Always a Little Further: A Classic Tale of Camping, Hiking and Climbing

First published in 1939, Always a Little Further quickly established itself as a Scottish climbing classic. In portraying a group of rank-and-file climbers from Glasgow who sought merely to enjoy the freedom of the mountains and the fellowship of shared experience, it presents a very different view of mountaineering than is found in many more ‘serious’ books on the subject. From early beginnings in Arrochar and on Skye the group graduate to bigger things around Glencoe and Ben Nevis. The climbing merely provides the background to the story and it is the travelling, the characters and the colourful life of road, campsite and bothy that form the main focus of attention. There are stories about motor-cyclists, hitch-hikers, berry-pickers, bird-watchers and ‘gangrels of all sorts’. The bizarre characters and events are entertainingly described and a ‘rollicking humour’ runs through the narrative. These are light-hearted tales, filled with the enthusiasm of carefree youth and displaying a genuine love of the Scottish hills. For this reason Always a Little Further is rightly regarded as a classic reflecting an aspect of mountaineering life hardly touched in other accounts.