"Hills", "Fells", "Mountains" and Blog Addresses

You may have noticed for a short time I had changed my blog URL to 'ethans exploits' rather than 'fell feet'. I was a bit worried about calling my Blog URL 'fellfeet' as I thought it was becoming irrelevant, as I wanted to write about my climbing and running just as much. I was also concerned that when I go climbing and mountaineering in other countries, the term 'fell' is a typically English term for hill. In fact it is a bit of a strange term isn't it?
            Many English outdoorsy types would call smaller hills a 'hill' and larger hills a 'fell'. Then you get people who say that hills in Britain are to small to be called a 'mountain' even though there is not a specific height where a 'hill' becomes a 'mountain'. On the total opposite end of the spectrum you get people who would give all 'mountains' the term 'hill' even Everest.
           For a time I wondered what to call the hills in Britain. Speaking to some people I would sometimes feel I was over exaggerating if I called a British hill a 'mountain'. Yet on the other hand the experiences I have had, in the hills of Britain (mostly in England), have never seemed small or insignificant. I think there becomes a point when a British hillwalker or runner starts to lose interest in the height of the hill they stand on. I know I am not as fussed anymore. When I stand on the summit of a mountain in the Lake District, I don't think "Well how high's this one then". I don't get the map out just to see what the altitude is. I look at the views and I see the distant peaks. I name the fells I know and love and get pleasure in knowing that there are still plenty, sitting above or below where I am standing, that I do not know and have yet to summit. And sometimes  I'm overwhelmed simply by the silence. Where else in this country can you hear absolutely nothing at all other than the sound of the wind and your own breath? It makes me feel like an accomplished human being. No matter what height the summit is I stand on I know that there are plenty of people my age and older, sitting at ground level in a sofa playing on a games console or watching TV.  I think that is the pleasure of the British hills. Yes, it's true, by international standards our mountains are nowhere near the biggest. I look at some mountains in parts of the world, like ones in the Himalayas and the Alps and they scream the word "challenge" at me even just by looking at the photographs. Perhaps, to the eyes of a sherpa or an alpine guide, a Lake District fell shows little challenge. Our typical mountain is round and covered in grass and bracken, while their mountains are pointy and covered in ice, snow and rock. But there is certainly at lot of challenge to be had in the hills of Britain, it sometimes just has to be discovered. The challenge can be just as big to one person, who is walking up one hill on a clear day, to someone else who is running over many tops in a complete whiteout. And even if sometimes a small walk in the hills doesn't seem particularly energetic, is it ever without adventure?
        There is something for everyone in the hills of Britain. And I call them "fells". This isn't because I think they are too small to be called a "mountain" or because they're too big to be called a "hill", it's because they are unique and they deserve their own name. So I decided there is no reason at all not to call my blog address 'fell feet'. And if I am in a different country and if the question somehow pops up "why did you call your blog 'fellfeet'?" Then I shall say "because that is what the mountains in England are called and they're where I found my feet for adventure."

Thanks for reading,
Ethan

P.S it did also occur to me that when 'Ethan's Exploits' is written as one "ethansexploits" it could well be interpreted as 'Ethan Sexploits". I looked the term 'sexploit' up in a dictionary and here is what I found...........

Sexploitation
noun informalthe commercial exploitation of sex, sexual attractiveness, or sexually explicit material.

Arguably the wrong word to use in the address of a blog about outdoor activities?

Climbing at Coudy Rock - Appleby

The sky was one of mixed messages. Every so often we would feel the sun beam down on our face, we would look up and find an amazing blue sky directly above us. Instantly I would find myself envisaging a great day out at the crag. But it wasn't long before I caught sight of a nasty looking cloud gracefully drifting over towards, like a lioness sneaking up on an gazelle. Perhaps this wasn't the best day to go out, on what was after all a sandstone crag. It would be dirty enough as it was, even if it did remain dry. However we were only going to Appleby so it wasn't going to matter too much if it did start chucking it down. I had heard a lot about Coudy rock, a crag just by the river eden with various sports routes bolted up it, and I was quite excited about the thought of finally going to it.

Sports climbing is a relatively modern style of climbing, where bolts are already drilled into the rock, ready for the climber to attach the rope to via quickdraws. It is becoming increasingly popular in the UK and is considered the main style of climbing in many areas of europe. Climbers don't need to worry the same about the safety of the route as they would in trad climbing, where climbers place the protection themselves by jamming gear into the rocks. In sports climbing, climbers can concentrate on the technicality of the climb, without concern for how well protected they are.

