Thursday 23rd August 2012, 10.50am (day 364)
Third day in four out walking, and between them all I have done 43 miles (nearly 70km). On none of them has the weather been great and today was the worst of the lot. It’s time for a rest…
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: Wainwright walks
Sheep on Middle Fell
Monday 20th August 2012, 2.00pm (day 361)
I’m in the Lakes again. After today, 18 to go. The picture is taken on Middle Fell, near Wast Water, but in the background is Yewbarrow, and if there was a super-dooper 100x zoom you may well be able to see the same sight as depicted way back on Sept 2nd, as that’s Great Door over there. More to come from the Lakes for the next few days, I’m here until Thursday.
Catstycam – a sexy mountain
Tuesday 14th August 2012, 12.30pm (day 355)
I’ve been up 193 of these buggers now and of them all Catstycam is the one that most looks like a child would draw a mountain. It’s really quite a sexy beast – though as I proved today, a relatively easy walk up and down.
Clouds devour Base Brown
Sunday 29th July 2012, 11.35am (day 339)
Seeing as when I do these walks the landscape photos are collected together on my other blog at 214wainwrights.wordpress.com , I have lately been trying to pick other pictures to put on here, that is, pictures that are not necessarily of the landscape but epitomise the day. Yesterday’s was an example of that.
However, I put a ‘landscape’ photo up here to draw attention to the other big theme of today – the bloody weather. Honestly. Most of the rest of the country had a good day today, but I can assure everyone that on the tops of Kirk Fell; Great Gable; and Green Gable, between 9am and noon today, it was revolting. I found it quite dispiriting and didn’t enjoy the walk until it was finished, when I had a sense of achievement. Base Brown was the fourth fell of the day, and I and these two other walkers watch as it stops having its rare moment of clarity and the big devouring cloud beast comes in again, just as we thought we might dry out for a few minutes.
Lisa and Kara in the Black Sail youth hostel
Saturday 28th July 2012, 10.15pm (day 338)
It’s Sunday night as I post this; I came back in the afternoon from what I could describe as a ‘weekend away in the Lake District’, but that doesn’t really sum it up very well. Actually I have just spent two days walking, through weather that could best be described as ‘mixed’ (see tomorrow’s post). I have bagged 9 – more than a quarter – of the fells remaining on my project and now have only 23 to go.
I broke the journey at the Black Sail youth hostel. Located at the head of the valley of Ennerdale, this is some two miles’ walk from the nearest other building, let alone road. It sleeps about 20 people and was about two-thirds full on Saturday night. It’s a great oasis in the hills. And it serves beer. These two were part of a group who worked in Edinburgh and were all parasitology researchers, or something. They drank wine with me and we played Yahtzee (Lisa, lying down in this picture, won) and we and the other guests could just forget the rain outside for a little while.
Sheep near Dockray
Monday 2nd July 2012, 2.50pm (day 312)
Man did I have to get out on a walk at some point or I was going to go mad. I made it, it wasn’t totally dry, but it will do. More details are on my other blog.
Clare likes me to take a picture of a sheep on every trip: and as it is our 13th wedding anniversary today, this one’s for you babe.
On the approach to Scafell Pike summit
Saturday 19th May 2012, 2.15pm (day 268)
Scafell Pike is the highest mountain in England, at 3210 feet (978 metres). It is also, as this photograph makes clear, probably the busiest. And the stoniest. A stream of people are here hauling themselves up the final slope from Lingmell col, each with their own specific reasons for being there – though in the end, it’s all the same general reason – “because it’s there”, because it’s the highest point in England. Scafell Pike isn’t the most attractive mountain – nor the most interesting – nor the one with the best view, or the best crags – it’s not, in my opinion, even the hardest one (Pillar and Scafell were harder). But it is the highest: and that’s why all these people were there.
Me at Angle Tarn, the Lake District
Saturday 5th May 2012, 12.40pm (day 254)
There are definitely worse places to have one’s lunch. (See my other blog for more pictures from today.)
Walker on Hindscarth
Friday 13th April 2012, 1.15pm (day 232)
Taken on the 54th walk of my project to climb all the mountains in the English Lake District. Is it any wonder that it was this which got me fully into photography in the first place. It’s a subject that just gives & gives.
Incidentally, the snow-covered peak second right is Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England. The dome to far right is Great Gable. Between where the walker (and photographer) stand and the slope behind is a steep valley holding the motor road of Honister Pass.
My Lake District pinboard
Monday 9th April 2012, 12.50pm (day 228)
Day spent mainly re-stocking shelves in the newly decorated bedroom, so not much to document. The pinboard which helps me keep track of the Lake District fells I still have to climb has not yet found a place in the new room, but that at least enabled me to see it from a different angle today. What you see here is a slice through the southern part of the district. Red pins are those fells in the 214 which I haven’t climbed yet. (I could tell you what the other colours mean, but then I’d have to kill you.) I’m getting itchy to go again but the weather’s terrible at the moment.
Being 42 