Previously Me and Ste had ascended from either Mardale or Hartsop on this favourite fell of ours. We were up for a longish walk on the fells so we’d planned High Street from Patterdale . The only problem or hurdle we had was the weather and with Mountain Rescue making the headlines sadly the last few weeks a lot of thought and planning went into this walk, Is planning the right word here? I’m not sure. After all we knew the route it had been covered numerous times in the last few months I guess what was in my head was knowing when to turn back…. I am id like to think “A safety first kind of guy” but that didn’t stop Mountain Rescue giving us stern warnings in the car park before we set off.
For the first half of the walk I couldn’t get what he’d said out of my head, maybe even a little “Who does he think he is? “Why did he make us feel so small and inadequate? I guess this Gentleman was generally sick and tired of giving pep-talks to would be Julia Bradbury’s and him being there to pick up the pieces afterwards, It would get to anybody wouldn’t it? Of course it would. This gentleman knew everything about our route, where the ice had compacted to the meter cloud base the lot, I kind of got the feeling when asked -where was our Cramp-Ons? and me sheepishly answering we hadn’t any I’m guessing this guys thinking “yep see you later son”
The thing is and its a really important thing, Is not knowing & knowing when to turn back, that can be a matter of live and death and in both our minds we knew so hopefully the day would turn out a walking success and it did and is one of my favourite Fell walks to date |