"Some of my characters
are genuine Mountaineer’s others are social climbers balanced by those who are
falling down the Mountain. All human life seems to be either on their way up,
or on their way down. This is definitely a morality play.

The tendency is to take
too much when we embark on a trip. There are those who will try to climb a
mountain and take the grandfather clock with them. There are those who insist
on driving to the summit in the family car. They are doomed to failure even
with a good shove from behind. Some of us are half way up and some of us are
half way down. In the pagoda sits an artist looking neither up nor down but
across at the viewer.

The Mountain has
important meanings for our culture even though most of us live on the level.
For stimulus, for inspiration we go to the Highlands. We describe phases of our
lives with such words as plateau, peak, summit, precipice, slope and lowlands.

I have no head for
heights. As a schoolboy I attempted rock climbing and was petrified. I went to
the top of Snowdon by train. If we climb, on the way up we look for handholds.
We take advantage of our predecessors’ routes. We optimise our balance and
lever ourselves into the next position. We dare not look down. Getting to the
top becomes the focus".

- Chris Orr, 2021