We arrived at about 11:30. I uncoiled the rope and lay it out on the ground in front of what appeared to be an easy route. I was going first and I seemed quite calm about the whole thing. The route can't have been more than 7 metres high and looked like it had many nice big jugs to hold onto. I tied in, stuck my ipod on and headed straight up. It would seem I didn't even take into account that it was sandstone and it was covered in dirt and lacked many jugs, in fact most the holds seemed to be slopers and to make things worse small overhangs (although not having to much effect on the difficulty of the climb) obstructed my view of the holds above and it wasn't long before I was heading back down to take my ipod off and start treating the climb more seriously. After about 10 minutes battling with the route, I finally made it to the top. I descended quickly and we soon move on to the next route along, this time Adam climbed. We continued to work our way left along the crag, until we finally got onto the main wall. Here the climbing suddenly got interesting. The main challenge was in the actual route, instead of it being in the dirt layering the rock or grabbing a handhold that wouldn't brake away. These routes had been climbed a few time and chalk marks were all over it from where other climbers had been.

The day continued in this fashion, we lounged around on the grass looking at the river, in between climbs and then would head up the odd route. The rain didn't come and the sun would occasionally come out from the clouds and warm up our backs. Dad came along later with the camera and took some photos. I thought about teaching him how to belay on a top rope, but then remembered that he goes loose at the knees when people are in high up places, and thought it was best to teach him another day. After all I thought he was doing well taking photos without panicking about how strong the rope was or any of the other things that could possibly happen.

Thanks for reading.

Climbing with a Cold

I was running fast, as I veered away from my house and set of down the track, but not quite fast enough. I finally got onto the road and continued to run, it was suddenly starting to feel much harder. I had only just begun the run. A mere 2 miles of running on the flats and then downhill had slowed my pace dramatically. As ventured along the road and into the village, it almost felt like I was running up a long, steep hill. I was trying to think of any other reason why I was feeling like this. "Perhaps I had started to fast" or "Perhaps I didn't drink enough before setting off?". But it was no use searching for any other answers. I knew why and I would have to except. I had yet another cold, despite having only recently recovered from my 4th cold of the winter. I had been trying to tell myself it had just been a sore throat or something. I had just had a great few weeks of running after school. Runs ranging from 2-13 miles and on all of them I had been pleased with my performance beating my regular 1 hour run by a further 2 mins.
Now I would have to rest and hope I would be fit again in a few days. I ran back up to my house at what felt like a snail's speed.

Jackdaw Scar

                I decided that if I couldn't run I would climb. After all that is what I really love doing, but I just don't get the opportunity as much. There is a lot to be said for leaving your house and running out through the fields as the sun sets on the distant fells, but for me nothing quite competes with climbing, when it comes to focusing on the task ahead and keeping a clear head. The nearest crag is 'Jackdaw Scar' I have been there a few times, hoping to find some boulder problems to create. But the Sandstone base of the crag doesn't provide anything of particular interest when it comes to bouldering and I find myself often gazing up at the higher limestone in frustration and going away with an even stronger burning desire to get hold of some nuts, cams, hexes and slings and start trad climbing. However this time I managed to do bits of climbing on the crag. The routes didn't offer very much in terms of training, but offered me a lot mentally. A chance to unwind after school, listen to the running water from the beck and breathe the fresh air. They weren't particularly technical but required that focus and state of mind needed in climbing.  So after feeling low for failing in my run, I had found my high for the day at Jackdaw scar, a perfect place to spend the evening, and feel closer to nature despite being no more than 60 metres away from civilisation.

My next bit of adventure was at Hutton Roof with Adam. Hutton Roof is a limestone crag not too far from Kendal and offers some great boulder problems. It has quite a few trad routes up it too, but it's only about 8 metres high so many of these can be climbed un roped with a crash mat underneath you. The crux of the climb was almost always in the first 4 or 5 metres and after that the angle relents to about 75 degrees with large handholds. My cold was now beginning to affect my general energy levels and I often found myself lying down in the shade after each climb and would leave Adam to wonder round trying out other problems for a while before I picked up the enthusiasm to join him again.

