Tha Winter Light

Its amazing the rubbish you can find adorning shop windows in some of the tourist towns of this country of ours. Little metal buckets with random words daubed on them, small wooden animals, wreathes shaped like hearts with little red bows.

I know this, for I spent the majority of the weekend chaperoning Lucy through the miriad of chintz shops to be found in the towns of Grasmere and Ambleside in the Lake District. Lucy has been somewhat distracted by home and leisure type magasines of late, for we, finally are about to lay down some roots and enter the housing market. A big step for two people who haven't lived in the same house for more than two years since leaving home.

The only problem is, that with Lucy in charge I think our house may end up looking a little like a cross between a Beatrix Potter scene and an old peoples home. Its all I can do to veto the purchase of porcelain ducks.

In between viewing tiny blue bookshelves which are not big enough nor strong enough to actually hold a book - we once more got a little walking in.

This time we were blessed with not only good weather, but excellent light for photography. I always love getting out in the winter.


Left behind!


Clucky the Chicken


Flat Light

View Over Valley

Lucy and I are close to making some big decisions at the moment. With my new job has come a 1 hr 20 minute each way commute and we need to figure out a way to narrow this down. We're pretty close to actually getting off this goddam rental train and actually purchasing a place of our own. Its about time really - but we both still harbour sectret desires to sack everything off and go and live in a tent in some faraway place. Pretty difficult to do with a big fat mortgage in tow.

As we usually do when we have things to discuss, we head for the hills. I took this one in some valley I dont know the name of - while walking near Derwent reservoir. The reds of the moors are fantastic in the Autumn, and I always think you can do much better photography in the winter months than summer if you get a clear day:

Of Iron Roads

As we got higher up the mountain, we nervously ploughed into thigh deep snow, putting into practice some of the winter skills we learnt during our course, but this time without the comfort of having an experienced guide directing our every step. We weren't quite sure what to expect and whether the going would get tougher, the snow drifts deeper and the danger or falling down the mountainside on our left, even greater as we wound our way upwards.

The guide book gave directions based upon landmarks, but we must have gone past several, a signpost here, a memorial plaque there, a fork in the road. They were supposed to be ten minutes apart, but it was hard to know what ten minutes should be, being as our progress was much slowed by the snow. Round the corner to fantastic views down the Lake Garda, the guide book said. We could just see grey sky.

The cloud began to lift as we were closing in on our first bit of Via Ferrata. Descend 200m into a large bowl, but be warned, this may contain some snow early in the season. Some snow! It contained massive bloody sheets of ice! It was only on the good advice of the chap in our local outdoors shop, that we even took ice axes. It would have been very difficult without.

The Nurse followed as I chopped steps down the mountainside to the first wired section. 

Via Ferrata routes are essentially long sections of wire attached to steep bits of rock, to which the quick fix climber can attach himself using a specifically designed lanyard. They were initially built in the Italian Dolomites to assist soldiers in the first world war by helping them climb quickly to great height without the use of ropes. This route was considerably newer than this (or at least I hoped so), and I am presuming just set up for sport.

When we got to the bottom of the bowl, we put on our harnesses and lanyards and began our ascent. The first section was a fairly easy chimney, up which the Nurse led the way. 

We then hit a massive patch of snow which was concealing all of the cables into which we needed to clip. The next clipping in point was visible about 10 feet away from us - the only problem being the traverse unprotected accross an icy slope with a massive drop on one side. We decided a much better idea was to spend 20 minutes furiously chopping through the snow to get to the submerged cable. Neither of us was prepared to stand on a slide away to nothing, without at least being clipped on somewhere.

The next pitch up a large crack was a little more challenging. It wasn't quite hard enough for me to think I was going to fall off, but still hard enough for me to spend my climbing time thinking about what the concequences would be, if I did fall off. 

Place hands, place feet, haul self up, look down, remind self never to look down again ... and repeat. It was a fair distance to the top crawling over the edge and making that final clip with no small sense of relief.

'The final pitch climbs at an easier angle', said the guide book. It didnt seem much easier to me with tired arms. The water cascading down the rock didn't assist slow progress, but did add to the adventure.

