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  • The Great Outdoors

    THE CLOAK OF MANANNÁN

    Mar 18, 2022 6 minutes
    PHOTOGRAPHY: NICOLA HARDY

    EXALTED AND STATUESQUE, Mont Blanc is a snowy masterpiece from aiguille to couloir and glacier to gendarme, towering 4808m high into the Alpine sky – the roof of Europe. I should be looking at it. Instead I’m atop a soft, rounded lump of grass rising out of the Irish Sea. Snaefell, the highest peak on the Isle of Man, is a measly 621m. Sweeping arêtes and cresting cornices are nowhere to be seen. Shimmering Alpine lakes and icy seracs do not exist here. Is this the biggest trekking comedown ever experienced?

    As I unzip my tent and unveil an ethereal world of Celtic myth and lore, I know the answer – a resounding no. Covid-19 might have put paid to my plans to walk the 105-mile Tour du Mont Blanc through France, Switzerland and Italy – a classic hiking tour of the alpine massif – but the Isle of Man is proving to be

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