WAYMAKING:
An Anthology of Women’s Adventure Writing, Poetry and Art.
Edited
by: Helen Mort, Claire Carter, Heather Dawe, Camilla Barnard.
Published
by Vertebrate £17.99. 280 pages. Paperback.
‘For
what is a play without a woman in it?’ Thomas Kyd.
Whatever
else this book is about my first response on perusing a copy was how
bold and innovative this appeared to be and the contents did not
belie such a consideration. I had a thought though as I commenced
reading, namely would women’s writing about outdoor adventures be
different in a fundamental way to a male’s? And I soon decided as
I read on, that the answer was YES! The author’s revealed
themselves as more caring, less heroic in their claims for self, and
gentler in their approach to life and all of its demands;
relationships, family, children, and place. I will contradict myself
here, for there is nothing gentle in Lily Diyu’s essay ‘Running
on the roof of the world’, a seven-stage sky race set around
Manaslu the world’s eighth highest mountain. But again there is
perhaps less of the heroic within the story than if this had been
written by a man?
In
WAYMAKING the contents are broken down into four sections, under
titles headed as follows, ‘Vicinity’ ‘Heart and Soul’ ‘Water’
and ‘Union’ and each of these contain essays, poems, and
paintings/cartoons which more or less fit such headings. This is not
however a feminine version of ‘The Games Climber’s Play’, an
anthology of mountain themed writing, for it is much wider sourced
than that. It does include some hard core climbing, but the range of
content is probably wider than most other such compendiums.
The
essays are so varied and cover so much ground physically, set in the
Antarctic, Patagonia, Ireland, Nepal, Wales, Scotland, the Lake
District, Australia, the Peak District, and many more such
destinations. Most of the subjects covered are straightforward
adventure activities; bouldering, swimming, canoeing in rivers and
oceanic waters, urban running, peak bagging etc but a few are more
challenging, and for instance ‘Leaving for the edge of the world’
by Kathleen Jones questions our consumer life styles, the pollution
this is causing, and the damage to the natural landscapes. K’e yil
yal tx’i; ‘Saying something’ by Leslie Hsu Oh is equally
thoughtful, and anyone who has taken their own children climbing when
young will understand the trials and tribulations one must face over
this; their over enthusiasms, but on occasion lack of same, and the
worries over safety, toileting and sustenance. This essay also has
something to inform about how native USA people saw, and still see
the rocks and mountains of their homeland.
The
essay ‘Memory Ten’ by Libby Peter is set in more familiar
territory, winter climbing in Snowdonia with her daughter, at that
date a 13 year old, climbing Yr Wyddfa’s Trinity Face by its
Central Gully. Despite earning her living as a mountain guide, you
realise that with her own daughter the relationship is different to
that of a client during such an ascent. Two other climber’s essays
have unusual slants, Hazel Findlay in ‘No-self’ and Katie Ives
‘Unmapping’. The first is self analysis, and its author is well
schooled academically in philosophy and psychology for such a mental
challenge whilst the second author is a climbing journalist of
stature writing about night climbing.
To anyone who has deliberately
set forth as other climbers are descending at the end of the day,
this will bring to recall memory of the excited anticipation tinged
with apprehension that planning such climbs and trips can bring which
quickly disperse once into moon or torch lit action. There are so
many different topics covered in the other essays within this book,
that it is not possible in this review to cover them all, but one I
cannot ignore centres on the joy to be found in the simple pleasure
of a continued observation of a brook that falls from high ground on
the eastern edge of Dartmoor.
Illustrated by photographs and an
accompanying essay ‘Counterflow’ by Jen Benson or ‘Lost in the
Light’ of West Antarctica, sleeping in tents at minus 50F, melting
snow for drinking water where daily living demands so much of Tara
Kramer, who nevertheless feels so alive in such an environment.
Whilst ‘Rewilding’ poses a different kind of scenario, but just
as alive, describing a 550-mile self supporting mountain-bike time
trial around Scotland’s most rugged and remote wilderness for Lee
Craigie, but with an acknowledgement that despite the chasing and
racing, it is something more than that which drives her to such
physical demands, at the end of which the memories of the scenery
passed through remain dominant and fast to recall.
Climber: Hazel Barnard
So
far in this review I have not written of the many and varied poems
included in Waymaking or the paintings; poetry is such a personal
like, but running throughout the book are a series on the Camino de
Santiago by Cath Drake which have a resonance for this reader. ‘To
Follow’ by Claire Carter and ‘Falling’ from Joanna Croston will
be recognised as the truth by any climber as will a reading of Helen
Mort’s contribution ‘The Climb’ of just how and when it begins!
Other verses were more difficult for me, but some were rewarding at a
second and third reading, typical of which was ‘Last night I dream
we walk up to the Point again’ by Imogen Cassels, or ‘By the Way’
a crossing of Kinder and more by Sarah Outen. Publishers always
declare there is no money in poetry (that is unless you were based in
the old USSR where poetry outsold fiction, and Yevtushenko had the
lifestyle to prove it!) so it was brave of Vertebrate to go along
with a format where poetry has almost as much emphasis as essay.
The
paintings/cartoons do add much to the feel of the work. Four
paintings by Pam Williamson, illustrating her poem ‘Walking Moses
Trod’ set the scene and why the artist wanted to capture it, whilst
the line drawing of a ‘Climber’ by Hazel Barnard does look so
real and ‘gripped’. My two favourite pictures however were the
wash drawing; ‘Women who Run with the Wolves’ by Tessa Lyons and
‘Bouldering at Ardmair Beach’ by Deziree Wilson. There is humour
as well in a series of paintings by Paula Flach of a young tyro
taking on challenging situations and by some cartoons, which for me
the most laughable was ‘Ken the Cross Dresser’ by Tami Knight.
The hero of this is Ken, a one legged, cross dresser hoping to ride
his bike to the summit of Mount Everest (without oxygen) but who is
beaten to the summit by a more agile one legged lady biker.
Enchantment Larches: Nikki Frumkin
The
book ends with C.V’s of the 56 contributors who have essays and
their pictorial work appearing in WAYMAKING. Only three or four of
these were personally known to me, but what a galaxy of talent they
represent? Writers, academics, poets, travellers, mountaineers,
canoeists, bike riders etc many undertaking challenges and writing
about them in way that any publisher would feel positive about
presenting their work. We are informed that this volume of Women’s
Adventure Writing would not have appeared with the support of Alpkit,
but we are not let into the background story of what that was, but
whatever it was we readers are grateful. Finally the book’s four
editors are to be congratulated in assembling such an outstanding
eclectic work; one that will bear dipping into again and again, a
veritable cornucopia of interest expressing an enjoyment in living.
Dennis Gray : 2018
