Cold as a Mountain Top
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2022
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
WH Murray was one of a pioneering group of climbers in Scotland in the 1930’s, establishing new routes in Glencoe, Ben Nevis and The Cuillin. But it was one particular mountain that he loved – and climbed – the most; the iconic Buachaillie Etive Mor at Glencoe. This was the last mountain he climbed just before leaving for war in 1941. Murray was captured in the African desert but his life was saved when he uttered the words, ‘Cold as a mountain top.’ The German officer was also a mountaineer and took him prisoner instead of shooting him on the spot. During his imprisonment in Italy and Czechoslovakia he wrote the seminal ‘Mountaineering in Scotland’ completely from memory, recalling the intimate details of climbs he undertook in the 1930’s. The book has been a talismanic text for climbers like Robert Macfarlane. He's turned to it often, particularly when the cold of the mountain top has felt very far away during recent periods of confinement. In this immersive audio voyage, Robert returns to Murray’s beloved Buachaille with 'Mountaineering in Scotland' by his side. Produced by Helen Needham in Aberdeen. Readings by Cal MacAninch. Sound design and composition by Anthony Cowie. Sound consultation and mixing by Ron McCaskill. Our mountain Guide was Richard Parker. Thanks to Robin Lloyd-Jones, WH Murray's biographer, for help with the preparation of this programme.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | Hi there, you're listening to Seriously from BBC Radio 4, and I'm your host Vanessa Kiseule. |
| 0:47.0 | Radio 4 is home to the world's best audio documentaries, and each week you'll find two hand-picked programs in this feed. |
| 0:55.0 | Next up, something powerful, unique and seriously clever. |
| 1:00.0 | At the end of January 1941, I received orders to join the Middle East forces in Egypt. |
| 1:10.0 | The occasion clearly called for one long last climb when the Buchalet of Moore. Just beginning the walk-in to the route to Curved Ridge crossing a big bridge here across the river |
| 1:29.6 | it's parked frozen in its margins, that lovely cat ice, thin ice that's just strong enough to hold the weight of a cat and deep clear pools that gin clear Scottish water that just entices you to swim in the summer and |
| 1:47.5 | and drink from it all year round. |
| 1:50.3 | I had |
| 1:53.0 | 79 a sense by one route or another |
| 1:55.0 | and each had but strengthened by conviction |
| 1:58.0 | that Buchel was the most splendid of earthly mountains. It's a lovely made path cutting through the heather and curving back round under the crags of the |
| 2:20.4 | buckle. |
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