Thursday 25 February 2010

New Website - New Leaders

The website is now showing all of the walks and more information for the season up until the Keswick Convention in July. I will put the second half of the programme on once I have liased with our new leaders. Yes folks if you did not know it then this is breaking news, we have two new leaders who are raring to go.
I will be adding their early walks to the site as soon as I can and yes they will be taking groups out starting around Easter time. I am just waiting for them to decide on the dates and routes. So we hope to introduce you to Alison and Halle very soon, meanwhile you can see photos of all the leaders on the new site's Home Page.

Tuesday 23 February 2010

Helvellyn 18th February

Pete took this shot from near the top of Raise Gill, looking over Dunmail Raise to Steel Fell when he and Bella were on the way up to Grisedale Tarn last Thursday. From there they climbed the zig-zag path up to Dollywagon Pike; there's still a lot of snow on the hills and it was really hard going. It misted in just beyond the tarn, and with visibility reduced to a few yards, they struggled to follow the path. It cleared a little once and Pete got a glimpse of Nethermost Pike ahead so he knew they were going in the right direction. The mist thickened as the pair walked over Nethermost Pike and they saw practically nothing until they heard voices ahead and saw the shelter on top of Helvellyn emerging from the murk. And there were people... lots of them, who'd come up from Wythburn and Swirls. The intrepid duo dropped off Helvellyn by the main tourist path to Swirls though this was practically obliterated by the snow; Pete's Kahtoola mini-crampons really came into their own on the steep sections of what was a rapid descent and they had time for coffee at the King's Head while they waited for the 3 o'clock bus back to Keswick.
Here's Bella in her warm jacket, on the descent from Helvellyn, just below Brown Cove Crags.

Tuesday 16 February 2010

St George's Day last year outside the Moot Hall

This is an old sailing chum from Nichol End who also likes to parade about in his medals and why not for heaven's sake.  When do our ex servicemen get a chance to show off the brass? He looks very dapper too, so thanks Jim for letting me take your photo last year.

I just wanted to remind you all that in the not too distant future the KR team will be doing the standing outside the Moot Hall with our A Board and hoping that some of you will be turning up for the guided walks.

I am still working on the KR website, (all day yesterday) and probably most of today, but it's taking shape folks. As soon as I give it the ok I will update it as most of you know the one I did last year was a 'quicky' because Terry Lowe left us and left doing the site too with just a static dog sat there.......People were ringing us up saying the site was not working ...... Anyway, that's all in the past and we managed to get the site back from Terry.  So it will be newer and fresher and I hope you like it when you see it. But do please keep following this blog too as it is always a thrill to read your comments and it is so much better to know you are out there reading this.

Saturday 13 February 2010

Changed two walks already - sorry

I have had to change the April timetable because Pete and I could not do 4th and 6th as first thought. So please make a note of the changes. I will put the actual destinations on later because I still need Pete to carefully check the walks against the available buses, which as I explained earlier is important in terms of when the walks start. Those of you who are familiar with us will know that we do everything possible to use public transport for all our walks and failing that we use the local taxi services. Sometimes on very rare occasions we use cars but we do not condone it. You will also know that as some of the bus routes are very popular, it puts pressure on us trying to get a seat too. That means we try to put some walks on at 9 am so we have a chance of getting on the bus!

Planning the walks for the year

It takes quite a lot of organisation to sort out who is doing what.  After that stage all the buses have to be checked for times of set offs before we can put the programme on this blog and the website. Pete is usually on the ball with the bus times but even so the bus company does not help by not producing their brochure until later in the year, so we have to hope that last year's times are still ok and use them. This is the stage we are at, we have a programme but we just need to check the bus times and that of course impacts on the set off times from the Moot Hall. So hopefully later today I can post the first half of the programme up till the Keswick Convention starts. So thanks for your patience once again and watch this space. I will be updating the website too but that takes a bit more doing and we want to get this out to those of you who are our regulars as quickly as possible.

