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.

Winter Hill Walking - or was it?

As there has been a lot of snow on the fells I though I'd go and try out my early christmas present. Boots and Crampons. I found it quite hard to find any B2 rated boots in a size 14, in fact I never found any, but instead I saw a pair of (B3)  La Sportiva Nepal Extremes in my size. With a pair of Grivel G12 XL Crampons and a DMM Cirque Ice axe, I am fully equipped for winter hillwalking and mountaineering.

Murton Crag

My Dad was quite busy today and although he was quite happy to take me to the Lake District I decided it would be a bit too much to ask of him. Instead I headed for the nearest fells, the north Pennines. In just 10-15 minutes I was in Murton Car Park ready to set of up the Pike! Any previous readers will probably be thoroughly sick of hearing about my regular ventures around High Cup Nick; I wasn't going to even write about this outing, but it was a bit too special to miss out.

Murton Pike Summit

I set off towards Murton Pike. I had a wonderful feeling. For the first time I was a mountaineer! It didn't matter that I had little knowledge of crampon and Ice axe technique, and I hadn't yet even used them, now I had the right equipment I knew I had the whole day to get to know it! I was gazing up at the summit, my first objective of the day. I looked at the ground I was currently walking on, a thin blanket of white with many intrusive splodges of grass poking out of it. This was certainly too low a level to even consider the use of crampons, a good hundred metres would have to be gained before the snow was even close to ready. I had set myself a point and went for it, Murton Crag. By the time I was there I would be half way up already. It wasn't long before I was there. The snow was now thick, but powdery, crampons would do very little and an Ice axe would only damage the turf lying under the snow. I continued towards the summit without the aid of crampons. Kicking steps and occasionally punching a fist through the snow for the extra stability. On reaching the summit the fog poured in. I took a few photo's of the trig point and then went to put my camera in my rucksack only to find the whole of Eden Valley sitting patiently below me when I looked back up. The fog had cleared! I got my camera back out again and after taking several more shots, at long last I donned my crampons and got out my ice axe. The north face of the hill would surely be in the right condition. But what was the right condition? I didn't really know. I was hoping for good hard snow, but there was none. It wasn't even worth carving a bollard out in the snow to test it's strength. I knew for sure it would give way. I decided I could at least try some techniques out and I wasn't going to come to any harm on such a gentle slope. After 10 minutes I realised today wasn't going to be a great day for Ice Axe and Crampon practice. I put them both away and got out my poles instead. This was the set up I used for the rest of the day. After working my way down to the valley, I gently made my way towards High Cup Nick.

High Cup Valley with Murton Pike in the Distance

After a while my heels were starting to get blisters on them. I sat down in the snow and took my boots off.  The whole process took about 5-10 minutes my bum was getting quite cold but I didn't really care, I knew it would easily warm up again. However when I did finally get up I had a feeling something was missing. I couldn't think what though? My arse! I prodded at my buttocks countless times, unable to register any feeling in them what so ever. I continued walking knowing that they would thaw out the moment I started on a bit of ascent. Throughout the day certain parts of my body went numb my fingers were the obvious one and my nose, which reminded me of the anaesthetic the dentist gave me when he pulled my teeth out. Because the of the soft snow, I decided I would concentrate on getting some descent photo's instead of practicing winter skills. High Cup Nick was beautifully lit by the sun and I was sure to get some good shots. As the day went on I was getting more and more into finding good camera angles and I was becoming increasingly glad I had come to such a unique place, where the sun and the snow complemented every inch of the amazing whin sill valley. The day was drawing to a close and in order to get back before daylight I attempted a glissade down one of the steep slopes. I had my Ice Axe out in order to use as an ice brake. On the powdery snow I didn't pick up that much speed, so I'm not sure how much time it saved but it was definitely fun and an efficient way of getting down a steep slope. Dad arrived at out meeting spot at exactly the same time as I did, often I miss time my walks and my nice relaxing day out turns into one of those Top Gear style races where I have to sprint down a mountain to beat the car. 

Despite not having used my new gear much, I now feel much more comfortable about using it when the ground conditions are right. I will hopefully be learning more skills on a course at Glenmore Lodge in February, but before then I will try and get out and about in the snow, to get used to using my gear.

Running, Climbing, Dreaming

I haven't been out on the fells recently but have been doing a lot still. Despite the domain name 'Fell Feet' I never intended the blog to be dedicated to the fells, and the more I write the more it seems this blog isn't really even dedicated to trips specifically in the mountains. It's more about challenge, adventure and basically the things I do that make me feel better as a person. 

