I’d been eyeing up the top (exciting) parts of this gill for ages during my ascents and descents from various parts of the Newlands Round. Last year I finally got around to having an explore – I’d waited for a dry spell but it didn’t help with some of the waterfalls!
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… Read the rest of this entry »
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
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
Tue 20 October 2020
In the short window when we were allowed to travel last year, Richard came up and we had a few days at Patterdale Hotel – this was really well-run with respect to Covid regulations and we enjoyed our break. It was nice to get further afield – the Northern and North-western fells are local to me so I can do them all year but I was dying to get back to the more serious fells elsewhere – the Northern fells are pretty tame grassy affairs. Read the rest of this entry »
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 »
The Adventures of a Mountain Coward 