The strange solidarity of hill walking

On a gauzy wintery day I am half way up Scafell Pike in the Lake District in an effort to climb the tallest peaks of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland and discover what so many seek up there.

I am not alone. Over a million people climbed one of the peaks this year, with 700,000 making for Snowdon, where summer saw 45-minute queues at the top. Scafell drew 250,000, Ben Nevis more than 160,000 and Slieve Donard in County Down is only relatively quiet, with an annual 100,000 people walking its granite trails.

Each mountain now requires constant tending by path builders, litter pickers, repair teams and rescuers who fret they are being overrun. No wonder. In these pandemic years we have come to worship a Trinity of nature, exercise and domestic travel. The result? Mass processions to such peaks. So where better to understand who we are and how we are than on these summits?

The surroundings of these mountains are as beautiful as they have been since the end of the last ice age.