I have been spending a lot of climb at the climbing wall recently in Kendal. I have been going on Wednesday nights after school to do bouldering, and Saturdays for Young Climbers Club.

There are a lot of very good Young Climbers there!

I was at Kendal Mountain Film Festival on Sunday. It was truly inspiring. My favourite films were 'Richard Parks 737 challenge', a film of a former Rugby Player who climbs the seven summits (Highest summit in 7 continents) and stands on the three poles (Everest, North Pole and the South Pole), and  'Crossing the Ditch' a film about 2 lads, Cas and Jonesy, not much older than me, as they paddle from Australia to New Zealand for the first time ever. I went their to watch films of mountaineering expeditions and only caught the last half of this, but was immediately drawn into it. It had humour, as well parts where I was on the edge of my seat, it was outstanding and everyone else must have agreed, because despite it being a kayak film it won the Grand Prize. Cas and Jonesy are currently attempting another world first called 'crossing the ice' the first ever unsupported return journey to the South Pole, 100 years on from the first Expedition to the South Pole. You can follow their progress on their website linked above.

I bought a Petzl Tikka 2 from Millets while I was in Kendal, so I can run after school now the days are getting shorter. I have used it twice this week and it is fantastic. I am also looking forward to a winter skills course at Glenmore Lodge in February. I'm hoping to learn Crampon and Ice axe skills, as well as the relevant safety procedures to go out in Scottish winter.

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments.

Also take a look at Cas and Jonesy's website, as they could go down in history for this Expedition.

Ethan

A Quick Catch Up

I haven't written anything for a while so I will just tell you briefly some of the stuff I have been up to recently.

I hadn't been running for a week or two because I wanted to try and get rid of the cold I had at the time. I never quite managed it and became quite bored so decided to run a 13.5km circuit that I do quite often and suffer the disappointment of finding out how much slower I was. To my surprise though I beat my best time by about 2 minutes, and the following week when I did the same circuit I beat that one by another 2 minutes.

I have just completed a beginners indoor climbing course at Kendal Wall. I had done climbing in the past at another club but never managed to get back into it after I left. Last Saturday I went along to young climbers club and we did some top rope climbing (bottom rope to be correct). I also joined the mailing list for the wall and was one of the 5 lucky winners of a free prize draw, where I won a month's pass. I think I'll try to make the most of it next week as it's the half term holiday.

My Dad bought a 2nd hand Ridgeback bike from Arragons in Penrith, that they had as a hire bike. We went for a 17 mile cycle the other day to try it out. We cycled to the New Inn in Hoff which has just opened up and I had lunch there. The journey to there was practically all down hill, and Dad was trying to find a route back home without going back up hill (I tried explaining the impossibility of this). In the end we went to Great Asby and on to Orton Scar, and Dad was disappointed when we came to, what was in his words 'the biggest bl**dy hill he's ever been up in his life'.

That's all really I haven't been up to much recently, but I will try and do some fell walking next week.
Oh and I got an 'F10 Vitesse' on ebay. A light weight tent that can be pitched with trekking poles or string to save weight? I'm looking forward to using that.

Thanks for Reading

Ethan 

Exploring the North Pennines

Last week I decided not head up to Cross Fell because of bad weather, I was a bit annoyed that I didn't go on but knew that I would get little pleasure out of it on my own on a day like that. Fergus joined me for Murton Pike but went back after that, as the fog was low and he couldn't stay the night anyway. I did a  loop around High Cup Nick with minimum visibility. So I was keen to get on up to Cross Fell this weekend, this time in the company of Fergus and Rex.

  

This week I planned to go around High Cup Nick and onto Great Dun Fell and Cross Fell. We set of from the farm in Murton at about 10:10am. This time rather than walk around the edges we walked through the valley. Rex was over joyed to be out and about in a new place and expressed his excitement by running around and demonstrating his remarkable athletic ability, which always makes me feel slow and lazy and generally seems to put most human bodies shame. I was keen to have a nosey around a bit more and possibly climb a gully or two. I saw one and it looked fantastic. It had a huge boulder that had fallen and jammed itself between the two walls. I asked Fergus if he could hold Rex while I went up. The rock of High Cup Nick is very Brittle so it's important to take care when selecting hand holds. After a few minutes of simple scrambling I was on the top. I walked to the edge and looked over the cliff to see Fergus and Rex waiting patiently and looking quite small. I shouted hello to them both before making my way back down.

