One of the things I've most enjoyed about putting my website together has been the chance to re-live my hillwalking experiences from the last six years and these walks from 2004, the year it all started for me, have been no exception. Initially I began walking as a means to an end - the end being the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge walk. Our first walk was around Malham in March 2004 we then visited each of the Three Peaks individually to train for the big event.
After visiting Pen-y-Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough we then started to explore the other major summits of the Dales such as Great Shunner Fell, High Seat, Buckden Pike and Great Whernside. By the time we completed the Three Peaks Challenge in September of that year we had not only decided to visit all the 2000ft summits in the Dales but had actually been to most of them. In doing so a whole new world opened up for us.
I first began making written notes of my walks in 2005. At the same time I retrospectively wrote up my thoughts on my walks from the previous year. Reading them now it brings back to me that sense of wonder and discovery that got me hooked so completely. When amending this initial text for my website I have actually had to water down the many superlatives I used when describing the things I had seen on these early walks. Features that may seem commonplace to me now were incredible at the time. For example, the tarns of the Dales cannot compete with their Lakeland counterparts but I'll always hold a special place in my heart for the tarns on Widdale Fell, the first upland tarns (excluding Malham Tarn) that I'd encountered.
There are two things that strike me most about that first year of hill walking. Firstly, it is amazing how we stuck to it in the face of what was a fairly wretched year in terms of weather. On roughly half of the walks we encountered either hill fog, strong winds, heavy rain or more usually all three together. Nowadays poor weather can really put me off especially now that photography is such an important element for me. Back then though it was almost as if we relished it. That can be the only explanation for the quite frankly barmy decision to walk to High Pike Hill and back from High Seat in quite dreadful weather just to bag a summit which does not even qualify as a Nuttall.
The other striking thing about that first year of walking was how quickly and willingly we forsook the public rights of way. Bearing in mind this was the year
before the CRoW Act came into force in the Dales we often took routes on what is now access land so that we could visit the tops of hills such as Great Knoutberry Hill, High Seat and Lovely Seat. While some of the routes came from books such as Brian Smailes 'Yorkshire Dales Top Ten' we often created the routes on our own without recourse to a walking guide. A few years later when I actually read John and Anne Nuttalls 'Mountains of England and Wales' I felt a quiet sense of satisfaction to see that some of their routes matched the ones we had come up with independently on our own.
Our choice of routes combined with the fairly awful weather ensured that we quickly became adept at map reading. We also became acquainted with Pennine bogs which, again due to the weather, were particularly bad that year. Particular stand outs in this regard were Abbotside Common, parts of Fountains Fell and Birks Fell and almost the whole of Buckden Pike and Nine Standards Rigg.
The problem for me now is that having relived these walks I really want to revisit hills such as Gragareth, Great Coum, Swarth Fell and Rogan's Seat - summits that I have not been to since that inaugural walking season. I had been planning on making a sustained attempt at completing the Nuttall tops in the North Pennines as well as trying to get to the Peak District more often. It looks like those plans may be changing.
Wow, what a year 2004 was! Looking at the pictures and reading your accounts, it really does become apparent just how determined we were to bag those summits. Surely most 'normal' people would have been put off by the consistently appalling weather?
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, we became hooked. For me, it was a feeling of entering another world for a day. Does that sound ridiculous? Maybe. The sensation I got, and still get, when I climb a hill and travel through varying vegetation and rock types is so deep. And then to be on top of a hill and get a view (sometimes!) is to tap into something instinctive and very deep. We are visual animals and surely we naturally desire to be able to see as far as possible. Just a theory.
Looking at the pictures chronologically, I am struck at how much we have changed, and I don't just mean hair 'styles', walking clobber and waistlines! The expressions on our faces started as naive and almost full of fear at times. But we were naive (stupid?) and we certainly were frightened at points, which is no surprise because of some of the risks we took at that time. Worth every minute though! We were hillwalking virgins, just about, and just about every walk offered a new challenge in the form of hitherto unseen terrain or weather conditions. Now we are, I consider, accomplished walkers, but that is not to say we can ever become complacent! Challenges are more full of fun than fear today.
Matthew.