> Find galleries, blog posts and many more episodes at www.mountainairpodcast.uk“It sounds a strange thing to say about a 400 million year-old mountain like An Teallach… but it’s fragile”Interview recorded 06/07/23Dougie Baird has spent his working life building and repairing mountain paths. That makes him the the perfect person to help protect one of Scotland’s greatest mountains. That mountain is the ever-popular sandstone group of peaks we call An Teallach - a mountain area eroding quicker than you might expect not just due to “rainfall, footfall, scars, and cycles of erosion” but also under the twin pressures of climate change and funding cuts. This is why the environmental charity Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland, of which Dougie is CEO, has teamed up with Mountaineering Scotland and other partners to raise a much needed £300,000 path repair fund for An Teallach, as well as awareness of the peril facing so many peaks across Scotland and beyond.In this hour-long interview, Dougie discusses more about and why there’s a need for this three-year campaign, but also goes into great depth and detail about how paths help protect mountains, how anyone with the time and inclination can help volunteer to build and repair them, and what the joys and challenges are of a life dedicated to just this cause. He’ll also explain what 10 consecutive 10hr days working in the high mountains look and feel like: how “you’ll get most of your best work done in the morning”, how powerful a thing it can be to close your eyes “for just five minutes”, why the worst thing about it is the chilblains, how working in conservation can feel like a form of “national service”, how rare and precious it is to see the mountains as the sun goes down and all the walkers have left, and how fulfilling it is to work on a project that’s “going to outlive us”. Hear all of this and more in Mountain Air Series 3, Episode 4. > https://savemountainpaths.scot/> https://www.outdooraccesstrustforscotland.org.uk/