I spent the next few evenings after that climbing around Jackdaw Scar again. Then at the weekend joined Adam at Kendal Wall. We spent quite a decent amount of time bouldering before tying into the ropes and doing a few routes.

The day after I met up with Fergus and we went for a short stroll around the back of Dufton Pike up to Great Rundale Tarn, before strolling back down to the pub in Dufton for a coke. It is a bit odd that I should have had a cold this week. As even today which was supposed to be one of the worst this week, it hadn't rained for over a week and the sun was still shining brightly.

Today I did a bit of bouldering at Kendal Wall, as it it was now the official first day of my Easter Holiday. I could perhaps have gone for a run when I got back as I wasn't feeling as bad, but I was pretty tired from the 2 hours of climbing I had just done. Tomorrow though I will don my trainers and head out, I'll see what I can do, it might just be that my performance is fine and I can keep running for a good few miles up onto Orton Scar or I may have to make do with a lesser run until my Cold leaves me completely.

Thanks for reading.
Comments as always, are very welcome.

Ethan

A week in the life of Ethan

I have realised I haven't really been posting regularly and I think it is because I haven't really viewed anything I do in my normal week to significant but I suppose it might be of interest to a few people........

I'll start with last Saturday........

I went to Kendal wall at my usual time of 3:30pm. I get the bus from Orton and get a fantastic view of the Howgills, from the high road up to Kendal. I arrived and had a bit of a boulder before meeting up with Adam (climbing partner). We went into the main hall to do some routes. I was very pleased to have lead a 6b+, although I had to hang on the rope 2 holds below the top for a minute (to try and get rid of the lactic acid eating at my arms), before completing the final move to the top. Feeling good after this, I thought I would attempt to lead a 6c+. I struggled to even start this and after falling of on a sloper before getting to the 4th quickdraw, decided it was better to spend my time on a different route, so I did a quick 5+, just to avoid a mental block about climbing that line, before moving on to the huge over hanging 6b. I got a bit of the way up but after a few falls decided to come down. It was very nearly time to go and my arms were almost dead, I had decided it was one for next week.

I was pleased to be picked up of the bus in a 4litre Jaguar, that Mike and Val who were staying for the weekend owned. I think my blog entries need a picture in them to make them more exciting so here's a pair of cool (but rather random) pictures Mike took on Sunday of me losing in a race to the other side of the river against Val (I thought my route would be quicker but it turns out legs are faster than arms).

 On Monday I went for my usual run up to the road on Orton Scar, after school. Although it's only 7mile it is a great bit of training as it involves a lot of uphill in it. 

By the way this entry will only involve the active things I do in my week, otherwise there would be a lot of 'what I watched on telly tonight' kind of thing and 'What I had for lunch today'.

On Tuesday (After school) I went for a run to Jack Daw scar in Kings Meaburn and back. I took a new route through fields on a badly marked public footpath, which involved me getting lost and wading across the river once or twice and at one point trying to run out of a farm yard I'd ended up in accidentally. Luckily the farmer didn't spot me and mistake me for a thief, fleeing off into the distance. 

I finally ended up at Jack Daw Scar, after sticking to the river like glue for 3 miles. I decided to run back on the road as it would have been stupid to head back the same way. I arrived home with wet trainers and socks, but I had, had quite a nice little adventure for an after school run; wading across rivers and worrying about being shot by angry farmers all added to the excitement of taking a new route without a map. Jack Daw Scar is actually a nice little cliff with quite a few good routes up it, ranging from I think Severe to around E3, I would be very keen to go climbing on it in the summer, if I had the equipment.

On Wednesday at school (and you won't often here me talk about school on this blog) I was given a little note from a teacher that one of her neighbours had written to me. This wasn't just any neighbour however, it was Leo Houlding one of the best Rock Climbers in the country and possibly the world. When I got home my 60m Edelrid Python climbing rope I had ordered arrived in the post, this would give me the length to climb on the main wall and the King Kong wall at the climbing wall. I then went to Kendal wall and did a bit of bouldering up in the Green Room and Marmot Loft.

On Thursday I did nothing of note (Lets call it a rest day).

On Friday I went for a short run (short because I forgot my head torch and had to come back early).

And today (Saturday) I finally got the chance to go to Kendal wall and use my new rope on the higher walls, only to find that there was a competition thing on that took up most of the main wall and the higher walls. So we just did some bouldering instead.

That's quite a typical week for me really (apart from Leo Houlding writing a note to me). So you now know that I am doing something when I haven't written for a while, just all of little value in terms of writing.

