“I didn’t have opportunities like this growing up, it just wasn’t tradition for us,” muses Haroon Mota, as we climb up a steep, rocky trail in the Lake District one Friday morning. For the moment, the sun is out, revealing the lush Great Langdale Valley spread out below us with rugged peaks hugging the edges of glittering lakes.
Soft-spoken and thoughtful, Mota is the founder of Muslim Hikers. We’re here to attend the Arc’teryx Climb Academy but while we’re both keen hikers and runners, it’s taken a certain amount of kismet for the two of us to end up on this trail together. After all, I’m white and most people on the trail look like me; Mota is a British Asian Muslim and for a long time, hiking was quite a lonely experience for him.