Wearily we drew ourselves over and walked the short distance to the top of the 2,200m peak. We opened the metal box which contained a climbers log. The last entry - October 2009, meaning we were the first climbers of the season. Something to be proud of I feel, and perhaps this explains why we were wading through virgin snow  the whole way up the mountainside. One thing was for sure, the second group of climbers of the season would have a much easier job digging those blasted cables out. 

We thought to rest until thwarted by an act of nature. 

We looked each other tentatively up and down. Two lonely souls on the highest peak on the range, caught in a thunderstorm! Luckily we had long metal sticks in our hands to ward off the bad weather. 

It was back down for us through hail and snow to sun-burnt girlfriends, cheap red wine and pizza.

We had a number of good little adventures on the trip. But I will save something for future posts!

Its Been a While

I was just emptying out my camera in preparation for a trip to the lakes tomorrow (a brisk 5am start for me!), and found a couple of shots that I like from when Lucy and I were out walking on Mam Tor in the Peak District a month or so ago.

The snow had built up on the northern side of the hills and the strong sun we had that morning had melted everything on the south - creating this weird stripe down the landscape:

Hopefully I'll have some new photos tomorrow.

4 Boasts

What an absolutely crappy week this has been. I have been sinking beneath an ever growing mountain of work with a constant stream of people hassling me for things I haven't managed to do yet.

On Tuesday morning I came down stairs to find a magpie on my living room. Bloody big thing it was! The cat was chasing it around to no avail (being as it was bigger than the cat). It must have got in through the cat flap. I finally managed to get the thing out of the patio door (but not before it shat down our curtains) after about 10 minutes of struggle - and get myself off to work.

Lucy informed me that it is bad luck to see a lone magpie (something I was not aware of) and this rang true the next day when I crashed my car on a roundabout I have crossed a thousand times (incidentally, for the last 18 months I had been referring to it as 'the roundabout of death'). Then I spent the whole morning trying to figure out (via about 10 phone calls) who the bloody insurers were for my company car (even our finance director didn't know) as it had just changed the previous week.

But hey, I have managed to line up quite a few interesting bits of time off in the next six months. Each and every one of which I am excited about for different reasons.

In February I will be undertaking a 5 day winter mountaineering course. I recently sold my kidney on eBay to pay for boots, crampons and goretex jackets and am very excited about putting them to good use! I got the following email through from the course instructor today:

"Tower Ridge is a route that I would choose for the course but its a long route, so you will need to still be fit enough by day 4-5 of the course in order to go for it. Try to do as much airobic training bettween now and your arrival." I was hoping to get through it on strength of mind alone. I didnt realise I needed fitness!!

I was seconds from posting up a picture of Tower Ridge and then realised that both my mum and Lucy read this blog and after viewing the pictures - If I post them up I may not be allowed to go!

In May I am heading to Lake Garda and the Dolomite in Italy with Lucy, my friend The Nurse and his other half. He is my regular climbing buddy and we are going to tackle some via ferratta routes before retiring to the lake for some relaxation (and maybe a visit or two to Milan / Verona / Venica)

The best way I can describe Via Ferrata is that its like mountaineering or climbing but with fixed wires and ladders. We did some of it in a past visit to the Tatras in 2007.

In July we do the Hadrians Walk in aid of the Joseph Salmon Trust. I have been enstrusted with preparations and leadership of Team Bandicoot. We are going to be a small team (I am hoping for between 12 and 15 people), but we should get on great and there is nothing I love more than romping through the countryside in the sunshine. Conversely to the Pennine Way last year - we will also get some good nights sleep in hostels rather than tents which will be welcome for most (though secretly I would rather camp).

In late July / August, Lucy and I will be heading to Lebannon for a week - for a wedding in Beirut! This is somewhere we would probably not have chosen to visit (as there are so many places in the world we want to go), but I am really looking forward to it and it will be really interesting to get an inside view of such a different culture.

Apparently we will be spending some of our time in a small border village where we have to get signed in and out. The hills are supposed to be amazing here too, but the warnings about land-mines have kind of put me off somewhat.

