morethanmountains

The Rowan trees are dripping with berries at the moment bringing some welcome colour to the increasingly autumnal views. A friend of ours says that if the Rowan trees have a plentiful crop of fruit it is going to be a good winter. He is not a farmer so his idea of a "good" winter is possibly not everyone's; he is a mountaineer so he likes his winters to be full of snow and ice. Apparently the trees are preparing for a cold winter and supplying lots of food for the birds. I'm not sure there is any science behind his theory but let's hope he is right!

Jill

At 978m Scafell Pike is the highest mountain in England and because of this is one of the most popular walks in the Lake District. The National Trust counted over one thousand people on the summit in just one twenty four hour period. On a clear day the views are fantastic and it is a wonderfully rocky mountain but I would never walk up it on a weekend in summer by choice. This is one to be saved for a clear, crisp, mid-week winter day when you can have the paths to yourself.

I also try not to hang around on the top for too long: as well as being the busiest part of the walk it is where everyone else stops for their picnics and still bears the evidence. There are crisp packets and drinks cans stuffed into every crevice and banana skins strewn about the rocks. If the wind is not blowing a strong smell of urine wafts about the place.

All of that said I would still recommend a climb to the top of Scafell Pike as a great day out with a wide variety of terrain and views all over the Lake District - just pick your day carefully and please do not leave anything at the top.

Jill

The Keswick Mountain Festival, which has been held in May for the last three years, has been getting bigger and better each year. Throughout its history the festival has been run by a very dedicated team of local volunteers and for the last two years they have employed a project manager. This arrangement had needed lots of people in Keswick to give up a lot of their own time to keep the festival running but it has also meant that as activity providers we have been able to have a say in many of the decisions that have been made and felt that we could help to shape the festival into something we really wanted to be a part of.
Keswick Tourism Association, who started the festival, have taken the decision to sell it to a project management company based in the South Lakes called Bluestone Events. We have not heard anything from them yet so do not know how this will affect the festival in the future.
We volunteered some time in the run up to the festival last year and enjoyed becoming more involved but I am not sure we will be so keen to do so if we think the profits are heading to a company outside of Keswick.

We spent this morning lying in the sunshine on a bracken covered fellside in the name of medical training. A company called Expedition Medicine was running a wilderness first aid course in Borrowdale and they needed some "bodies" for the final scenario. Six of us were treated by ten doctors and nurses each. We each had a fractured femur, a tension pneumothorax and a suspected c-spine fracture. After being poked and prodded, splinted and collared I was carried on a rope stretcher to the top of Falcon Crag. I do not think my acting will win any prizes but I hope I remain ignorant of how all of those injuries would feel. The highlight of the day was watching the air ambulance fly in and land a few meters from where we were.

Jill

It still never ceases to amaze me how quickly the weather can change in the Lake District. Yesterday I was up on Walla Crag in the wind and the rain teaching a navigation course. On the rare occasions Derwentwater was actually visible through the clouds we could see waves being whipped up by the wind and crashing into the shore.
This evening we went down to Derwentwater to mess about in boats and the weather could not have been more different. The surface of the lake was as smooth as glass and there was not a breath of wind. We had great views of all of the surrounding fells and the colours of the sunset finished the day off beautifully. We were having such a wonderful evening we ended up paddling back in the dark.

Jill

I had a fantastic day in the Caldebck Fells teaching a navigation course today. This area, to the north of Blencathra, is a great part of the Lake District to explore if you want to escape the crowds (we saw three other people all day) and enjoy views over to the Pennines and Scotland over the Solway Firth. It has not always been a quiet part of Cumbria though and there is still plenty of evidence of the extensive mining that went on. From medieval times right up into the twentieth century lead, copper and barytes were mined here and the sites of industrial archeology that have been left behind make perfect points to navigate to across the otherwise fairly featureless ground.

Jill

We went down to Fitz Park in Keswick to watch the start of the Derwentwater Trail Race today. There was a great atmosphere with six hundred runners and a fantastic drumming troupe to send them on their way. I took part in the race a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. It's a 14km course and apparently goes through "some of the most scenic and varied countryside in the Lake District"; unfortunately the year I did it (in fact most years) the cloud was covering any views. At £23 to enter it's not the cheapest race around but I must get around to running the route again - perhaps on a sunny day this time.

Jill

Trail Magazine emailed us because they are putting together a feature on the 50 best UK hill walking routes and wanted us to help them out. There are a lot of options in the Lakes and it took us a while to come up with a finalist but in the end this is what we suggested:

"One of our favourite big mountain days in the Lakes is to set out from Seathwaite at the end of Borrowdale and climb up alongside Grains Ghyll and under Great End to Esk Hause: the central hub of the Lakes. From here with stunning views all around if we are feeling good and the weather is kind we might drop down into Upper Eskdale to search out the fine grade 1 scramble of Cockly Pike Ridge on Ill Crag. With some 400m of ascent this is one of the longest ridge scrambles in the Lakes. It is now not far to the summit of Scafell Pike. To make a round trip a descent from the top of the Pike via the Corridor route back to Styhead Tarn passes through impressive mountain scenery with a good view of Great Gable and beyond. From Styhead (a very popular place for a wild camp) it doesn't take long to drop down to Stockley Bridge and follow the track back to Seathwaite."

We can thoroughly recommend it.

Jill

We did it! On the 20th August at the wonderful Winder Hall in Low Lorton. The rain in the morning was torrential but it brightened up just in time for the photos. We had a fantastic day with close family and a couple of friends and then followed it up by a weekend of climbing (of course) and a big party for all of our family and friends.