Mountain Writing Competition 2004

by Kevin Howett

We had a good selection of prose this year for the judges to ponder over, although the number of entries to the poetry category was well down on previous years.

The Prose category saw a range of articles from factual descriptive walks and climbs in remote parts of the world, Alpine peaks, and in Scotland, to more philosophical pieces exploring the nature of our sport. Just missing out on winning in third place was Dave McVey with ‘Looking for the Blue’, a tale of a lifelong quest that becomes an obsession – we can all relate to that! Others close behind included Iain Davison’s re-telling of a friends encounter with wolves which captured the absurdity of our primeval fears; John Allen’s climbing of The Dragon on Carnmore was a recollection of youths adventurous spirit; whilst Liz Bibby nicely described an unexpected epic on a small hill entitled ‘The Fence’.

The poetry category saw 4 entries all very similar in style, but Iain Davidson’s piece won out for its eloquence and simplicity.