From kayaks to cagoules: six of this year's best books about the outdoors

Breathe: Life Lessons from the Edge of the World by Mollie Hughes (Birlinn, £14.99) Having climbed Everest twice and skied solo to the South Pole, East Lothian-based adventurer Mollie Hughes knows a thing or two about bouncing back from difficult situations, and in Breathe she shares some of what she’s learned. The book is structured in such a way as to operate both as a memoir and as a series of essays on different areas of psychology. So in Chapter One, “Control Fear”, Hughes uses the terrifying act of crossing gaping crevasses on the Khumbu Icefall on her first Everest expedition in 2012 to provide context for understanding and mastering the fight-or-flight response; in Chapter Two, “Find Self-Belief”, the story of her ascent to the summit provides a jumping-off point for an exploration of where self-belief comes from and how, aged just 20, she had enough of it to feel she could take on the world’s highest mountain. Inspiring stuff.

Looking Down at the Stars by Christina Riley (Saraband, £12.99) ​In 2022, Christina Riley became an “underwater artist in residence” at the The Argyll Coast and Islands Hope Spot – Hope Spots being ocean areas identified by the Mission Blue environmental charity as particularly critical to the health of the marine environment – and it’s this experience which she recounts and meditates on in this self-illustrated book. As she begins to explore the underwater world in her new role, she increasingly comes across like an aquatic Nan Shepherd, with a desire to “look into the sea, not at it”, and – as with Shepherd – her enthusiasm for this new-found world is infectious.

Mountain Style, by Henry Iddon and Max Leonard (Isola, £45) Plenty of Scottish interest in this engagingly written, thoroughly researched and beautifully illustrated book charting the evolution of British outdoor clothing from 1953-2000, notably Glasgow chemist Charles Macintosh, facilitator of the eponymous garment, and Blacks of Greenock, whose iconic anoraks were massively popular with climbers in the 1960s. Another highlight is the section on Tulloch Mountaincraft (TMC), established in the Highland village of the same name by David and Mary Challis in 1972: “The business comprised an outdoor pursuits centre alongside clothing manufacturing, much of which was carried out using the age-old system of piecework, whereby locals would sew in their own time at home.”

Off-Piste Performance, by Alison Thacker (Pesda Press, £20) Highlands-based ski instructor Alison Thacker (above) strikes just the right balance between knowing her subject backwards and accepting that there is always more to learn in this excellent guide to off-piste skiing. She has a huge well of experience to draw on, having gained the highest level of BASI ski instructor award aged just 20 and then spent 15 years working as an instructor in the challenging mountains around Chamonix. However, there’s also an evident desire to keep upping her own game, as well as helping others to improve. The language is precise and the diagrams and photographs well-chosen. Aspiring off-piste skiers (and even more experienced ones) can learn a lot from this book.

Skiing & Snowboarding in the Cairngorms National Park, by Blair Aitken, Katie Henderson, Scott Muir and Jamie Johnston (British Backcountry, £25) In this extremely impressive tome, backcountry ski guide Blair Aitken teams up with fellow enthusiasts Katie Henderson, Scott Muir and Jamie Johnston to offer a comprehensive picture of all the worthwhile snow-sliding to be had in the Cairngorms National Park – all 4,520 square kilometres of it. The result, with almost 350 routes described and illustrated in just under 450 pages, is a monumental achievement. There’s also a nicely judged thread of colour running through the book, from the brief history of skiing in the area in the introduction, with a nod to some of Scotland’s early steep skiing pioneers, to the section on Midsummer skiing traditions at the end.

There Will Be Headwinds: Kayaking the Northwest Passage by Mark Agnew (Icon Books, £20) In 2023, Scottish adventurer Mark Agnew achieved a remarkable double first when he and three Americans – West Hansen, Eileen Visser and Jeff Wueste – completed a gruelling 83-day, 2,000-odd mile kayak from one end of the Northwest Passage to the other. In doing so, they became not only the first people to make the journey by kayak, but also the first to make it entirely under human power. The foursome faced all kinds of challenges during their voyage, from polar bear encounters to being trapped by pack ice. However, this warts-and-all account of their adventure suggests that the most important factor in completing the journey may have been the way in which the group dealt with the tensions that arose along the way, and it’s the accounts of their various disagreements that provide some of the most fascinating moments in an already compelling story.

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