This book tells part of the amazing story of an amazing man, who came back from serious injury to first climb all the Scottish Munros in a single winter season. It’s a stunning accomplishment by any measure, and set Moran up for a future as a mountaineering guide before his tragic death.

I’m sorry that it’s not a better book. The prose is quite wooden, lacking all the flourish and power that one finds in, for example, Savage Arena. As just one example amongst many:

“Only with sadness did we leave the lovely Etive, thinking with regret of those roads and glens of Argyll that our journey would not traverse again.”

It’s a shame that the writing doesn’t live up either to the country being described or the challenge being successfully attempted.

2/5. Finished Wednesday 23 February, 2022.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)