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John D Burns

Outdoor author and speaker.

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  • Gear review: Brede II jacket – 5 years

  • Jack Longland – Biography: Mark Lambert | Podcast

  • Peter Silburn: The Norwich Cycling Campaign | Podcast

  • Steve Micklewright: Scottish Rewilding Alliance | Podcast

  • David Barter. Great Scottish Bike Rides| Podcast

Gear review: Brede II jacket – 5 years
Jack Longland – Biography: Mark Lambert | Podcast

Julia Knight: Lyme Disease, what you need to know | Podcast

May 10, 2022June 29, 2022John D Burns 3
Everything you need to know about Lyme Disease, with Julia Knight from Lyme Disease UK. [...]

Ed Shoote: Gravel Rides Scotland | Podcast

April 22, 2022June 29, 2022John D Burns
Ed Shoote discusses his new book, Gravel Rides Scotland, and shares tips on 28 of the best routes to cycle on gravel tracks. [...]

Ross Brannigan: Running Adventures Scotland | Podcast

April 12, 2022June 29, 2022John D Burns
Ross Brannigan talks about Running Adventures Scotland, his book exploring the best running routes of the Highlands and the Lowlands. [...]

Ben Gibson: Keeping safe in the mountains | Podcast

March 31, 2022June 29, 2022John D Burns
Ben Gibson, Mountain Safety Adviser for Mountaineering Scotland, shares his expertise in keeping safe in the mountains. [...]

Scotland’s Hills: Know Your Rights | Podcast

March 23, 2022June 29, 2022John D Burns 2
Davey Black, Access Officer for Mountaineering Scotland, talks about rights and how things are changing in the outdoors. [...]

Heavy Whalley: A Life in Mountain Rescue | Podcast

February 17, 2022June 29, 2022John D Burns 3
Heavy Whalley is one of the most experienced Mountain Rescue Experts in Britain. Listen to his thoughts on mountain safety and changes in our hills. [...]

Neil Reid: Walking Words | Podcast

February 13, 2022June 29, 2022John D Burns 2
The Cairngorm Mannie himself, Neil Reid, talks about bothy news and the latest goings on in the world of Scottish Hillwalkers. [...]

Paul Besley: 1001 Walking Tips | Podcast

February 2, 2022June 29, 2022John D Burns
Walking Expert Paul Besley discusses his book, 1001 Walking Tips. [...]

Hannah Reynolds: 1001 Cycling Tips

December 13, 2021July 17, 2022John D Burns
Here’s your chance to ask all the cycling questions you wanted answered but were afraid to ask. Should you go commando in cycling [...]

Neil Reid: Bothy Life | Podcast

December 3, 2021July 23, 2022John D Burns
Neil Reid is a lifelong hillclimber and bothy user, and has been an active member of the MBA for about 15 years, heavily [...]

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John D. Burns has spent over forty years among the mountains of the Scottish Highlands. He is an author and public speaker. His books tell of his adventures in this iconic landscape and have become classics for those who love wild places.
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Outside In Podcast
Outside In Podcast

From the Highlands of Scotland, climbers, hikers and nature lovers talk about their experiences in the wild

Jack Longland – Biography: Mark Lambert | Podcast
byJohn D Burns

John D. Burns talks to Mark Lambert about his book, A man for all mountains, celebrating the remarkable life of mountaineer, broadcaster and educator, Jack Longland.

Mark Lambert has produced far more than a biography. He’s recreated an era when great unclimbed cliffs still existed, Everest remained a mystery, Greenland’s highest summit was unclimbed, and Britain’s finest climbers simply got on with extraordinary adventures. It was however something else, something quite striking that captivated me about this book. Longland himself was clearly an excellent writer. Many climbing biographies rely on modern narrative around sparse historical sources, but here the subject’s own words repeatedly become the highlights of the book. That, perhaps more than anything, explains why his voice has echoed through climbing literature for nearly a century.

For anyone interested in the Golden Age of British mountaineering, it’s an immensely rewarding read.

Mark Lambert

Jack Longland was one of Britain’s complete mountaineers: technically gifted, intellectually curious, adventurous, modest and seemingly happiest whenever there was unexplored ground ahead.

Here are a few extracts from the book…

Of Greenland and black and white photography.

‘In the clear northern light we could see the broad, unbroken line of the ice floes ahead, punctuated with big icebergs.’

‘The mountains faded as the coast bent away, a line of snow-marked peaks, with clean, white glaciers dropping to the fjords between. At once came a realisation of the drab inadequacy of most arctic photographs on seeing for the first time the glittering ice, the cold brilliance of the sky.’

‘The next day they woke to calmer seas. And soon they encountered their first Inuit, a pair hunting on the floes some four miles from the coast.’

‘The team spent an hour and a half on the summit. Fountaine was busy with his boiling-point thermometers, eventually producing similar results from all three to give a height of 12,250 feet (3,734 metres).’

‘Courtauld took theodolite readings to link in with his work at Camp VII, and Munck, rather sheepishly, produced a Danish flag.’

‘They had made the first ascent of the highest mountain in the Arctic, but as yet it had no name. Sometime later, the Place-name Committee in Copenhagen decided on Gunnbjørn Tinde. ‘Tinde’ means ‘summit’, and ‘Gunnbjørn’ recalled the tenth-century Viking Gunnbjörn Ulfsson, who was driven by a storm into the seas west of Iceland, saw glaciers to the west and was thus the first to discover Greenland.’

Speaking of his famous descent with eight porters on the 1933 Everest expedition.

On the journey to reach the campsite.

‘Perched on the north face of Everest, it was also the most inhospitable, the most precarious and probably the most dangerous. The word ‘campsite’ had no meaning here – this was a tiny ledge to which a six-by-four-foot tent had been made to cling only after snow and ice had been hacked out and a stony platform of sorts scraped together at its outer edge. Even then the tent floor sloped crazily downwards and its outermost third overhung the edge, flapping over the face that fell 6,000 feet to the Rongbuk Glacier.’

‘The north face of Everest is made up of slabs overlapping like tiles on a roof pitched at about forty-five degrees. These slabs are devoid of holds or features so that ice or snow clings to them only here and there; progress depended upon the tenuous grip of boot nails and a steady balance. There were few if any anchor points, so if one man were to slip, he would pull with him any others to whom he was roped.

So they had climbed unroped.’

jack Longland was also an accomplished broadcaster appearing on many radio panel games which were among the most popular media shows of his generation.

https://youtu.be/bSKaNjFotK0?si=PvUATPdj_vbpAa_1

A Man for all Mountains is available from all good bookstores,

Jack Longland – Biography: Mark Lambert | Podcast
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Jack Longland – Biography: Mark Lambert | Podcast
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Peter Silburn: The Norwich Cycling Campaign | Podcast
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Steve Micklewright: Scottish Rewilding Alliance | Podcast
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David Barter. Great Scottish Bike Rides| Podcast
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It’s Up to Us: Path restoration project | Podcast
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Dan Bailey: UKHillwalking.com | Podcast
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Bobby Motherwell: Singer/Songwriter, Poet and Climber | Podcast
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Climbing in Yosemite: A Memoir – Dennis Gray | Podcast
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Martyn Howe: The Coast is Our Compass | Podcast
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Matt Heason: Wild Rock | Podcast
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Recent Posts

  • Gear review: Brede II jacket – 5 years
  • Jack Longland – Biography: Mark Lambert | Podcast
  • Peter Silburn: The Norwich Cycling Campaign | Podcast
  • Steve Micklewright: Scottish Rewilding Alliance | Podcast
  • David Barter. Great Scottish Bike Rides| Podcast

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