So really I cant complain.

Also I just spent half an hour blogging when I was supposed to be working.

Snow

This Christmas I got a brand spanking new set of crampons for a mountaineering course I am doing in Scotland in February. Given that we have had an unusually large amount of snow recently, I wanted to go and try them out in the hills and I am glad I did!

The main problem with the idea was actually getting to any kind of hills being as many of the passes in the Peak District are closed at the moment. I managed to make it as far a Ladybower reservoir (with a bit of wheel spinning) and did a few miles over Wym Hill (i jut looked at the map for the most contour lines close together). 

It was pretty cold (I think around -3 deg C). But being as I had all my gear together for the course - it was not too bad.

I took a few pictures too (though they did no kind of justice to the actual views):

I particularly like the sheep which had been burying its face in the snow:

A Hughes in Afghanistan

I haven't had much time for blogging recently as it has been a pretty hectic Christmas travelling all over the place from Solihull to Holmfirth to Leeds to Sheffield back to Holmfirth and to Sheffield again. Coupled with a couple of trips out and some nightmare new year sales visits to the hellish shopping centre just a small trip from the house. If only I were XXL or XS I would save so much money.

All in all its been a good Christmas I have to say. I have had some excellent climbing sessions and got the opportunity to try out my new crampons in the snow on Mam Tor in the Peak District and went walking with friends and an excellent night out in Sheffield for new year. Maybe Christmas isn't so bad.

One of the things I got from my Dad when I went up to see him was a working DVD (I previously had a faulty one) of 'Pillock Conquors the World', the story of how he travelled on a double decker bus from England to Australia with 9 guys who formed the band 'The Philanderers' when he was younger than I am now. You may have heard me mention it previously.

The footage I find most interesting in the film is the bits where they are traveling parts of the world which would be completely un-crossable in todays political climate. Such as eastern Iran, Afghanistan and the infamous Khyber Pass

At present the Khyber Pass is an area of conflict between the Taliban and the Pakistani Government. The Philanderers drove straight through it in a bright red bus!

This little piece of video shows the passage of the group through Kabul. A prize (consisting of respect) to any non-related person who can identify my dad.

Another Year

In the absence of anything exciting to write about this week - bar the usual misery around another year passing me by and feeling like I all but missed the noughties (surely it was only just 2000?), I thought I would post up some pictures of some walking in the snow that Lucy and I did this weekend.

We've had a fair but of snow in Sheffield, which in normal countries wouldn't really matter and things would go on pretty much as normal. However in the UK we are crap at snow...

We don't use snow tyres (for the 10 days or so per year they would be useful), don't use snow ploughs, we have tiny little narrow roads, we don't stock enough grit (if you believe the papers), its not really that cold (so snow generally becomes slush and ice pretty quickly), and generally people dont really know how to drive in snow. 

Its the English way. 

We purposefully don't help ourselves in any way what so-ever in order that it increases the chance of us being able to have a good moan when things do go wrong. Oh yes we love to moan.

I was actually quite surprised yesterday when I spotted someone cleaving through the snow in snow tyres. Very un-British. Far too prepared.

In the Hills Above Ladybower Reservoir

Lucy Rests at the Botanical Gardens in Sheffield

A Tree

A Photo I Missed from the Last Set!

Adirondacks

As mentioned in my previous post, I managed to sneak away for the weekend to Lake Placid in the Adirondack Mountains following a trip to a factory I am working at, close to Montreal.  

The trip basically consisted of me, delayed by an hire car employee who had lost his keys, and by US customs, arriving at the mountains at around midday, and then trying to rush round what was a pretty arduous route as fast as I could in order to make it back before sunset (as I had pretty much no equipment/compass/torch etc).

When I arrived I tackled the Algonquin peak, which at 1,500m above sea level is actually higher than anything we have in the UK (though it didn't feel like it as I think I may have started a little higher than you would do with, say Ben Nevis). Due to the time constraints it was pretty thigh busting on the way up (as I had accidentally chosen the steep side for the ascent), and ankle-breaking on the way down. 