Comments are welcome as always. You might have also notice the new look my blog has got. The main thing to notice is the box just below the navigation bar at the top of the page, where you can enter your email address and receive my new blog entries by email then if you want something else to notice there is a little survey box you can add an answer to. It is just a way for me to know a bit more about the people who read my blog (if there are any?). Also I have been told by my Mum to make it clear that the way to leave a comment is to click the button at the bottom of the entry that says "comment". I thought this was quite self explanatory but my Mum clearly thinks differently.

Thanks for reading,

Ethan

High Street with Rex

Haven't written in a while but have suddenly done a lot because of my half term holiday. I spent all of last week (Monday-Friday) at Glenmore Lodge on a Winter Skills course where despite there being little amounts of snow I learned a lot and had a great time. However I won't write about it, as it was more of a skills course and the photos weren't too great as it was often misty. What I do want to write though is about a little trip out I had with Rex.

Sunday morning was extremely clear and the wind was rather tame, so I decided to go for a little run with Rex. I had been thinking of running on the Lakeland fells for a while now and had decided for some time that High Street would be the main objective of my next exploit. I always wonder about long runs across the fells and about the endurance required. My regular run is usually a 7 mile run crammed in after school on Tuesday's and Friday's, I don't have much opportunity to run any other week nights and the darkness puts me off going much further. About a third of time I run I am running up hill, but it is still a relatively friendly ascent when looked at from a 'fell running' point of view. But even the best struggle to run up the steepest of slopes in the middle of a long distance run. But it is hard to find a happy median. Even when you have the energy to run up steep ground, is it economical to do so if you have a full days running ahead of you?

The last time I saw Haweswater it was on a small walk along the road in the rain with my family and the dogs (Zak and Rex). I didn't really appreciate such beauty back then as I was much younger, so was probably more concerned about getting wet and cold. But today I didn't see how anyone could have overlooked it. The weather was fantastic and the views were magnificent.........

I set out with Rex from the car park at the bottom of Haweswater and headed for the ridge up to High Street. The Ridge was long and rather steep and it wasn't long before I was reduced to walking up it. Rex on the other hand managed it well, only walking because of me, and still going for the odd sprint further up the path. I find this rather frustrating as I spend my weeks running and climbing while he lies around half awake waiting for his tea most days! However I think most humans would have struggled to ascend the ridge by anything other than a walk, so I didn't feel to put off while watching Rex pounce about in front of me. After all I was still managing to do a bit of jogging when the slope relented every now and then. It wasn't too long before we reached the summit and we had overtaken all the walkers in our site (I was glad it wasn't the other way around!). Hills such as Cross Fell, Great Dun Fell and Murton Pike dominated the sky line to the North of me sitting smug at the other end of the Eden valley, whilst hills such as Helvellyn and Blencathra stood out to the west along with the rest of the Lake District. And as for where I was standing 'The Roman Road' a track pretty much unnoticeable today which was used centuries ago to travel between the 2 forts of Brocavum near Penrith and Galava in Ambleside. Being a huge plateau the summit was also used to hold summer fairs on in the 18th and 19th century where the locals would gather on the 12th July to watch the horse racing and meet up with old friends, often returning livestock that had strayed away from their shepherd.

After a short break, the run was mostly downhill on to The Knott where I realised that I was limited to taking only 8 photos as I had left my memory card in the other camera at home. However I did get a couple of shots of a contented looking Rex once he put his tongue away and stopped searching for leftovers, that the Ravens flying overhead had clearly beaten him to. It was then on to Rest Dodd, which did actually look a bit of a rest as it was quite a bit lower down than the previous two summits but once getting to the bottom of it I realised I was much too drained from the big slog up High Street to run up it in one burst, so stopped half way up it for a bite to eat and a drink. It wasn't long before I set off down towards angle tarn (not the one near Esk Pike) and back down into Patterdale, where I slipped on a fleece and my walking trousers before the gentle stroll along the pavement to Glenridding where I had a quick look around before sitting outside the Traveller's Rest with Rex, who was having quite a lot of fun hassling people on the way out of the door. And I enjoyed watching him too as at least half the people who walked past him gave him a stroke, many passing comment about what a nice dog I had.

All in all an active Sunday and a nice end to the holiday I had just had.

Comments welcome.



Ethan

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.