Hope Beck Exploration and Round

On many walks last summer, I was doing an exploration of Hope Beck and the round of hills above centring around Hopegill Head.  There was one completely awful route where I tried to follow a rake onto the ridge before Ladyside Pike which was visible from across the valley but, once underfoot, ended up disappearing into thick heather in which I had to flog my way steeply uphill.  The routes I took up the gill, however, were good…

Foaling Around on Walla & Blaeberry

I’ve recently re-discovered Walla Crag as an after-work walk (I hadn’t been up it for years) after I went up Cat Gill which was a completely new route for me.  Of particular interest to me though were two craggy-ended hills I could see from Keswick which I suspected were a trespass but wanted to bag!  This round has become a favourite of mine – not totally because of the mountains as you’ll see towards the end of the post…

The distant ridge of Dodd Crags

Late Skiddaw Snow After Work

Fri 7 May 2021

One Friday last year there was snow on the hills so, after work in Keswick, I decided I’d just blast up Skiddaw as it’s pretty unusual for him to be so full of snow in May!  Skiddaw is a pretty big undertaking to nip up after work so, unusually for me, I actually took the car up to Gale Road carpark and started from there – normally I’d call that cheating!

Place Fell a Different Way

Autumn 2020

Quick apology for the total lack of posts recently but, I’m getting so bogged down in running both mine and my mother’s house and affairs, I have virtually no time for anything of my own outside of essentials (and often not even those!) 😦

In Autumn 2020, Richard and I managed to actually get booked into the Patterdale Hotel (something which is getting harder every year now – even mid week) to walk my favourite Lakeland fells in my favourite Lakeland valley.  This particular day it poured down until at least midday but then cleared up – we waited till the sun came out and then set off!

Place Fell from Arnison Crag

High Cup Nick & Murton Pike

Thu 27 May 21

Still on the theme of Eden Valley Fells, after dropping Richard off at Appleby railway station to go home, I drove on to the village of Murton to the superb carpark there and nipped up Murton Fell with a view to continuing on to see High Cup Nick.  I hadn’t seen High Cup Nick since I was a child and used to walk with my parents!

Cross Fell, Great & Little Dun Fells

Thu 29 Apr 21

At the end of April, I had a yen to get back to the Eden Valley – I’d had a brief visit to Dufton Pike and the hills above it late 2020 and found I really liked the quietness of the area.  I’d never done Cross Fell so decided now was the time to get on with it!

How to Get Stuck on Grassy Binsey!

I often nip up Binsey as it’s my nearest hill, has great parking and also I pass it on my way to work and back.  This particular visit, I decided to liven it up a bit.  It livened up so much that I had to go back again yesterday after work to take photos of my gross rashness!

Steel Edge, Wetherlam

Wed 14 July 21

On our recent trip to the Southern fells, staying at Broughton-in-Furness, we decided to have an ‘easy day’ as we’d done 7 fells the day before on the main Coniston ridge.  I said that, as we hadn’t done it more than once (and that was years ago when I was still cowardly), it was time we revisited Steel Edge on Wetherlam – providing we could get parked!  Below is a film photo I took after our first ascent…

Cam Crag Ridge Scramble

Sat 17 Apr 21
Our mountaineering club were having a Saturday meet to do Cam Crag Ridge in Langstrathdale.  I normally work Saturdays but have wanted to do this classic ridge for a long time now and decided that, as I’m still a quite cowardly scrambler, it would be best to do it in expert company rather than on my own!  I was glad I did…

Eagle & Sergeants Crags, Borrowdale

Richard and I had a trip back to one of our favourite hotels for a short break when the lockdown ended.  The weather was mostly dire and Richard’s legs were very unfit so we stuck to short walks between the showers where possible.  This was one of the shortest mountain walks I could think of in the area and, as I hadn’t done Eagle Crag for years but had been looking at it each time I was down Borrowdale, I thought it would make an excellent choice for our second day!