Atlast we climbed the Mount Schiehallion. My friend's wife had prepared wonderful Lemon rice, Vegetables mixed rice, and Curd rice. After finishing them (only reason that we should not feel the weight of the carry bags) we started climbing my first experience of mountaineering. I had my Nikon FM2 set with me. I was fully confident that I may not fall down because of my new Nike shoe. After a great struggle I reached the top. My friend Varadhan and his family had reached before. They allowed me to stay only for few minutes since they were already waiting in the cold for my arrival. It was getting colder and we were worried that it may get to freezing temperature shortly. I took few pictures from there. Looked around and took the neigbouring mountains. Took another picture of the top of the mountain. It is really breathtaking experience. I have produced below few information about the Mountain which I found in the internet. I want to climb more hills. Just cannot wait anymore......
The conical Mount Schiehallion ("the fairy hill of the Caledonians") has long been considered a sacred and mystical mountain by the gaelic Highlanders of Scotland. Its topographical features are somewhat reminiscent of Mt. Shasta in California, USA, which is held sacred by the North American Indian tribes. In his classic work Cuchama and Sacred Mountains (1981 USA), the Buddhist scholar Dr. W.Y. Evans-Wentz comments: "In the scriptures of mankind, certain mountains are considered sacred; and they are referred to as being sources of inspiration and revelation to prophets, saints, and sages. Mountains rising on high and merging into the invisible depths of space come to be looked upon as being the abodes of heavenly beings, the repositories of wisdom, and the founts of spiritual illumination." He goes on to say, when speaking about Mt. Omei, a sacred mountain in China: "Phenomena of most unusual character are associated with this Sacred Mountain, and at least some of them may merit a more than purely mundane explanation. The monks and pilgrims who frequent Mt. Omei believe these phenomena to be self-evident proof of its sanctity."
Geographically, Mount Schiehallion is located at the very centre of the Scottish mainland. In his work entitled Schiehallion, published in 1905, the Rev. John Sinclair, M.A., B.D., Parish Minister of Kinloch Rannoch, Perthshire, writes: "Schiehallion is distinguished as a widely known and very beautiful mountain. It was on its sides, in 1774, that Dr. Maskelyne, the Astronomer Royal, made those famous observations on the attraction of the Pendulum by a large but determinate mass of matter, which afforded the data from which the weight of the earth was approximately ascertained; and, accordingly, wherever there is an association of scientific men throughout the civilised world, the name of Schiehallion is familiarly known to them in this connection." The Rev. John Sinclair who, as the Earl of Caithness was the head of the Sinclair Templar family of
Rosslyn Chapel fame, also writes: "I envy not the man who can climb Schiehallion without experiencing certain emotions of reverential awe, which raise the thoughts of the heart from earthly to heavenly things. I can truly say that in my climbings of the dear mountain, I invariably felt myself, as it were, in a sweet atmosphere of Bible imagery, thinking of Moses, Elijah, the Saviour, and others, when they climbed those sacred mountains in the east, and there held communion with the great Father of spirits....The poem entitled, 'The Second Sight: A Rannoch Mystery,' has got at least this one merit that it is an attempt to picture out a form of belief in the superhuman which has probably existed among the people of the district for many hundreds of years. In former times it was the males that were the seers of the Rannoch Israel; but in our day the Deborahs and the Huldahs have taken up the role of revealing the mysteries of the present, the distant, and the future."