We then worked our way along the bottom of the cliffs until we came to the rock fall at the end of the valley, where we went up the large gully onto the top. We then walked along the western side of the cliff tops until we came to the drystone wall which leads all the way to the bottom of Dufton Pike. We hand railed along it for 20 minutes or so. If you have been reading my blog since it first started you will remember the walk I did in the Lakes with Fergus in June. Despite knowing his boots were a size to small for him he came along anyway and although it slowed him down quite a bit he managed quite well considering the pain he claimed

to be in. He said the first thing he would do when he got back would be to buy a new pair of boots. Here we were 4 months later and Fergus is still in the same old pair of boots. So a frequent topic of conversations was yet again complaints of pain in his feet. Despite being 1st October the temperature must have been about 25 degrees celsius at this point in the afternoon. I was walking quick and was a bit reluctant to stop, as I wanted to get to the bothy before night fall. We had joined the Pennine way at the bottom of Dufton Pike and were heading for Knock Fell. We were both dehydrated and Rex was also hot. I decided that it was worth having a nice break by a river to fill up on water, let rex have a paddle and finally allow Fergus to rest his feet. After half an hour we continued. We kept going on the long walk to Knock Fell. The three of us all sat down admiring the distant Lake District fells as they stood proudly over the Eden Valley, the sun gradually creeping down into dusk. I put my arm around Rex and realised this was one them moments that you look back on with a smile across your face. A short time later we made it onto Knock Fell. I gave Rex his tea, as he seemed to be lacking his usual energy. The big 'Golf Ball' on the top of Great Dun Fell, that can be seen from Blencathra on a clear day and from my house in decent weather, was now very close indeed. We came to the road that led up radar station on the fell. This is used by workers there and is apparently the highest road in Britain. After a short stroll up the road we were as close to the summit as we could get, with out sitting on top of the station or being done for trespassing. We walked around the fenced of area and then onto Little Dun Fell. Cross Fell was our final objective of the day. At 893m (2930ft) Cross Fell is the 9th highest fell in the country and the highest point of the Pennines or any other part of the country outside of the Lake District. We ascended relatively quickly and the view was amazing from the summit a few photos were taken before we headed of the fell and looked around for the hut. We couldn't see it for a while until I spotted it and we set off towards it.
In fairness I had told Fergus that the day wouldn't be as long or tiring as last time and it kind of was in the end. I find it hard to stop and stay still when I have a planned destination. I'd sooner get there and then relax.

This was my first time in a mountain bothy and I was very impressed. Greg's Hut is well maintained and well stocked and I immediately felt cosy the moment I stepped inside it. A few others came with even more supplies. I had brought some fire lighters but they burned out. They had some so we used them and I got the fire going well. There were about six staying altogether but five of them were scared off by us so went outside to pitch tents, but one poor soul had to stay as she didn't have a tent to escape to. Rex, who has a tail that reacts to noise kept us awake. I stupidly donated my camping mat to Rex so had to sleep on the hard wooden platform above the fire. We ate quite well though. I am trying very hard to not use dehydrated camping meals as there expensive and disgusting. Fergus had some lightweight super noodles but I can't bear to look at them, considering they pretty much the only food I ate on my 12 peaks challenge. I brought some pasta and some carbonara source and ate it quite happily.

In the morning I had Ready-Brek and Semolina, which was quite a nice start to the day. Fergus had 'Cup o' Soup'. We then packed and after feeding Rex his Breakfast we left. I forgot to pack the Rex's Bowl. It's one of those red Sea to Summit X-bowls. If anyone's back up there before me, could you let me know if it's there still. We said goodbye to the other 5 who returned back to the bothy to cook breakfast on their stoves, and I tried my best to apologise to the women kept awake all night by Rex. She pointed out that what actually kept her awake was me commanding Rex to "Lie Down!". She even seemed to feel sorry for the dog, as if I was taking away his rights by trying to stop him wagging his tail in the middle of the night. On the way out of the bothy I couldn't help notice the beauty of the Pennine fells when looking to the north, I'll perhaps explore them some time. As for now all that remained was a quick descent into Blencarn before returning home.

A fantastic trip, with the company of two good friends.

Thanks for reading,
Please feel free to leave comments.

