to be worth the effort.

On the last evening, the clouds came up from the valley and stopped just below us, like a second ground. We stayed out until it was too cold to hold a cup.