After staying in superb(ly cheap) hostel type accommodation in a local lodge with a random party of 50 year old birthday revellers, I managed a quick ascent of mount Jo the next day before a little shopping in Lake Placid and a the long journey back to the UK.

The amazing thing for a European in New York State in the Autumn, is most definitely the colours. Although I was probably two weeks early to get the full brunt of the autumn reds, There were still some amazing opportunities for photography. Though I felt I never managed to nail that killer shot (considering the scenery around me), largely due to the fact that much of the walking was in heavy bush, I was still fairly proud of these ones:

The View from Algonquin Peak

Outside the Lodge at Heart Lake in the Morning

The View from Mount Jo (if someone could have just cut that damn tree down...)

Heart Lake ... Again

A Chipmunk Near Charleston Lake in Ontario

I am not a great lover of photoshopped photos (bar a little colour enhancement), probably due to the fact I don't own a copy or photoshop (or know how to use it). But I did a little tinkering with a couple of photos I wasn't quite happy with in iPhoto:

Team Bandicoot Update

Its kind of a little pointless writing this as the majority of my limited readers (limited in number, not in their reading ability) are also readers of my brother's site over at All That Comes With It so will probably be aware of what I am about to write. 

Dan has blown cover and announced that in July of next year we will be taking on a six day hike across the Hadrians Wall in the north of England. The walk, for the Joseph Salmon Trust will commence in Bowness on the West coast and will wind its way along Hadrians Wall taking some quite dramatic scenery and some historical sites along the way.

For the walk we have decided to et up two teams. Mainly because we want to be able to raise as much money as we can for the charity, which means having a large group of participants hassling a lot of non participants. However in terms of group size we are limited by the range of accommodation available along the way. So Dan will go with one group (randomly named Oscelot) from East to West, whilst I try to organise another from West to East to ease the burden on hostels etc. The groups will meet in the middle on the third day for a healthy game of rounders or perhaps a bacon butty or two.

I was actually planning not to tell my group about some of the bunk-houses and inform them that they were going to have to camp, but that has kind of fallen through now, so I am going to have to relent and allow a few walk comforts.

The team name 'Bandicoot' has been inherited for the West to East rabble for reasons unknown to me, though I think I am happy to stick with it as it took us nearly two weeks to come up with a pub quiz name (and the Nurse ended up getting that from the internet) so having a name ready decided will relive a little stress.

So, what now. Oh - we need some walkers! Dan (envying my initial recruitment joy) has already made moves to try to push for 'Oscelot' membership via his extensive readership, and by the looks of his recent comment list is doing pretty ok with it too!

I do have one trump card however. I work in an an environmental consultancy full to the brim with twenty somethings who thought it would be a good idea to do an environmental science degree thinking that this would lead to lots of exciting work outdoors. Then they joined a consultancy and had their hopes buried at their desk in a large pile of Environmental Permit Supporting Documentation and Environmental Management System Procedural Guidance. Hence, frustrated walking / climbing types are in abundance!

I plan that to be my recruiting ground.

For any who haven't seen it, the walk website has been set up by Dan here, and here is a parting picture of Hadrians Wall (as stolen from the internet):

Just Bumbling Around

I have arrived in Ontario a day before I have to start work and I have been determined to make something more out of my foreign work trips than I usually do. So I hopped in to my ridiculously small hire car, made even more amusing by the fact that everyone else is driving trucks, and drove down to the nearest place mentioned for walking in my Canada Lonely Planet.

The lucky location was "Land 'O' Lakes" (whoever named that place was obviously from Yorkshire). I went armed with my DSLR camera, but quickly found out that for some reason it had rejected my memory card so I could only store around 15 pictures on the internal drive.

Also my work laptop doesnt have any facility to edit photos (well actually thats a lie, I just couldnt be bothered to figure out how), and those swines in IT have blocked Flickr access recently (though for some reason have missed Blogger). Oh the trauma of communication!

After acquiring a map from the provincial park centre (which looked a little like Huddersfield public toilets) I spent the first part of the 12km walk wandering around thinking that the scenery could just be straight out of a Yorkshire woodland. Apart from the effing massive dragonflies that seemed to be everywhere of course.


