Highland fling: My journey through remote Scotland

Tracing the path of writer-explorer Nan Shepherd, adventurer Elise Wortley went back to the 1940s for a trek through Cairngorms National Park.

It was 4am. The noise was so deafening, I hadn’t slept again. As the roaring wind whipped up my 1940s canvas tent, I spread my body out, hands and feet in opposite corners, clinging down on to my only shelter for the next 17 nights. Shivering in the pitch black, dressed in my 1940s Scottish attire, I was ready to admit that this wasn’t exactly the relaxed journey I’d had in mind.

This wasn’t the first time I’d been in an uncomfortable situation since I started following in the footsteps of history’s forgotten female explorers. The last time was in the Indian Himalayas, dressed in a 1920s yak wool coat, carrying a wooden backpack

I’d made out of an old chair. Night temperatures were dropping to -15C, and as I lay in my tent, with frost on my forehead, my yearning for home was strong.

My interest in these women started at 16, when I discovered French-belgian explorer Alexandra David-neel’s memoir, My Journey To Lhasa. The book recounts the final stages of her 14-year journey through Asia into Lhasa, the forbidden capital of Tibet. She was the first European woman to enter the city and the first to meet the Dalai Lama.

I was inspired by her determination and ability to travel in such harsh conditions, especially at a time when travelling for women was so unusual.

Alexandra’s book had a profound impact on me, and for the next 12 years, I often thought about her. After a bout of crippling anxiety throughout my 20s, I decided to re-read My Journey To Lhasa, attempting to find some of Alexandra’s strength in myself. This woman was fearless, and I wanted to be too.

I decided to follow in her footsteps, trekking through the Indian Himalayas towards Tibet. To understand what Alexandra would have really experienced, I dressed in her 1920s clothing, carrying only what was available to her at the time. This meant no modern equipment whatsoever.

After returning home to London, I began to research other women like Alexandra. There were so many fascinating stories, such as Freya Stark who travelled to the Valley of the Assassins in Iran, and Annie Smith Peck, the first person to climb the north peak of the Huascaran in Peru. There was one woman in particular who really grabbed my attention, whose journey was a little closer to home.

This is how I ended up face down in a cold wet tent, following in the footsteps of Scottish explorer Nan Shepherd. Part funded from my own pocket, with sponsorship from adventure company Wilderness Scotland, I set off to discover Nan’s mountain world.

Her book, The Living Mountain, is a