2020 Stats Post/Happy New Year!

Feel free to add your own stats in the comments below…

More hills this year than ever before I think but no Scottish trips at all – in fact, not many trips at all…

Richard didn’t come up this hill… but he sure kept an eye on me!

Wainwright Reascents: 131
Wainwright Outlying: 16
Other: 13
Hill grand total: 160

Scottish trips: 0
Car Camping trips: none as they had a bloody lockdown in the good weather! 😦
English trips: 4 (all Lake District but just further away)

After-work hills: 36 🙂  and as I shielded for 3 months and it was too dark for 4 months, that’s in the remaining 5 months! 🙂

Gills explored: 5    Gills I got stuck in: 2 (but succeeded later)
Exciting rakes: 2 – both on the craggy face of Bowscale Fell above the tarn

Outdoor climbs: none – I won’t climb during Covid unfortunately 😦

Dog bites on the hill: none this year as the dogs must have been in lockdown!  I did nearly get knocked down by a speeding greyhound yesterday though…

Inactive days for our wonderful local wind farm – around 6 or 7 🙂

As you may see from the above totals, I’m lucky to live and work in amongst the northern and north-western fells so lockdowns and so on didn’t affect my hillwalking at all, in fact, as the hills were less frequented for some of the year, they were far safer than the local lanes.  It did mean, however, that I mostly did a lot of the same hills, e.g. Binsey & Whittas Park 11 times, High Pike 7 times, Blencathra 5 times, Bowscale Fell 8 times, Sale Fell 9 times (my usual after-work hill)…

Bannerdale Crags East Ridge – a highlight of the year

Gill exploration is still my main hobby but I voluntarily gave these up (despite the perfect dry conditions) throughout the lockdown in case I ended up getting stuck (as I did in the gill below in August and had to have a second attempt at it the next month)…

After the first lockdown, the Lake District became totally unworkable with visitors from out of the area who seemed to come and never go home again (they still haven’t).  I suspect those who now ‘work from home’ are actually working from second homes in the Lakes – I bet they’re not paying their dues council-tax wise though…

Even in the week, you couldn’t get parked anywhere to go up a hill until around 1600 hours – it’s just a good job I walk very fast!  Tessa, a friend and fellow blogger, tried two different locations for two different walks before around 0800 and had to abandon her plans as there was nowhere whatsoever to park even that early!

As I didn’t dare go food shopping more than absolutely necessary during the first lockdown (even with a mask), I ended up losing a dramatic amount of weight and clearing my kitchen cupboard stock of food – at one point I was 8 stone 10 – pretty serious for 6 feet tall!  Having said that, it was nice to lose all my visceral fat but unfortunately I’m back to normal now.  I saved a fortune as well!

This year was reasonable weather-wise but the summer ended abruptly on 2nd September and we went straight into winter 😦

Until around August I’d had one of my best years ever, however, this was soon to change dramatically… I was talking to my friend on the phone when she mentioned she’d been to my ageing parents’ house (both in their 90s) and found that they hadn’t paid their council tax all year.  She hurriedly set up a direct debit for them.  So, the next time I visited (soon after), I had a hunt around and found that all the incoming mail had been piled up all over the house and not dealt with at all.  Some of this was 2 years old!  Their house insurance had expired, their car had run out of tax (they weren’t driving it but it was outside on the road) etc. etc…

The upshot of this was that I had to suddenly take over all their mail (I do have power of attorney but you still have huge difficulties proving it to all the different companies).  This has taken all of every evening since then and, apart from insisting on still going up hills, all my spare time for the last few months.  I’m very upset about this as I’d ensured I always had my own affairs in very good order so that I could have a quiet life walking and following my other hobbies and now I have no free time at all 😦

Then, in November, my father died suddenly at home.  That means that now, in addition to all the paperwork (which seems to have increased a hundred-fold), I have to commute weekly to Skipton again to check on my mother.  I have to say I have barely had time to miss my father, let alone grieve for him, as I’ve just been too busy.  My house phone now rings off the hook – and I hate phone calls with a vengeance.  So now, as well as having no time, I’m super-stressed out and ageing rapidly.  I think my immune system is taking quite a dive too.

To further add to the troubles, last week my mother (luckily while I was staying with her) surreptitiously got drunk in her armchair and, when she went up to bed, fell in the bathroom and knocked herself nearly unconscious.  It was a good 10 minutes before she even knew who I was and she ended up having to spend a week in hospital (a very bad place to go during a pandemic when you’re in your 90s! 😮  )  The only amusing thing is that she now has a face which is half black, half white – I told her that, if a burglar comes, he’ll think she’s been ‘done already’ and go away again!  Even she laughed at that one…

So now, I’m having the worst year I’ve ever had in my life and am expecting next year to continue in the same vein!  My mother seems to be coping without my father but she’s quite befuddled so I’m not sure how often she thinks about it really.

Hope you all have a great 2021 and thank you for reading 🙂