March - Red Screes

Summit Height:
2546ft / 776m

What?
Red Screes

When?
27th March

Where?
Lake District - Ambleside

Who?
Just Me!

Well, I started off with Laura, Mel & Nick but... long story... (explained below!)

Why?
On way back from Buttermere last month I bought a Wainwright wall chart, so I wanted to head back to the lakes to tick off a few more Wainwrights!

How?
My March mountain was a lesson in being flexible with mountain plans! We set off in the morning to complete the Fairfield horseshoe which includes a total of 7 summits. After a 2 hour walk, and with the hardest part out the way, we reached the first summit of the day; Low Pike. At this point, one of our party (who had been feeling poorly all day) turned an interesting shade of green, and we all decided the best plan was to walk back to Ambleside. At just 508m, Low Pike fell a little short of my arbitary minimum height for my 'mountain a month', and so I needed to find a mountain I could do on my own, from ambleside, in just a couple of hours (as by this point it was already noon).

I picked Red Screes, and set off straight away, climbing up from Ambleside heading North, then down the steep decent to the East (where I was met by the others!). Considering it wasn't the mountain I planned to climb, it turned out to be a very beautiful addition to 'mountain a month'. The view from the summit is stunning, and quite unexpected too!

The next day was national tree climbing day, so we went on a circular walk (which included Loughrigg Fell) and made sure we celebrated by climbing a couple of trees along the way. All in all a great weekend in the Lakes! I will have to do Fairfield some other time!

February - Haystacks

Summit Height:
1958ft / 597m

What?
Haystacks

When?
17th February

Where?
Lake District - Buttermere

Who?
Annika, Manuela & Laura (& Tam for part of the way)

Why?
My ‘mountain a month’ challenge would not be complete without at least one Wainwright, and so I decided that I would go straight for his favourite mountain; Haystacks.

How?
We stayed at Buttermere YHA and some fellow walkers at the hostel, who had been visiting the area for 10 years, assured us that in the last decade they had never seen such good walking conditions, so we knew we were in for a treat!

We started our walk from the hostel, and the route took us along the lakeside path of Buttermere lake, to the foot of Haystacks. We ascended via Scarth Gap, which included a muddy detour due to recent flood damage on the path (just before the detour we said 'cheerio' to Tam).

As we reached about 300m we hit fairly thick snow, which against the back drop of blue sky, sun shine and Butteremere lake made for an incredibly beautiful day of walking; the most picturesque days walking I can remember!

We stopped for lunch on an outcrop which looked over the lake and back towards the other Buttermere peaks. With all of the peaks covered in snow, the view looked more like the Alps than the English lakes!

It was tricky to follow the path to the top, due to snow covering, and the last 100 meters or so require a bit of a scramble. The summit could not have been more different from that of January's summit; Bleaklow. Clear views, frozen tarns and bright sun shine will make this summit a very difficult one to beat when it comes to out right beauty!

A bad choice of decent route created a bit of a challenge in the snow on the way down, but a couple of hairy moments later and we were back on dry path!

My favourite photo of the day came towards the end of the hike as we started walking back towards the hostel along Buttermere Lake; I stopped and looked behind me and saw the summit I had just climbed reflected in the lake itself. The perfect end to a perfect days walking!
PS. The next day I woke up before sun rise and climbed to a slightly higher summit; Whiteless Peak (2165ft/660m). The others did not join me on this one , and so I had the whole mountain to myself. Although Whiteless was higher than Haystacks, I haven’t chosen it as my February summit because I feel that Haystacks was the more significant and picturesque of the two I climbed in February. Wainwright, it turns out, knew what he was talking about!

January - Bleaklow

Summit Height:
2077ft / 633m

What?
Bleaklow

When?
23rd January

Where?
Peak District

Who?
Laura, Mel, Nick & Shona

How? No continuous path exists to the summit, and routes were covered in deep snow, so relied mostly on GPS.

Winter conditions were always going to play a part in my choice of summit for January, and since crampons and an ice axe are not things I have lying around, I needed to choose a relatively low and close to home mountain.

Bleaklow is the 2nd highest mountain in the peak district, and the 'bleak' in it's name is perfectly fitting. Bleaklow is not a traditional 'pointy' mountain, and the summit can apparently be quite hard to find on a clear day. Even with the help of GPS, provided by Mel and Nick, we almost didn't find it due to the thick fog.

It ended up being a little tougher than expected, with snow at times literally up to our waists, but despite the navigational difficulties and lack of view it was a really great experience.

The summit itself wasn't much to write home about (a stick in some rocks, amongst some fog), but the highlight of the day was finding (again, thanks to trusty GPS) the site of the crashed Boeing RB-29A Superfortress which crashed in 1948. A shiver went through my spine as it emerged out of the fog, and the weather conditions added an eerie atmosphere to an interesting and sombre moment.



The round trip took us a good 6 hours, and ended with a traditional ale and pub dinner before driving home.

Mountain a Month - The Blog begins!

Mountain a Month

In 2010 I have decided to climb at least one mountain each month.

Why?

12 mountains in a year may not seem like a lot for somebody who considers one of his hobbies to be mountain walking, however, in the past my mountain trips have tended to be quite clustered together. I'll go a few months without even seeing a hill, and then reach 3 summits within a couple of weeks of each other. Part of the reason for this is of course the seasonal effect; I simply walk more in summer than in winter, but part of it comes down to long spouts of laziness when it comes to organising the trips.

By the end of this year I hope to have a photo from each of the 12 summits. These will show, not only that I made it, but also how the changing seasons affect the experience. Hopefully the summits will reflect my circumstances during particular months, so they will give a glimpse into my life in 2010. For example; I may find myself in a particular place for a particular reason one month and so I'll link a summit to this trip, a busy month may lead to a mountain closer to home, or a longer holiday may take me further afield.

Variety will naturally occur, but I also wish to seek out diversity, which may come in many forms; who I hike with, the difficulty or nature of the hikes, the type of navigation I use, and of course the area of Britain (or beyond) that I go to. I want each summit to have a meaning, or a unique selling point, so to speak. I may go it alone, with experienced walking or with first timers, again adding a layer of variety. I hope to include summits with paths leading all the way up, as well as scrambles and hopefully 1 or 2 proper multi-pitch climbs. Even restrictions on the way I get to the mountain will help to maintain variety; how many British mountains can I get to from Birmingham just using public transport? Mostly the summits will be 'home grown', but at least one of the summits will be abroad (but more about that closer to the time!)

Ultimately I want 12 summits for 12 months, each with a different story to tell about what 2010 meant to me.

What is a mountain?

Finding a definition of a mountain is very difficult, so I'm rather arbitrarily picking summits over 1900ft (approx. 580m). I was going to go for a nice round 2000ft, but I really wanted to do Haystacks, which stands at a mere 1,958ft - but as you'll see from the photos is no less of a 'mountain' for it. So, 1900ft it is... so that's that!

Some months I will almost certainly reach more than one summit, but I plan to pick one of them as my mountain for that month.

Why Blog it?

Blogging gives me an extra incentive to keep it going all year, and outlet for all my photos and stories. Even if nobody reads it, the process itself is important and will give me something to look back on in 12 summits time!


As I write this it is March. Two mountains down, 10 to go! I'll start uploading January and February's photos asap, and then the rest appear on here as they happen!