I’ve started this blog in response to requests from my friends to write further about my cowardly exploits in the hills of Britain and elsewhere.
(When viewing photos in the blog posts, clicking on a photo will show it in its true definition and size)
Wed 31 Aug 22
My friend and fellow blogger Simon were due to meet up to walk and neither of us were feeling particularly fit (unusual for August). I’d been looking at a short route near Kirkby Stephen – Nine Standards Rigg I asked Simon if he fancied it and he said it was on his to-do list so it was settled – that’s the peak we’d do!
I’m quite lazy nowadays about carrying my big, heavy Zenith film SLR camera, partly because I’m normally walking in the Lakes and have photographed everything there is to photograph. It wasn’t a great day weatherwise but Nine Standards is definitely a peak to take your camera on. I’ve scanned some of these photos in black and white as I thought the subject suited it.
Well I went into Cotswold Outdoors in Keswick today and tried to get some Scarpa Maverick GTX as recommended by some of you and also in the article Alli furnished me with. However, at the start, I complained to the salesman that I’m having a lot of trouble with painful toe ends and am wondering whether my feet could possibly have grown (I thought it both unlikely and impossible). So, he measured my feet and… I’ve gone from about a 7 and a half / 8 to a size 9! That rules out women’s shoes for me now. Apparently your feet can get longer with age!
He only had size 12 and above in the men’s Mavericks so I had a look around the men’s section and found some synthetic Merrells (in blue-grey which is a bit weird). Anyway, these fitted a treat so I bought them. They also come with a 3 year guarantee which I thought pretty good.
So, I’m good to go on Thursday when my friend comes to take me hillwalking 🙂
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After having my third set of footwear fall apart on me in my third consecutive walk, I’m desperate to know if there is any non-leather/suede walking footwear out there where the sole will stay on for more than a year. Someone must know of some. It doesn’t have to be ‘vegan’ as such but I don’t wear dead-cow! In fact, I’m wondering whether my sole-glue problem is because vegan footwear is likely to be using vegan glue and I’m wondering whether it actually works?
I think one of the problems is likely that all my hillwalking footwear gets excessively wet on every single walk due to where I live and walk and I don’t think modern glues are prepared for this (possibly because many are made abroad where they don’t have our climate).
If any of you can recommend anything, please leave a comment on this post – thanks 🙂
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photo:
taken from the Natural History Museum website – Image courtesy of pxhere (CC0).
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My aim for this year was to average one hill per day throughout the year. However, I was on 365 hills by mid Autumn so decided to up it to 400 for the year. By December 13th, I had 394 so all looked in the bag… of course, that was the day I broke my wrist on an icy lane after my impromptu four hills! That meant I had six hills left to do in two weeks with a badly broken wrist and not able to drive to the hills.
Well mine and Richard’s is anyway 😦
I object to thugs hunting illegally here and trashing our wildlife but this took the biscuit I thought!
I’d been eyeing up the top (exciting) parts of this gill for ages during my ascents and descents from various parts of the Newlands Round. Last year I finally got around to having an explore – I’d waited for a dry spell but it didn’t help with some of the waterfalls!
I have seen many hillwalkers on forums I used to frequent suddenly being diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma and thinking that’s the end of their hillwalking ‘career’ – nothing could be further from the truth! Read the rest of this entry »
The Adventures of a Mountain Coward 