Name: Jonathan Mist
Mountain Experience: 8yrs
Where did you grow up?: Hampshire
Current Home City: Southampton
Favourite Mountain: Ainshval, Rum
Favourite food to pack in your rucksack: Dark chocolate coated coffee beans
Favourite National Park: Cairngorms
Q. How did you become interested in the outdoors?
A. As a kid I was a keen birdwatcher and wildlife photographer, I also did my DofE bronze, my love of the outdoors all grew from there. Mountains really took hold when I lived in the USA and was able to go hiking and wild camping in the Colorado Rockies.
Q. What is one lesson the mountains have taught you?
A. Take it steady, there’s no rush, enjoy the journey
Q. Other than boots, if you had unlimited money to spend on one piece of kit, what would it be?
A. A decent four season tent… my tent I brought back from America isn’t brilliant in all four UK seasons (sideways rain)!
Q. What is one thing you pack in your rucksack, whatever the season and whatever the weather?
A. A compass
Q. What advice would you give to someone going out into the mountains for the first time?
A. Don’t spend a fortune on the best kit, it isn’t necessary. Borrow what you can, and gradually build it up as you get into it more and figure out what works for you.
Q. What is your favourite season to be out in the mountains and why?
A. Springtime, when all the wildflowers are out and the birds are singing. Listening to a distant ring ouzel song echoing round the valleys is so evocative.
Q. Name three mountains on your bucket list.
1. Sgurr Dear (Inaccessible Pinnacle)
2. Ben Hope
3. Liathach
Q. What do you do like to do keep fit when you’re not in the mountains?
A. Living in the south I don’t have any decent local hills, so I make do with trail running in the New Forest, indoor climbing, some kayaking and I mix it up with some home physio to work on strengthening my knees and glutes.
Q. If you could go anywhere in the world that you hadn’t been, where would it be?
A. New Zealand
Q. What is your favourite mountain/expedition/adventure book? (fiction/non-fiction)
A. Stuart put me onto The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd, she describes nature in the Cairngorms wonderfully well
Q. What is your favourite City Mountaineering memory?
A. That’s impossible to choose, my favourites are the wild camping expeditions. If I have to choose, maybe the sunsets on my first Skye Trail. They were exceptional, although sadly it was in part due to the smoke particles from wildfires caused by careless tourists.
​
Stuart Shipp
Founder, City Mountaineering
