Author: jim earlam

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Great Rigg, Heron Pike and Nab Scar

Gazing out at the glorious views of Lakeland from the summit of Great Rigg I feel a little melancholic. This is my first mountain summit since turning sixty. I remember well my first trip to the Lake District. In 1983, aged twenty one, a mate and I drove over from Yorkshire where I was stationed at the time. We were with a couple of girls we fancied in a very old VW Beetle owned by one the girls. We walked around Keswick before heading up to Watendlath for a dip in the tarn and then a walk up High Tove. On the way back to Yorkshire the Beetle broke down several times and had to be coaxed back to life with a bit of WD40. When you’re 21 thinking about being 60, well you may as well be thinking about being dead. But here I am, very much alive, still climbing hills 39 years later.

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Hart Crag and Fairfield from Dovedale

Having had the pleasure of walking down Dovedale last summer after climbing Hartsop Above How, today I have the equal pleasure of walking up it. The Dovedale valley is quite rightly regarded as one of the most delightful of Lakeland valleys. It’s varied in terrain and picturesque in appearance. Starting in the pastoral landscape of Hartsop, it follows a dancing Dovedale Beck up past waterfalls and then narrows and steepens in its higher reaches into an enclave that provides enticing views far above to the imposing Dove Crag with its popular cave, known as The Priests Hole. At the top it opens out onto the flat plateau of Houndshope Cove just below the Crag and provides extensive views down the valley to Patterdale and across Kirkstone to the Far Eastern Fells and the Pennines beyond.

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The Pikes and Dove Crag from Ambleside

It’s my first trip to Lakeland this year. The busyness of life has kept me away but here I am on a Friday evening in early March stopping in what is described as an ‘Aire’ on the outskirts of Ambleside. It’s next to the football club and seems to be the only place in town that can accommodate campervans. I’m here with the intention of doing the Fairfield Horseshoe, a classic Lakeland ridge walk that starts and finishes in Ambleside. One of the best views of it by the way is from the middle of Lake Windermere.

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A walk along the Hooker Valley Track

After completing two of the ten ‘Great Walks’ in New Zealand we’re working our way slowly up through South Island, taking in some of the sights and doing some day walks. The Hooker Valley track is on the list as it is one of the best day walks in New Zealand and has great, close up views of Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. We have decided to spend the night in Twizel as it’s near to the start of the track. It’s a quirky name for a quirky little town that has a slightly strange feel about it. Wikipedia tells me it has only been around since 1968 and was built to house workers on a hydroelectric scheme so this might explain its rather functional, frontier like atmosphere.

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A Walk up Stone Arthur

It’s not often, hardly ever in fact that you get to see the summit of the hill you are about to climb from your start point. Y Garn in Snowdonia is one such hill that comes to mind (you can read my blog about that walk Here). The hill I am going to walk up today, Stone Arthur is another and pulling on my boots in the lay-by outside Grasmere village I can see it’s rocky top poking up invitingly through the leafless winter trees.

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Routeburn Track Day Three, Lake Mackenzie Hut to The Divide

All was quiet and still in the valley as I paid a visit to the outside toilet during the early hours. I could see the stars were out so turned off my head torch. As my eyes adjusted to the dark I became aware that above me, the Milky Way was stretching out gloriously across the inky black Southern night sky. A million diamonds twinkling through a black curtain. I stood there for a while, mesmerised by the sight until the night air started to chill me and I made my way reluctantly back into the hut and my warm sleeping bag. The clarity of the air in New Zealand and the lack of light pollution in the mountains has meant regular sightings of the Milky Way during our tramping adventures and it has been a joy to see the stars of the Southern Hemisphere throughout this trip, even if I have not quite got used to seeing Orion upside down.

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Red Screes and Middle Dodd

I’m back at Sykeside campsite to complete a walk that was cut short a few weeks ago because of storm Arwen and bad weather. Today’s walk will take in Red Screes and Middle Dodd via Caiston Glen and Scandale Pass. Once again the weather is rather peculiar. For the last few days, high pressure has settled over the whole of the country trapping cold air underneath it and causing a country wide temperature inversion. For days on end there have been cloud inversions in the Lakeland valleys as they remain below freezing but the tops bask in sunshine and warmth. I wonder if these unusual weather patterns are a sign of things to come because of climate change. I am thankful though that we are not having to contend with drought, floods or wildfires as some parts of the World have to.

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High Hartsop Dodd and Little Hart Crag in the Snow

Standing on top of High Hartsop Dodd with the snowfall becoming increasingly heavy I wondered whether history was about to repeat itself. One of the rules I have set myself on this journey through the Wainwright’s is to get a view off each mountain summit. This was the second time I had stood in this very spot in as many months. The first I didn’t count as the cloud came down and obscured the view. Was this second attempt going to go the same way. Should I carry on and hope the forecasted ‘snow shower’ passed or should I turn back yet again?

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Routeburn Track Day Two, Routeburn Falls Hut to Lake Mackenzie Hut

Day two on the Routeburn Track dawns bright and clear. All twenty or so bunks in our room were full but there were no ‘nighttime noises’ and I slept well, helped no doubt by the fact that the girls from Otago were at the opposite end of the lodge. The weather forecast is for rain early afternoon so I am keen to get moving as soon as we can. After breakfast we finish our packing on the balcony of the hut enjoying the morning sunshine and final views down the main Routeburn valley. 

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