Just when I was tutting to myself, thinking that this Canada place was nothing special. In fact it was a little like the wood at the back of the house I grew up in. I was startled by a startled deer (startledness all around)!

This is normal fayre in the woodlands of England of course, in fact, due to my chronic unattentiveness, usually I dont spot the deer and somebody has to point it out to me ... then they have to spend several minutes explaining where the damn thing is in reference to that there Sycamore tree in the distance ... then they have to describe what a Sycamore tree looks like ... then maybe I will see it.

But, there was no missing this bugger. Oh no. Thats because it was the size of the 310 double decker bus to Homfirth. Ah so thats the difference between England and Canada. Size.

I couldnt catch the damn thing with my camera, despite the fact it was in my hand at the time (the camera not the deer). But it was around this bit somewhere:

I spent the rest of the walk looking out for bears and suchlike, and panicing about various strange insects landing on me, in much the same way as I used to do with the spiders and cockroaches in Australia.

Its funny how different English speaking nations live in such different environments and find them normal. Aussies couldnt fathom my obsession with kangaroos and kookaburra's, yet some get excited by badgers and foxes.

I had one Italian friend who was obsessed with taking photos of sheep (I am sure they must have sheep in Italy?).

No. 4: The Pennine Way Part I

Recipe for Sticky Soggy Camera:

1. Take 1 trouser pocket
   
2. Add 2 packets of boiled sweets of your choice
   
3. Add 10 gallons of rainwater
   
4. Walk around a lot
   

Luckily I managed to dry the thing out a bit, and although still a little sticky, I recovered my photos from the Pennine Way:

Day 1 - Edale to Crowden (16 miles) taking in Kinder Scout and Bleaklow

Four of us were supposed to set out on the first day, however this was quickly reduced to two when The Nurse and his brother Mark missed their train from Sheffield (apparently unaware that platform 2 and platform 2c are actually different locations). Due to the inadequacy of public transport, this put the boys 2 hours behind me and The Tank. 

The Bottom of Jacobs Ladder

With no mobile reception, we set off slowly and thought it would be extremely entertaining to leave messages in the dirt for the chasing team which for some reason reminded me of the 90s show 'Challenge Anneka'

Graffitiing Kinder Scout Summit

What was even more amusing was the fact that the trailing team absolutely bust a gut to catch us up and we decided we should change our times to make it look like we were getting faster and faster. Apparently this destroyed their morale.

Day 2 - Crowden to some pub somewhere (11.5 miles) taking in Black Hill

After a nice campsite in Crowden we took a fairly easy route (via Black Hill and a timely bacon sandwich delivery form The Nurse's mum) to a pub near Marsden where the landlord let us stay out back for free. Unfortunately at this point we lost a good man. The Tank was retired by his Pediatrist girlfriend for officially having 'Foot Mank'. An impressive case of 'Foot Mank' to say the least.

Mark Surveys the Damage on Black Hill

Day 3 - Some Pub to Some Farm (17 miles)

We were joined by the City Worker and the Sergeant Major by day 3. The weather held out pretty good up to around lunchtime when we got a bit of a drenching. Though we managed a pub lunch so not all was lost. And a pub dinner which was a bonus as I was getting a little tired of supernoodles by this point.

Day 4 - Hebden Bridge to Cowling (14 miles)

The sun held out for us on this day and we had figured out a way to block out The City Worker's constant moans and protestations to get ourselves to a campsite which had actual working showers and everything!

A Building on a Hill

Day 5 Hebden Bridge to Malham (17 miles)

The team expanded on this day with the addition of Lucy and a few of her friends. It was a long old flatish slog through some really nice lowland (we were bored of moors by this point) up to Malham.

The Wilson Brothers Prove that Fluorescent is Back in Fashion

Day 6 - Malham to Horton in Ribblesdale (via Pen-y-ghent)

Day 6 took in some wonderful views from Pen-y-ghent (one of the highest hills in the Yorkshire Dales). Only thing is, we didn't see any of the views. In fact we couldn't even see Pen-y-ghent, despite the fact that we were standing on it! It absolutely peed it down to the point where we were walking with our eyes almost shut because of the pain of the horizontal rain hitting us in the faces. I spend pretty much the whole day walking with a couple of millimeters of water in my boots which was fun!

