Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2021 i Trail

A few months ago I had the very good fortune of being part of a group of people delivering tips and advice to beginner hillwalkers as part of a Hiking Essentials session run by the British Mountaineering Council. Over the course of a few hours that evening, various experts (I certainly don’t class myself as one of them) from across the outdoor industry gave a fascinating insight into the various ways all of us – no matter how old or wise we think we are –can brush up on our mountain skills before that next big trip. I found the whole evening so enlightening that I spent the next few weeks twisting a few arms at the BMC, trying to convince them to team up with us to share a…

“Wearing my T-shirt while being a ‘dogs body’ in Alwinton for the Mountain Rescue Search Dog training weekend. Here I am living my best life with super Sam (left) and gorgeous Gus (right). I love supporting the teams who help keep us safe in the hills!” Claire Cook “The Roaches.” Louise Carter “Climbing to the top of Shepherd’s Crag in Keswick, to make sure everyone can see my Mountains for the Mind top!” Mark Anthony “On Fountains Fell (one of the Dales 30) in the Yorkshire Dales. A lot quieter than the neighbouring three peaks!” Andy Bee “Me and Yuan on Cadair Idris. A popular mountain but on the Fox’s Path today we only saw three other people. This gave us lots of time and headspace to talk about the…

Ben Nevis Central Highlands “Thought I would share this picture of me on the CMD arête back in May. I camped at the bottom of the north face and made the climb up to Carn Mor Dearg summit. I could see the mist/cloud starting to form as I made my way up, and when I reached the summit the cloud inversion was amazing – not a breath of wind and no-one else on the ridge. I set off from my tent at 3.30am to capture the sunrise.” Darran Milne, Durham Kinder Scout Peak District “This is me at the summit of Kinder Scout, my first mountain following the relaxation of Covid restrictions last summer. Also my fiancé’s first ascent of a mountain.” Ryan Bartle, Lancaster Scafell Pike Lake District “My…

YOUR HILLWALKING EXPERTS RACHAEL CREWESMITH Mountaineering & climbing instructor STEPHEN TRENIER Outward Bound Trust instructor MARY-ANN OCHOTA Broadcaster & anthropologist Lost on a hillside in fog, out of water and gasping for a drink, caught short two miles from the nearest toilet… Whether you started hillwalking this summer or have been knocking off mountains for years, it’s a fairly safe bet that there are still some things you could be doing better. Plan more meticulously, pack smarter, squirrel away that little bit more navigation knowledge, add that missing pair of scissors to your first aid kit, or even take more steps to reduce your environmental impact on every trip. The list is almost endless, but with an estimated two million new people taking up hillwalking this year there’s almost an…

The red deer stag is Britain’s largest land mammal and an icon of wildness. For most, the sight of one on the hill, head high and crowned with branching antlers, provokes a shock of awe. Weighing up to 300kg, they are massive, majestic and elegant, bounding across tufted heather the moment they catch sight, scent or sound of you. There are an estimated 360,000-400,000 red deer in Scotland today, the largest population of red deer in Europe. Our other native species, the roe, has estimated numbers of 200,000-350,000, along with 25,000 sika and 2000 fallow deer, both introduced species. That’s a lot of deer on a group of islands where the only large predators are now us. In the 1950s, ecologist Sir Frank Fraser Darling reckoned that an average of…

VOLUME Do you need something to keep a takeaway latte warm, or do you want a day’s worth of cuppas in your pack? Is it just for you, or will you be sharing the contents? These factors, along with how much weight you’re prepared to carry, will decide the volume of liquid you need to fit in your flask. WEIGHT Remember, one litre of water weighs one kilogram. A flask will only get heavier when full, so consider the empty weight of the flask and its volume to avoid overburdening yourself. DRINKING METHOD Some flasks come with a separate cup, while others are intended to be drunk from directly. The latter of these may have different openings, and some will be better suited to cold drinks than hot, lest you…

