 We have walked on and off for a long time, but started keeping records in our walk log in 1993. Since then we have logged 11,550 miles, including all the Nuttalls (2000-feet mountains of England and Wales), the Wainwrights tops and many more unsung hills. We also enjoy non-hilly routes occasionally, including coast walks such as the Fife Coastal Path and low-level historic routes like the Ridgeway.
Years ago our speciality was the Peak District, the closest notable walking area to home where we concentrated on single day walks, mastering our navigation skills in the nearly featureless moorlands of Kinder, Bleaklow and Black Hill. These formidable hills make splendid testing grounds for map and compass skills, if you can navigate confidently there, you can do it anywhere!. Having walked just about every path in the Dark and White Peak, many of them several times, we rarely walk there now. For years now we have backpacked almost exclusively. Pitching a tent high in the mountains is without doubt the best move we ever made, and gave us a completely new perspective on walking. There is really nothing like being in the mountains at dawn and dusk to experience the landscape in fading and emerging light and rapidly changing atmospheric conditions, and we can do longer circuits that are not possible (for us!) as day walks. The best camps of all are in clear conditions with winter snow, which can produce breathtaking vistas in the reddish light of sunrise or sunset. We are not really peak baggers as such, but we were somewhat drawn into the game by circumstance. When John and Anne Nuttall published their excellent books covering the mountains of England and Wales, they provided a ready made source of walk routes that saved us a lot of time and effort when we were both working and very busy. We soon discovered one great benefit of the bagging approach: we had many superb days in little trodden vast wilderness areas, usually in complete solitude, and that valuable experience remained a major consideration in our own route planning (which is why you will see very few Lake District reports from us in the summer months!). We completed the mountains of England with an assisted ascent of Pillar Rock on 1st. September 1995, and the mountains of Wales with Crib Goch on 18th. July 1996. Our last Wainwright, which was incidental since we were not 'doing' them as such, was Hard Knott on 8th. August 1997.
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Monday, 02 July 2007 |
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Although we are not fervent peak baggers, the experience of completing a few standard hill lists does nurture an interest in the topography of the land and the position of individual hills relative to their neighbours and surroundings. Whereas most publicised ideas of hills are based on assessments such as their shape, architecture, views, exciting ascent routes etc., it is interesting to see which hills have the strongest presence when all subjective considerations are removed, and they are listed purely on the objective characteristics of the landscape. |
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