2023 Stats Post/Happy New Year!

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

Lots of hills this year but no Scottish trips at all – in fact, only 2 trips in all…

Wainwright Reascents: 292
Wainwright Outlying: 36
Other: 162 – most of them Birketts
Hill grand total: 490

Scottish trips: 0
English trips: 2
Before-work hills: 1
Gills explored: 0

Outdoor climbs: 1 Severe, 1 V.Diff, 1 H.Diff, 2 Diffs, 1 Moderate

Broken Bones: 1 finger (gardening accident) – plus of course I was still recovering from my wrist break until March

Getting challenged on a trespass:  2.  No.1 – the silly thing was that, yes, it was a private wood and I knew that but the person challenging me had nothing to do with the wood – it wasn’t theirs!  No.2 by a farmer who didn’t want me to use a perfectly good vehicle track to cut across to the road at the start of a re-walk of the Bannisdale Round and sent me the long way round.  As I was very late in the day starting and it’s a long round, I wasn’t too chuffed.

This year’s main achievement was another ‘Across Scotland in a Day Walk’ from Ardgay to Ullapool with the first ten miles being done by pedal bike against a gale!  I found the walking part of this very enjoyable and am planning at least a couple more of these before my legs finally fall off!

This year (up north at any rate) has again been absolutely dire weather-wise – I think this will be the pattern from now on unfortunately as it has certainly been dire for at least the last five years.  It was consistently cold, wet and windy apart from a quick warm and dry month in spring and a week at the start of October.

Due to the above mentioned weather, I’ve been staying fairly local for most of my walking and on the drier hills as I hate eroding hills and paths in wet weather.  Consequently, I’ve again done many of my local favourites very many times indeed, e.g. Binsey/Whittas Park 35 times, Meal Fell 31 times and Great and Little Cockups 27 times.  I’ve enjoyed them greatly though, even in dire weather, which after all is the point!

New walks done this year were down Swindale – Howes and the Naddle Round (which I will write up when I get my photos back).  I also nipped up Knock Pike in the Eden Valley after dropping Richard off at Appleby Station to go home – it was a couple of months ago and exceedingly wet walking!

I was finally allowed to fully retire in August – I’d been ill all year up till then so very glad to do so.  Immediately I retired, my health improved back to what it should be – proves you shouldn’t be working after 65 and probably not even up to that age either!  Of course, I’m now doing what I was aiming to do all along and hitting both the tea-shops and the hills almost every day 🙂

My major time-consumer and bug-bear this year has been the house clearance of my mother’s in Skipton.  I’ve been over more or less every fortnight since April right up to Christmas and it’s been a truly dreadful job – and it’s still ongoing 😦

My hip has borne up well to the increasing hillwalking but is sometimes clunky which it really shouldn’t be at only 5 years old.  I’m wondering whether I did some damage on my fall last Christmas.

My aim next year is mainly to start collecting Birketts – I’ve probably done nearly all of them already but need to get a book or something to check.  I did a new one the other day though after spotting a vague hill on Uldale Common and assuming it probably was one so blasting off up it.  An online check in the evening confirmed it was – Mickle Rigg.  I’d also like to start getting back up to Scotland again too…

Hope you all have a great 2024 and thank you for reading 🙂

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