Boundless Horizons

Boundless Horizons

Monday 16 January 2012

Blencathra

Mum on the summit of Blencathra  
It seems that Sunday is the only day of the week that I have free. The oppurtunity to head out on the fells is often closed by accidently lying in too long or having to do something else. This Sunday though was different. The skys were clear and the rain hadn't been seen for a few days, I was up at 8:45am and I had persuaded Mum to come up Scafell Pike with me the night before. I went down stairs feeling excited. I hadn't been high up for a while and it was beggining to get to me. However my plans seemed smashed when I soon realised I was the only one up. Dad came through 10 minutes later and explained that Mum hadn't slept well and she wouldn't get up untill 9:30am.
        I was lounging around waiting for Mum to show her face. She didn't get up untill something like 10:10 and considering we had been planning to set off at 9am a trip to Scafell Pike seemed less and less likely. We both now seemed half hearted about getting out the door. Mum was tired and I was doubting the time we had to do it all in. For about 30minutes we had decided we weren't going out. I was now annoyed I knew that i could have spent the day doing something constructive but now I was sat in the house at 11:30am doing nothing one of the best oppurtunities I would have in a while to get out and do something. I then had a burst of energy that stopped me self-pitty. I told Mum we could go to Blencathra and soon we were ready and off.
       We had arrived at 12:20pm and I felt an increasing amount of impatience and irritation building up inside me. This soon passed once I had taken my first few steps up the mountain. I tried to stick to Mums pace as best as I could as I didn't want to race off and risk putting her off coming with me again. I used the rests Mum took as oppurtunities to take photos. The weather was clear but the fells were a little hazy in the distance. This made a fantastic veiw to the eye but to my new camera I was trying to work out settings on, the veiws weren't quite as rewarding. After stopping for lunch and warming up our hands as best as we could we soon travelled on up until we got to scales tarn. Sharp Edge was looking even more notorious with the odd patches of snow on it and it didn't seem a great option considering it was slippy and I wasn't quite sure how good Mum would be with heights. About 20 minutes later we had arrived on the summit and the veiws of Thirlmere and Derwant Water were astounding in the mist. Descent was quick and it wasn't long before we were back at the car. I was refreshed. I had lost the stress I had built up from life lower down and shown Mum the beauty of the Lakeland fells. All in all we had a great day.