No pictures on this day!

Posing for the Cameral on Day 5

Kinder Scout

Just a few more days to go until we do the 6 day section of the Pennine Way on Wednesday.

The weather is beautiful at the moment which is annoying me for two main reasons:

1. I have generally been at work
2. If it is sunny this week when I am at work, the 28th law of sod dictates that it will pee it down next week when I am hiking across hills and camping.

Last weekend we did a bit of a two dayer (3 of the crew that will be starting the walk) carrying tents and camping overnight by way of preparation. The first day was around 13 miles and relatively good going. The second day was 10 miles over Kinder Scout which pretty much wrecked us (as we were force marching to get to our pickup point by 1pm).

The wort thing was that I stupidly didn't wear proper hiking socks and my feet are a bit of a mess of blisters. I also didn't wear any sun-cream which turned out to be a bit of  mistake. 

Here are some photos (I love the Peak District when the mist ascends in the morning):

Tackling the 'Old Pennine Way' ascent of Kinder Scout

Near Kinder Scout Summit

Lost Amongst the Rocks

No. 4: Two Ways

No. 4 on my 40 thing to do before I am 40 is to walk the Pennine Way, a 268 mile walk from the South Yorkshire Peak District National Park, through the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National park - ending across the Scottish border. This spring we are planning on doing the first 5 or 6 days of the trail, which should leave us about  third of the way up.

I have had this in my mind for a while. One of the main draws being that the start of the Way is in Edale - not far from my house. I seem to have roped in The Tank and The Nurse as traveling buddies and a number of other people who want to do one or two days.  The idea is to carry all of our equipment and camp along the way. It will be pretty challenging, but then thats what we are after.

What has complicated matters however, is that I have been invited along with my brother to a similar 4 day jaunt across the Cumbria Way in late May. I am pretty sure I will do both (Dan - take this as a yes) bar injury. It was suggested by Arjan that I add this to my 40 things to do before I am 40, in order that I can tick something off the list - but I think that is a little against the spirit of the thing.

Photo of Black Hill on the Pennine Way: Stolen from the Internet

Coupled with the annual walking trip I will be taking with Lucy's family - this will be a summer of long walks!

Another Slide Show - You Lucky People!

Lucy and I just got back from our whistle-stop tour of New Zealand, we spent most of our time down near Queenstown around which a large part of the Lord of the Rings was filmed (mostly the scenes that involved the Misty mountains and Gondor).

It is absolutely spectacular!

I would like to say that I managed to take some excellent photographs during the trip - but the truth is that the photographs took themselves - I was just pushing the button.

Every drive we went on, everywhere we stayed we saw scenery that we didn't think actually existed. New Zealand is now officially my favourite country ever.

And now for the slide show...

View of Mount Cook

On our first day we set off in our hire car from Christchurch to Glenorchy (1 hours drive north of Queenstown). After a couple of hours driving we passed lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. the greenish stones in the lake give it a turquoise hue and the water is the clearest your will ever see. This picture is of Mount Cook as viewed from the opposite side of Lake Pukaki.

The Routeburn Track

On our first full day we drove from Glenorchy and hit the Routeburn track. The full trail was closed to us due to snow and avalance risk, but we did the first day. 

A rockfall at part of the track had removed some of the trees and enabled us to get a good view of the surrounding mountains.

More to follow...

The RouteBURN

I am in New Zealand at the moment. Did I tell anyone I was going to New Zealand? I can't remember, everything has been such a confused mess of activity over the last week or so.

Its Tuesday morning. We spent yesterday (our first full day) doing the first 8 hr leg of the Routeburn track (allgedly one of the top 10 walking tracks in the world). The scenery is like nothing I have ever seen before. It is literally like walking through middle earth!

I can't upload any pictures as yet, but here is link to some (entirely random) photos of the region.