Mags MacKean Interview

Mags MacKean talks to us about a life-changing decision to change her life by walking away from the office routine to become a full-time mountaineer.

In the Prologue to Meetings on the Edge, you mention that you glimpse "a depth of life demanding to be explored." Many people, if they're lucky, experience that fleeting glimpse but lack the means or the courage to let their old life go. What was the tipping point that made you finally quit your job and take up travel?

Three career breaks hadn’t quelled my longing for the open or hilly horizon. Six weeks paid leave a year was no longer a generous employment perk but a restraint. Crossing the Pyrenees with a bivvy and lightweight gear made me crave more lone roaming. Every day was an open canvas, dependent on the weather and my decision alone as to when or where I’d stop or start. A choice of three routes added to the limitless variety, as well as the untramped wilderness demanding to be explored. It struck me how this ten-and-a-half week freedom didn’t have to be a one-off. My whole life could be like this – planning one trip after another, setting off whenever the whim struck. So on return, I set myself a year’s deadline to quit my career and plan the next adventure. Whenever I had doubts during those final months of salaried security, I’d look out at the countless other windows opposite my urban home blocking out the skyline and ask – were we ever meant to live this way?

The book describes episodes from your extensive travel across France, the Northwest of the US, Alaska, the Himalaya, and New Zealand. Which country made the biggest impression on you?

Just when I think, ‘that’s the country I love most’, I visit another and immediately feel the same pull to its people and landscapes. All the countries I’ve spent time in since leaving the BBC have had different and compelling qualities. Alaska I loved for its maverick spirit and the resourcefulness of its people. The Alaskan range, so remote and other worldly, is spectacular – a horizon crammed with peaks covered in blinding white snow and blue ice. The mix of ocean and mountains accessible from the transport hub of Anchorage are undeveloped and fresh, a raw sense of timelessness can only inspire. Then again, New Zealand is a wonderland of natural marvels; rainforest, volcanoes, glaciated mountains, pristine rivers and wild beaches. I even explored residency while there. The cultural diversity of North India or Nepal and the way of life of their mountain communities draw me equally. I’ve considered a move to the Pyrenees, Morocco, the Pacific Northwest – I simply can’t decide where to settle – because everywhere feels like home!

The genre of travel writing remains perennially popular despite mass numbers experiencing long-haul travel themselves. What do you think is the attraction of travel writing and do you read other travel writers?

Travel writing is at its best when its narrative is devoted to the human story identifying a place. Some of the ‘classics’ that never seem to date appeal the most - Eric Newby’s A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush one favourite. Jack London, Bruce Chatwin, Rudyard Kipling, VS Naipaul, Jan Morris are legends in the genre. My favourite travel anthology is Unsuitable for Ladies, edited by Jane Robinson. The intrepid women’s memoirs, letters and journals from far flung depths of the globe since the seventeenth century helped me endure the discomforts of various expeditions, especially on Denali with an altitude headache.

At the heart of the book is an encounter with a "Kollywood" (Katmandu, as opposed to Bombay) film star, Rajesh, and your time in the country was clearly a fruitful one. What is your take on the current situation in Nepal?

When I was in Nepal last, the Maoists were feared among the people. They exploited the power vacuum after the Royal Family massacre in 2001. Strikes were called regularly bringing urban life to a standstill – especially the capital Kathmandu. Businesses faced violent reprisals if they breached the ban. I had no choice in a pedestrian cul-de-sac, but to run past a bomb planted by the Maoists opposite the Indian Embassy. So it’s hard to conceive of a democratic republic founded on this rebel history. At the same time, the Royal Kingdom status has done little to promote the interests of the poor, illiterate majority – Nepal remains the twelfth poorest country in the world. Nepal’s future is uncertain. Personally, I would have more confidence in a coalition Government. Nepal is still very new to democracy, its people having surrendered all responsibility to a venerated King. It still needs to find and establish its voice to navigate the jungle of democracy – to avoid the risk of a powerful ruling party asserting its own interests.

Despite the growing trend to celebrate the wild areas of the Earth, the experiences you're having may become more rare in the future. Do you have any views on how we should manage our wild areas in Scotland?

I think education is the key. Scotland has the lion’s share of the UK’s outstanding natural assets. A real emphasis in schools of the values of the outdoors and all to be learnt in nature’s classroom gives young people a lifelong respect and delight in camping and roaming. As well as being taught in schools, Leave No Trace principals need to be highlighted on posters in civic places and car parks outside national parks. There has to be more debate and vision if we are to protect our environment and reverse the shortsightedness of our urban-centric policies.

What are you working on at the moment and what climbs do you have planned?

I’m working on a novel about Tibetans in exile inspired by the landscapes and communities I visited in North India last year. The Beijing Olympics is a convenient spotlight on the Tibetan issue – and I feel a constant pressure to finish the novel and focus on its publication. I’m going to spend some of June in the Knoydart Peninsula – I love it there and arriving by boat. It’s a beautiful wild place – one of my favourite pockets of Scotland. In September and October, I’m heading into the Utteranchal Himalaya with three mountaineering mates. Our agenda is open – no particular peak in our sights – we want to roam with everything we need on our backs for three weeks of play, miles from the nearest road head, village or trail. Bliss!