Mind Over Mountains

Using mountains to overcome the hurdles we put up in our own minds

Feature type Video

Read time 3 min read

Published Dec 17, 2021

Base editorial team
BASE editorial team BASE writers and editors who live and breathe adventure every day. We love adventure storytelling as much as we love adventure itself.

In those hazy areas between night and day, elation and fatigue, possibilities and unknowns, is where we find the state of flow that takes us outside of what we know and towards what we could be.

The Cairngorms Loop is a 300km Independent Time Trial route in Scotland, circumnavigating the mountain range that gives the trail its name. It circles the Cairngorms twice, following long and lonely glens on heather-fringed singletrack, traversing beneath sub-arctic plateaus and their fickle weather, crossing wild watersheds by trails that are far older than the bicycles that ride them now.

‘You can do it doing something completely different; painting or writing music,’ explains mountain bike adventurer Huw Oliver. ‘For me, riding my bike is a way to find a flow state.

Mind Over Mountains takes a look at the mindset behind riding far and fast, challenging the idea that speed and suffering go hand in hand, following Annie, Huw and friends as they ride make their way round the loop record breaking times, showing us that love for a landscape and joy for the simplicity of movement are what fuel unforgettable rides.

You can do it doing something completely different; painting or writing music. But for me, riding my bike is a way to find a flow state

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