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!

Walking Hartley & Gate Crags, Eskdale

Tue 6 October 2020

The day before we did the walk in the Brant Rake post, we decided to take a mosey up to the Devoke Water Hills proper (Outlying Wainwrights) – the great thing about staying at Boot in Eskdale is that this is one of the many hillwalks you can do right from the hotel door.  Even though the Devoke Water hills were the aim of the walk, of course I had my eye on others – I never tell Richard this though in case of a revolt…

Gate & Hartley Crags from Boot village

Brant Rake, Eskdale

Wed 7 Oct 2020

One of the few trips Richard and I had last year between all the lockdowns and Tiers was to Eskdale – one of my favourite Lakeland valleys.  I’d had my eye on an interesting zig-zag path up the fellside leaving Eskdale in the direction of Devoke Water for years now – I’d looked on the map and seen this was ‘Brant Rake’.  As I’d broken my toe in the hotel room the night before, we needed something easy so I decided this was the day…

Drama in the Grassy Northern Fells – Frozen Fell Gill

Sat 22 Aug & Sun 20 Sep 20
I’ve always subscribed to the view that the Northern Fells (‘back o’ Skidda’) are completely safe and non-scary and with no drama or excitement whatsoever. So, with perfect confidence, I set off to tackle one of the gills which looked interesting – it had a spectacular waterfall near the start but I was sure I could get up it…

High Pike via Brandy Gill & Carrock Mines

Wed 9 September 2020
Another gill I’d been eyeing up for quite some time – Brandy Gill which rises from Carrock Mines and goes between Carrock Fell & High Pike. This is how NOT to do it!

Seathwaite Fell by Grains and Taylor Gills

Thu 27 Aug 2020
The second day of our Borrowdale trip. Richard was having knee problems and was walking quite slowly so we decided to set out up Grains Gill and decide at the top whether to do Esk Pike or just to do Seathwaite Fell. Either way, we were coming back down via Styhead and Taylorgill…

Green Gable, Base Brown & Brandreth

Wed 26 Aug 2020
Richard and my first trip away this year I think – certainly the first since the Covid crisis started anyway. We didn’t go far – just to one of our favourite hotels down Borrowdale.

It might seem silly for me to go to stay down Borrowdale now I’m a ‘northern Cumbrian’ but it actually makes sense really. For a start, the hoteliers are friends of ours and also it meant we could just leave the car at the hotel for the whole visit and just do walks from there. With the current parking and visitor chaos in the Lake District, that was a very good thing!

Whinlatter Round aka ‘Caught in the Forest’!

Tue 7 April 2020
This was during lockdown but, as I’d had to travel to Keswick anyway, I did the walk on my way back. I knew all the Whinlatter Forest carparks were shut (and so the Forestry people thought that Whinlatter Forest was also shut) but I also knew there was roadside parking. There were a couple of other cars there and I bumped into one girl just coming back from the hill (although, of course, at a 6 foot social-distance!)…

Blencathra via Halls Fell & Doddick – in record time!

Sat 11 July 20
Well it was record time for me anyway… this was after work – I was feeling very fit and wanted to be back down in time for my tea at the Scales pub! I was up and back in exactly 2.5 hours…