DIFFICULTY HARD SCRAMBLE GRADE 1 DISTANCE 15KM TIME 7 HOURS TOTAL ASCENT 860M PEAK BAGGER STATS WAINWRIGHTS 2 TRAIL 100s 1 Striding Edge should be on every hillwalker’s bucket list. And even if you’ve done it lots before, scrambling this rocky spine on a superb day with great visibility and dry rock is a massive treat. This knife-edge ridge is an easy Grade 1 scramble that should only be tackled in low winds and dry-ish conditions. High wind and wet rock make it very dangerous indeed, so please ascend Helvellyn via one of its safer, alternative routes from the north, west or south if you’re set on bagging this 949m mountain on a poor-weather day. The ridge-top scrambling can all be avoided via a path to the north (but why…

DIFFICULTY MEDIUM DISTANCE 9.3KM TIME 4 HOURS TOTAL ASCENT 897M PEAK BAGGER STATS WAINWRIGHTS 4 TRAIL 100s 1 Many ascents of Skiddaw are rather boring: long, arduous slogs with scant visual appeal until you reach the summit plateau. But not so with this route – the unrivalled best way up the affable giant of the northern fells. The Ullock Pike and Longside Edge ridge is not a knife-edge arête by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a “splendid high-level way for walkers,” as Wainwright put it – “narrow enough in places to give startling glimpses downwards and heathery enough to supply springy couches for better enjoyment of the delectable views”. And that beats the tourist routes up from Keswick hands down. This suggested route is a circular walk,…

I think the Ogwen Butterfly has an assured place in mountain climbing history – you read it here first! After having climbed Y Garn and Pen yr Ole Wen separately for years, I always found myself staring longingly at the other peak when on the opposite one. The penny eventually dropped; all I had to do was cross the A5 and continue my walk up the other. So simple, yet so counterintuitive. Why are roads such a barrier? After all, they’re easier to cross than rivers. Welcome to a new classic walk of a lifetime. Before boots hit rock, a warning... the Ogwen valley, in case you didn’t know, is very popular. If you have to do this walk in peak season, then get there early. The shoulder seasons (late…

PEAK DISTRICT PARKHOUSE HILL If you thought the Lake District was the sole preserve of England’s mountain thrills, perhaps you haven’t heard of this unsuspecting corner of Derbyshire that is home to two mini but mighty ridges. The sharp dragon’s back of Parkhouse Hill, just south of Buxton, erupts dramatically out of the surrounding countryside and delivers a shot of excitement that you’ll struggle to match anywhere else in the Peak District. It shoudn’t be mentioned, or climbed for that matter, without its not-so-pointy-but-just-as-impressive neighbouring sibling Chrome Hill. The two ridges can be walked airily but relatively easily in succession along their apexes, with an energetic climb over Chrome Hill’s 425m summit, followed by a descent and steep reascent to Parkhouse’s 360m top. Formed by the erosion of massive reef…

THE MOST GOOGLED HILLWALKS With staycations on the cards for most of us this year there has been an explosion in walking holidays. Research from Click Consult has revealed that according to Google searches in the last 12 months, coastal walks accounted for 44%, mountain walks for 41%, city walks for 12% and the remaining 3% was split across countryside walks and historic walks. But when it comes to Britain’s most popular individual walks, the mountains of England and Wales are getting a lot of love. You might recognise a few… 1 Ingleton Falls Yorkshire Dales 2 Yorkshire 3 Peaks Yorkshire Dales 3 Snowdon Snowdonia 4 Black Mountains Brecon Beacons 5 Wales Coast Path Monmouthshire to Flintshire 6 Aira Force Waterfall Lake District 7 Cat Bells Lake District 8 Devil’s…

Mine is a story about muddling through a big adventure without any experience or expertise. It’s about having an idea and then setting about making it happen, even when you don’t have the foggiest idea what you’re doing. For the most part, I think this is a good attitude to have. I’m not sure anybody really knows what they’re doing, at least not as much as it probably looks like they do from the outside. I recently listened to an episode of the Real Talk Radio podcast where the guest was talking about their journey to sobriety. They said that “You don’t have to be strong enough on day one to get to year ten”, and it’s a line that really stuck with me. I think we can apply that…

The night before When the unforecast drizzle began I confidently announced that it was just a passing shower. As it strengthened, I continued to proclaim it would soon blow through. By the time it became clear it was going to do no such thing and I agreed that perhaps we should don waterproofs we were comprehensively and miserably wet. And we still hadn’t come close to finding anywhere to camp. This was not the adventure I’d promised my brother Tom. “Come to the Cairngorms,” I’d said. “Enjoy wild camping and great hills,” I’d said. “It’ll be ace,” I’d said. Getting drenched and sleeping in a swamp had not been on the agenda. We eventually located the only patch of flat(ish), dry(ish), and clear(ish) ground within a two-kilometre radius. The rain…

