The mountain is not a place to which you go. It is a place you become.

The description of the Cairngorm Mountains in The Living Mountain speaks directly to my soul, as someone who only feels complete with mountains around. When I read the book before visiting Scotland, it could just as well have been a description of a region in Switzerland. However, when exploring the National Park, I realized that the stunning views, the mystical atmosphere, and the climate gave the Scottish Highlands a completely different character on the outside. Yet, on the inside, there is the same sense of security that I feel in the Swiss mountains, and Nan Shepherd captures it so beautifully.
The emotions one feels in a mountainous region, however, seem to be the same:

In that stillness, in that silence, the mind becomes clear.

For Nan, for me, and for so many others, the mountains are a place to escape the world, a place of solitude, even in densely populated countries like Switzerland. A place where you feel so small that nothing else matters, where you can forget all your struggles and worries, where there are no responsibilities.

The mountain is a place where time does not pass in the usual way, where a moment can last an eternity and an eternity can vanish in a moment.