To be resumed in 2010…

Although I have a week coming up (1st – 7th Dec) where I might have made a walk in decent weather, snow has started to fall on the hills, for which I am not properly equipped. Also the aftermath of the recent flooding means that though access to towns and villages in the Lakes is now becoming possible again, the rivers remain high and there are landslips and so on to deal with once out on the open fells. Regretfully then I am putting the project on hold over the winter – which I always knew I was going to have to do at some point, though I did hope to get a few more fells bagged before the end of the year.

As of December 20o9, then, my total stands at 28 fells bagged with 186 to go. Over the next couple of months I will try to find an ongoing project that I can fund through money raised. I also hope to get some good mapping software, which will enable me to add maps, accurate mileage and ascent profiles to all the walks on this site (existing and subsequent). As I am on sabbatical from my teaching commitments in the first two-thirds of 2010 I hope that next year will see me pick up the pace and the target is to have 100 fells done by the end of 2010.

Remember that if you click the ‘RSS’ button in your location bar (the blue or orange one with the dot in the bottom left and the curves coming out from it) you can get notification whenever I post some kind of update on this site. Thanks for your interest so far and come back in mid- to late-February 2010 by which time I hope full access to the fells is possible again. Happy Christmas and New Year in the mean time!

Drew

Disaster in Cumbria

My worries about getting a walk in this weekend were put into sharp perspective by the disastrous flooding in the towns of Workington, Keswick and Cockermouth (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8371944.stm). Extremely heavy rain – it has been reckoned, the highest rainfall ever recorded in the UK over a 24 hour period – hit the area on Thursday 19th November, leading to several bridges (major ones) being washed away, the death of a policeman while he was trying to direct traffic away from the dangerous waters, and serious damage to the area’s homes and businesses, in Cockermouth particularly.

My thoughts are with all affected. Doubtless there will be a scramble from the government and opposition to both make political capital out of this event; little mention will be made of the neglect all rural areas have suffered over the last few decades in infrastructural terms, and stable doors will now be firmly locked. An immediate reaction from me was to consider shifting the fundraising aspect of this project into some kind of relief fund, but then again this is a 3- or 4-year fundraising drive and what is needed in Cumbria right now is a) instant support for affected individuals and b) decent and long-term investment from the government, of the kind they should be doing anyway (when they are not propping up bad bankers or buying nuclear weapons they will never fire). Watch this space, however.

If the waters subside and bridges stay standing I still hope to walk in the district again before Christmas though will remain further south, near Grasmere and Ambleside.

What chance of another walk before Xmas?

I have a family gathering up in Penrith this coming weekend which would have been an ideal opportunity to knock out another walk – the weather forecast is appalling, though!

If it doesn’t happen, I have another window of opportunity in the week of 30th November. If there are no dry days then either it’ll be 2010 before I add any more to the present total…

Welcome to the site.

As of this date I have climbed 28 fells and have 186 to go.

This site has been set up to document my attempt to climb all 214 mountains (properly known as fells) in the English Lake District, and to do so without making use of a car at any point. I started in July 2009 and my target is to finish by summer 2013. This site contains information on each individual fell and also a description of each walk I completed.

Please also help me raise money for charity. My target is to raise at least £5,000 over the course of this project which I want to use to combat the problem of deprivation in rural areas of Britain. At the moment I am looking for a specific project to support and if you want to suggest anything please see my sponsorship page.

You should read the disclaimer and help page before making practical use of any of the information on this site.

All text and photos on this site are copyright Andrew Whitworth 2009. If you want to make use of anything on here please contact me on andrew [dot] whitworth [at] manchester [dot] ac [uk].