There are few places that line up this many Munros with the relative ease of access that the South Glen Shiel Ridge provides. This is undeniably a peakbagger’s paradise, with seven Munros in a row amidst a typically stunning Scottish Highlands backdrop. Although a long day out, once the first ascent to the main ridge is gained there is little in the way of big ascents for the rest of the route, just a good mixture of typical Highlands terrain, with a few short scrambles thrown in (which can easily be avoided if required). The largest challenge of the ridge is tackling the logistics of the start and finish points, as they are 9km apart. Two cars, a bike or a sporadic bus route will need to be planned in…

DIFFICULTY MEDIUM DISTANCE 20KM TIME 6 HOURS TOTAL ASCENT 665M Despite being only 300-400m high, the summits along the Malvern Hills feel much higher because of way they rise up so steeply from the flat pastures below, peppered with woodlands, farm buildings, Malvern town itself and picturesque villages. On calm, blue sky days, paragliders launch themselves off the sides of these diminutive peaks, and the whole ridge is steeped in interesting history. The highest point, Worcestershire Beacon (425m), used to be a signalling beacon that formed part of a chain of warning fires lit when the Spanish Armada attempted their invasion in the 16th century. And British Camp to the south is a wonderfully preserved Iron Age hill-fort where you can clearly see the earthworks in a shape that has…

ULTIMATE WEEKEND ▲ 3-DAY ROUTE These routes are all amenable and laidback walks – a far cry from the drama of the Black Cuillin, but still adventurous enough to justify the trip. Passing over the famous landscapes of Quiraing and Storr, the Trotternish Ridge spans 38km – from the far north of Skye back down to Portree and the terrain is rather friendly until the last section. Only hillwalking masochists will want to do it in one day, so a night in a tent breaks the route up nicely. Then to rest your legs after it or wait out for the best weather, hop on the ferry to Raasay and visit the quiet little fortress of Dun Caan and admire the ridge from across the sea. ROUTE 7 Trotternish Ridge…

BRAERIACH, CAIRNGORMS WALK IT In the Cairngorms it’s all about the edges. The summits tend to be broad and arching, rather than sharp and pointed, and as such the drama of these peaks is provided by the fringes of the mountains, places where the hard rock of the hills meets the thin open air above the glens with remarkable suddenness. You can blame that on the ice. The great glaciers that carved through the landscape weren’t much bothered about smoothing out the wreckage they left behind. The result is scenery such as this. Here, on top of one of the multitude of buttresses and ridges that seem to prop up the eastern flank of Sron na Lairige, the views down into the U-shaped Lairig Ghru pass are something special. Get…

The easing of lockdown restrictions over the past few months has seen record numbers of people walking in Britain’s hills and mountains, with other outdoor activities like camping, trail running, cycling and paddle boarding all booming during the summer months. But one thing that remained off-limits to walkers for a long time was the option to spend a night in one of the 100 buildings managed by the Mountain Bothies Association (MBA) in some of Britain’s most remote regions. As restrictions eased, England’s bothies were able to reopen in mid-July, but with a high percentage of these beloved mountain shelters in Scotland, most doors remained closed until early August, when, finally, the rest were once again open for business. Bothies are maintained by the brilliant work of the MBA but…

There is nothing quite like the headspace that hiking along remote trails affords you. Nature acts as a filter to the stress and strain of modern life, sieving out negativity so you can focus on positives that are otherwise hidden. Most importantly it helps me feel hopeful. Hopeful that I will beat this chronic pain condition I’ve been suffering from for two and a half years. Hopeful I will once again run the trails, climb Munros and walk with my dog. Nature gives you space to breathe, reflect, and notice the joy in your life. It has never been more important to me than now. I have a rare chronic pain condition, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), and am unable to participate in many of my old hobbies. So I…