Ethan

Murton Pike and High Cup Nick

Today I got up at 08:30 and got a lift with Dad to Murton where Fergus was due to meet me. Fergus was waiting in the bus shelter when I arrived. We set off up towards Murton Pike walking behind Murton Crag. The cloud was very low and from here on navigation was difficult, seeing as we were off the path. Using a compass bearing I found our way to the summit. We then headed down towards the start of High Cup Nick. The plan was for Fergus to walk around High Cup Nick with me as well before finding his own way back to Murton, and then I would head on up to Cross fell and Greg's hut. Seeing as the cloud was low and Fergus didn't have a map or know how to use a compass we decided it was best if he went back now while the way was still clear. I worked my way around High Cup Nick, the fog was thick and the rain was persistent. I didn't meet one person. Every so often one of the jagged, pointy rocks would stick out through the fog to confirm I was near the edge. I was deciding that it perhaps wasn't worth heading on to Cross Fell today and I should meet Dad in Dufton. After a few kilometres down the field I came to the bottom of Dufton Pike. At only 300 metres visibility was still poor and the majority of Dufton Pike was hidden. It is in this weather that I start to appreciate the company of others a lot more. I was going to check out Greg's Hut but realised that although I could probably make it quite easily, I didn't see what enjoyment I would get out of spending a long, lonely night in a mountain bothy at 700 metres with nothing to do other than cook some pasta and dry out my clothes, just to head back down in the morning. After ringing Dad I decided that it was best to meet him in Dufton.
             It is hard for me to cope with the fact that I didn't go on to the hut today, but I know that sometimes my determination can push me through those hard times and thats what achieves great things on the mountains, but it can also push me through tough times and in the end bring me nothing to look back on with a smile on my face. If I was aiming to get somewhere for the next night or had a particular route in mind I wouldn't have returned until I had completed what I had set out to do, but considering this was an adventure with no objective and at the end of the day had little enjoyment or achievement in completing it, I decided it was one to do another day with enjoyable weather and good company.

Thanks for reading,
Comments valued as always.

Regular Update

Tomorrow I'll be going on a walk with Fergus for the day up Murton Pike and around High Cup Nick.
These are both walks I've done a lot. It's possibly my 5th time up Murton Pike and maybe my 5th visit to High Cup Nick. One of them a memorable experience with my Dad, when it didn't really cross my mind mind that walking along a 70 foot drop could be a bit scary to someone (like Dad) who suffers from vertigo. After that Fergus will make his own way back while I head off up to Cross Fell (which I've never been on) and then stay the night at 'Greg's Hut' (which is also a new experience). Cross Fell is the 9th highest fell in the country and the highest fell in the country, outside of the Lake District. 'Greg's hut' is also the highest mountain bothy in the country. I am quite pleased with how I've packed. I've managed to fit everything in my 'Lowe Alpine 45 litre Air Zone', and I'm leaving my Theramarest style Vaude Air mattress at home and I'm taking the light weight and cheaper option (a standard foam mattress).

What I've been up to
I haven't been up to a lot recently. I have a minor cold which usually would mean nothing, but it is effecting my stamina quite a bit, so I have had to abandon my increasingly regular long distance run for this week. I have managed to fit a 6km and a 4km in but I can't say I'm proud of the distance or my performance in it.
           I went to my first session of the indoor climbing course at Kendal Wall. It was extremely well taught. I have done bits of climbing in the past, at a Kids club when I was 10 in Penrith leisure centre and also with school and a summer camp once or twice, but I learnt an awful lot just in this one session. We only used the Bouldering wall this week, but I learnt to climb a lot more efficiently. Next week we will be doing top rope climbing and weeks 3 and 4 we will be doing Lead Climbing (something which I have never done).
           I have been having trouble getting hold of size 14 B2 winter boots. Which is strange because I can find Plenty of size 14 walking boots. Manufacturers are a bit silly really. They have concluded that men with size 14 feet don't have the desire to do anything more than summer walking! It's as if they expect a man with big feet to say "Oh no, gravel is challenging enough for me! I'll wait until next summer, and for now I'll leave those much more adventurous small-footed people to explore the snow." However 'La Sportiva' do 2 B3 rated models in my size so I am not totally lost.

That's all for now. Check back on Sunday or Monday night and I might have a post up about tomorrow's adventure.

Feel free to post comments and few more followers would be nice (but I won't hold my breath).

Ethan