The International Summit Summit

20250902

Written for the "Kev's Odyssey" series.

As a rule, mountain spirits weren’t big on travel. But in this modern world, with threats and pressures on every side, it was agreed that coming together was important. An individual mountain had little bargaining power against hungry mining companies or grasping tourism boards.
At the first Summit Summit, Fujisan’s representative declared “Let us form an unbroken range which spans the globe”. Since then the coalition had gone from strength to strength, aided by environmentalists and native peoples who fought for the land spirits to receive legal recognition and protections. But the struggle was ongoing and serious.
Yet Scafell Pike always felt like a bit of a joke. By far the shortest of the four UK delegates, and despite representing a heavy hitter on the world stage he didn’t command much respect in his own country. Or anywhere else.
While most English people were vaguely aware of Ben Nevis, few knew about him. And those that did thought of him as one of those charming Lake District features. He didn’t inspire awe or reverence. Nobody had ever particularly worshipped him.
So when he channelled into the rock from his peak, carefully transported by human volunteers, he didn’t announce his arrival or move to join any discussions. Better to loiter and wait for the formal affairs to begin.
Meanwhile Carrauntoohil over there was being the life of the party. As always. Yr Wyddfa was joining in, gleeful about being ‘Snowdon in snow’ this time. And Ben was managing to look regal amongst far more majestic company.
Then there was Pike. Good ol’ Pike.
He shuffled through his notes. He was one of the mountains taking part in the “How to make tourism work for you” panel and wanted everything to be fresh in his mind.
Hmmm should he mention being the site for “Britain’s Favourite View”? He’d put it in thinking it was a good example of mountains collaborating, what with Gable and the others being a big part of the panorama, but now he wondered if it sounded like bragging.
274 tourists a day was probably nothing compared to the other panelists, wasn’t it? Maybe he just shouldn’t mention stats at all, to avoid embarrassing himself.
Ugh, why hadn’t they asked Ben? He was in a few “World’s Top Ten Mountains” lists.
As if summoned by this thought Ben wandered over. “Hey, Scafell. Good to see you.”
“Hi, Nevis.” Pike managed a smile. Stiff upper lip, and all that. “How’s it going?”
“Well, I was just chatting with some of the others about that proposed environmental legislation the Prime Minster’s been bandying about. You mind sharing your thoughts?”
“Oh,” Pike mumbled, “I mean, I’m not sure my thoughts are particularly interesting…”
“But your tourism board listens to you.”
“Oh. Well, yes.” Pike peered at the waiting huddle. He didn’t recognise most of those mountains. He doubted they recognised him. But they looked interested. “I, um, sure. I can tell them what we discussed last board meeting. Everyone’s thoughts, and the action plan, and… stuff.”
“Thanks.” Ben clapped him on the back. “You’re better at explaining than me. Being accessible’s one of your strengths.”
Pike looked away with a shy smile. “Oh, well…”
“It’s an important skill, especially these days.”
“I, I try my best.” Pike scooped up his notes, the etherial slabs folding into a pebble for easy pocketing, and followed Ben over to the waiting group. His mind whirling with everything he knew about the current legislation push.
“-worrying precedent.” Mont Blanc was saying as they joined the huddle, with several other European mountains nodding agreement.
“Yeah,” Ben grumbled, “I hoped we were past this nonsense.”
“We, um, we don’t think it’s got legs.” Pike said hopefully.
“Oh! Scafell, right?” Blanc nodded welcome. “Thanks for coming over. We won’t keep you long - I think most of us are going to the tourism panel anyway.”
“R-Right.”
Naturally Blanc had been asked to take part in the panel - it would’ve been strange if she hadn’t. It was a bit intimidating to think that everyone else here was going to be in the audience, but most of them had nodded.
“So, Nevis said you’d done work on this?”
“Ah, yeah, the Lake District bloc’s been organising. Sorry, I didn’t think to bring anything about it…” Since he hadn’t expected anyone would ask him of all people.
Blanc readily said “If you don’t mind sending a writeup to me after, I can distribute it.”
“Oh, of course!” Pike glanced around the circle. “Well, um, the usual suspects are all for it, but public opinion is actually very low already, and we’ve got an awareness campaign going which is getting good traction…”
He quickly got lost in the discussion, and was taken aback when Table tapped him and pointed out that they should go get ready for the panel.
“We really should.” Blanc agreed. “Let’s go. Oh, but do remember to send me that write-up!”
“I will.” Pike promised.
It was funny to think that him and his chums getting together to argue against local legislation might be interesting to mountains across Europe.
Maybe… maybe he should be sending out more bulletins. And making more of an effort to read everyone else’s. Maybe Everest wasn’t spouting nonsense with all that stuff about height meaning little in the company of other mountains.
Maybe he should take the summit’s mission to heart, and see how accessible he could make himself.
Hm. He could talk to the Lake District tourism board, maybe put together materials on ‘how to foster a good working relationship with your mountains’. He’d ask Blanc what she thought.
For now, though… He flipped through his notes.
You know what? He was going to talk about being voted the site of Britain’s Favourite View. And he was going to list all the other mountains which made his view what it was.
He still wasn’t sure about this toilets joke, though. Hmmm…

Prompt was “Summit”.