“To have the objective of a life of ease is death. I think we’ve all got to go after our own Everest” I didn’t realise when I first heard these immortal words by Brian Blessed just how powerful an impact they would have on me and my attitude to life. Over the past 10 years, and more so recently, these words have become part of my daily mantra. Words that have kept me going when the going gets tough. Life can be pretty crap. It can feel that there are more obstacles than helping hands, more barriers than openings, more challenges than cakewalks. And there have been times when down in the pit of my stomach there’s been a feeling of desperation. It was back in 2011, when my mobility…

GRADE 1 Technically straightforward, easy scrambling, sometimes exposed. A usually achievable but engrossing degree of challenge, typically tracing the most enjoyable line along a ridge, rake or face. CLASSIC ROUTES: Crib Goch Snowdonia, Striding Edge Helvellyn, The Horns of Alligin Torridon GRADE 2 More sustained difficulty, higher exposure or some awkward moves required. You may want to use a rope at some points. CLASSIC ROUTES: Llechog Ridge Snowdon, Threading Napes Needle Great Gable, Aonach Eagach Glen Coe GRADE 3 Grade 3 overlaps with ‘moderate’, the lowest official climbing grade. Expect high exposure, technically challenging routes, ropes and little option for escape other than to complete the thing. CLASSIC ROUTES: Clogwyn y Person Arête Snowdon, Pinnacle Ridge St. Sunday Crag, Cuillin traverse Skye GRADE 3S/4 Infrequently used in guidebooks but still…

DIFFICULTY MEDIUM DISTANCE 13KM TIME 4 HOURS TOTAL ASCENT 411M Chrome Hill (425m/1394ft) and Parkhouse Hill (360m/1181ft) are not particularly high in the general world of hills and mountains but together they are often referred to as the only ‘true peaks’ in the Peak District. The ridge path along the crest of these two hills is known as The Dragon’s Back, and when viewed from the valley it is easy to see why. These miniature mountains are set in the White Peak’s Dove Valley and geologically are the remains of ancient limestone reefs. This route traverses both tops on the ridge and has several steep climbs on it with the ascent of Parkhouse Hill being quite exposed in places. This exhilarating route also has some easy scrambling on it and…

DIFFICULTY MEDIUM DISTANCE 10KM TIME 4 HOURS TOTAL ASCENT 650M The mighty peaks of the Berwynion range lie outside of the Snowdonia National Park, robbing them of much-deserved recognition but presenting the discerning hillwalker with big mountain walks far from the madding crowds. Cadair Berwyn crowns the massif, and what a fabulous mountain it is too, with a spike-adorned summit that somehow feels a lot taller than the 830m marked on the map. Interestingly, this high point wasn’t always recognised as such, with nearby Moel Sych – another summit crossed by this walk – being awarded the honours by a measly 1ft on early OS maps. Later metric versions assigned 827m to both peaks but this was actually the north summit of Cadair Berwyn, with the south top still missing…

ULTIMATE WEEKEND ▲ 3-DAY ROUTE Three big ridgelines, involving three of the Trail 100 summits. Two ancient inns. Twenty-one Wainwright tops, from Hart Side to Hart Crag, from Raise to High Raise. Two hillforts, a stone circle, an uncountable number of sudden views into unexpected side valleys. And one lake – Ullswater. So take the Ullswater Way – and then go way further. High hills surround England’s wiggliest bit of water. You’ll be above the 600m mark almost all the way, with the lowest point, the 450m Kirkstone Pass, also the site of Lakeland’s highest hotel. You can make the second overnight here, with the first one at Dockray’s Royal Hotel; between them they’ve been offering beds for the night for 986 years. Or you could enjoy the two hot…

Welcome to the rough part of Snowdonia. This 720m mountain is a craggy, vegetated, wild kind of rugged. You can stick to the paths, such as the Roman Steps (actually a Medieval packhorse route) for the easiest going, or head off the beaten track to tackle the heather and rocks for full-on adventure. Whichever angle you approach from you’ll be treated to a serious flaunting of naked rock, with dense swathes of heather that have been described as heaven to behold but hell to walk through. Follow the routes described here and you’ll find hidden llyns, hidden crags, hidden wildlife, and (perhaps the best bit) hidden crowds of tourists. Because there aren’t any! VIEW FROM SOUTH-WEST 1 SOUTH-WEST RIDGE MEDIUM ■ 1½ hours ■ 3km ■ 520m ascent Start Cwm…