This year we would like you to be able to book in advance and reserve a place on a walk as well as just turning up at the Moot Hall. So we will be putting all the Leader's contact information on this blog as well as the website. You will be able to telephone or email all the Leaders regarding the walks and of course if you want to you can book a place by using the comments feature on this blog.

Tuesday 9 February 2010

It was like Piccadilly Circus on Saturday

We went for great walk up Easdale from Grasmere on Saturday, heading for Sergeant Man, we were in good company with the two Alans; the tarns and felltops were bathed in winter sunlight. 
So first up we have a photo of the gang going along the side of Easedale Tarn and at this point it looks like we have the place to ourselves but that is just Pete's clever angling of the photo. In reality we seemed to have overtaken quite a few walkers on the way up and then a few were obviously only heading for the tarn where they stopped. On my right is Alan and on my left is another Alan who are good walkers and both are regular visitors to Keswick and participate in our guided walks during the season and now are coming off season too.That is dedication for you, and you know its quite touching when you realise that people can't wait to come back on the walks with us again. It 's the best compliment you could have.



This is the view ahead of us and our path took us past this wonderful little mini Matterhorn called Belles Knott.


Here we're climbing towards Belles Knott  from Easdale Tarn, far below us now.  


Our two Alans are making their way towards the top of Sergeant Man with a wonderful cloud formation above their heads, the snow was thicker now, not crampon conditions yet but there were areas of hard frozen snow that you needed to kick steps into with your boots. Bella, despite her built in crampons, does not always use them and sometimes slides about much to everyone's amusement except hers.
She is learning  that some ice is very slippery.


Soon we left the snow line and descended towards Blea Rigg; this photo shows the wonderful vista that opened up to us... fascinating, undulating ground with lots of interesting rocky knolls. But where was the top? We spent some time deciding which of these knolls really was the top of Blea Rigg; eventually resorting to taking a back bearing with the compass and checking it against the map; a very useful navigation skill for confirming where you are. This is also a blatant plug for our navigation courses which we run every Summer folks.



Thursday 4 February 2010

Amusing old Postcards -you need to click on them to see them properly

Most of you won't know this, but Pete likes collecting things.... and he has a small collection of old postcards which he adds to if he finds something 'local'. I thought you might like to see a couple of the amusing ones.
This is an example of snail rail!

I actually meant to post about the fact that the Moot Hall is now open for business again, but to warn any of you coming to Keswick by car to expect diversions everywhere because they are digging up Bank Street and a couple of others. These are on the one way system and they have had to block the roads off to traffic, so its complicated getting about unless you know the back streets. One way round it is to travel on the bypass I suppose. Anyway, if you do come don't say I didn't warn you.

Right now for another of those postcards, I am not sure I would want to stay at the Hotel on the left.....


Oh by the way, most of the walks have been decided on now so I will start to make sense of it all at the weekend with a bit of help from Pete about the grades etc. So I will attempt to post as many as I can on this blog first, simply because its quicker than the website, then I will put them on the website next. I hope to have the job done as soon as I can.

Wednesday 3 February 2010

Feathered friends

I spent one hour on Sunday glued to the garden as I took part in the annual RSPB birdwatch which asks you to keep an eye out for all the birds which land in your garden for one hour and then send in the results. Usually we have a quite a few visitors, as I attempt to keep 4 bird tables going in the worst of the winter and these two collared doves had been regular feeders; but of course on the actual day which counted they did not show up.......why I asked myself, did I not provide first class seeds, and water.

Well the result I eventually sent off was (I thought) not too good. 3 blackbirds, 2 blue tits, 11 chaffinchs, 2 coal tits, 1 house sparrow, 2 jackdaws, 1 robin, and 2 wood pigeons. But today I was rewarded because, hawk eye Pete casually remarked mid morning that he espied an unusual bird. Well the binoculars were found and both of us were engaged in identifying this rare occurrance. It was we decided a TREE CREEPER.  wow ..how about that. But no photo, sorry we were too gripped to grab a camera...