“But there are men for whom the unattainable has a special attraction. Usually they are not experts: their ambitions and fantasies are strong enough to brush aside the doubts which more cautious men might have. Determination and faith are their strongest weapons. At best such men are regarded as eccentric; at worst, mad…” Legendary Mountaineer – Walt Unsworth

I can particularly relate to this quote of late having suffered from my own amateurism during a little microadventure during which having hiked 15km to my wild camp spot of choice in the mountains to only then realised that my tent had dislodged itself from my backpack and was nowhere to be seen! Not a good scenario when confronted with only one hour of daylight and temperatures of no higher than -4°C to -6°C predicted for the night ahead.

Having to bail after 5-6 hours of walking and embarrassingly have to hitch a lift back to my start point and then drive back home to London with my tail between my legs I understand very clearly where good old Walt is coming from with this snippet of wisdom.

But the ‘unattainable has a special attraction’ to me so I will return and hike the same route again and take a new tent with me, and get it right this time.

People think I’m mad and probably quite eccentric but I have ambitions and fantasies that are strong enough to brush aside the doubts which more cautious men might have.

All power to the eccentric amateur adventurer I say!