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!
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
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!
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!
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! Read the rest of this entry »
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…
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… Read the rest of this entry »
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! Read the rest of this entry »
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
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… Read the rest of this entry »
The Adventures of a Mountain Coward 