Collected Musings of a Hill Wanderer

Today’s warm sunny weather can only make one think that summer has arrived. If it had arrived before the bank holiday weekend and continued throughout, I am sure that many would have been heading towards the seaside. However, it didn’t happen that way and the fairer weather only pulled into Wales yesterday. That allowed me some time to head over to northwest Wales for some hill wandering. The full trip report for that escapade will follow there may be more if the good weather lasts.

That prospect of two dry days with a wet one in between certainly put paid to any ideas of spending a few days away progressing my Pennine Way walking project. Even then, the wonderful British weather ensures that you can’t hope for each of those dry days to frequent the same location. The result was yesterday saw me go exploring Teesdale, sampling a short stretch of the aforementioned long distance trail in advance of more concerted trekking along its length around those parts. Plans for tomorrow see me looking to the west while I rest my legs after yesterday’s exertions, in between the other things that need doing of course. A full trip report report for my Teesdale outing should come soon and we shall see what happens tomorrow.

From the various weather forecasts that I have been perusing, it looks as if the weather for this Easter is going to be a wintry affair. One thing that does seem strange is that 2008 might get a white Easter while 2007 was bereft of a white Christmas. If we do get the predicted weather, it will be a marked contrast to last year when I enjoyed several trots along the Pennine Way: a clagbound affair on Holy Thursday, a windswept one in the sunshine on Easter Sunday and a dampened one on the day after. The previous year saw me experience a number of seasons while on the way up and down Goatfell on Arran; the nearest I came to winter conditions was a hail showered as I neared the summit and snow underfoot thereabouts too.

While the idea of wintry showers might not appeal to fair weather types and I can vouch for the fact that they can irritate even if you are equipped to deal with them, the prospect of a sunlit landscape coated in white more than makes up for any annoyance. From a walking perspective, snow isn’t so bad so long as visibility doesn’t deteriorate to a level where your ability to navigate is compromised; frozen water can be seem to be "drier" water, an impression seared into my memory by a trek up and over Ribblesdale’s Whernside one Saturday in February a few years ago.

All in all, I could be tempted out of doors by the forecast and I do seem to detect a spot more intelligence with the Met Office’s weather warnings; I won’t be doing anything silly but painting the place red at the least hint of problematical weather is daft too. No concrete plans exist yet so it’ll be a case of seeing what happens…

2008 seems to getting the sort of start that encourages hiking hibernation. Hopefully, we’ll get past the current extended spell and this year won’t be remembered for being more of a washout than 2007 (which actually had loads of brighter moments). The result is that I haven’t been out and about as much as I would have liked and the website design is seeing a spot more tweaking than it might otherwise have done. I have thought about doing something more radical but subtle colour changes and web page furniture rearrangements seem to have been the order of the day thus far. If this dismal weather continues, and it looks as if it will for a week or two yet, I may get more radical on the design front but there are ideas for posts in the back of my mind that may become real if I get the lead out. Of course, all of that could get put on hold if a brighter interlude were to tempt me outside…

Thoughts of torrential downpours like those that we got last week are enough to send all but the most dedicated (insane?) outdoors types huddling indoors in the comfort of their own homes. The sound of the rain being blown against my bedroom window on Saturday did anything but entice me from my nice warm bed. Couple that with a wetting on the way home from work on Friday night and a consummate power hosing while on the same journey the previous evening, you’d begin to consider using your best hillwalking waterproofs for a five minute dash to and from the bus. Thankfully, such grottiness has now departed us and I now hope to get in a pre-Christmas excursion into hill country after seeing the delights of today pouring through the windows at work. It’s amazing how a spot of sunshine changes the mood.

In fact, the foul weather episode got me thinking about why it’s so easy to go into walking hibernation. For one thing, the shorter days are a challenge, particularly when it comes to day trips. Staying local, going away for a few days and planning for some walking after dark are all ways around this. I must admit to having done a little of the last of these but I did ensure that navigation was straight forward so that I’d make my way home as planned.

Speaking of winter skills, thoughts of going out in snow and ice soon bring forth visions of crampons and ice axes and the need to able to use them. In these days of global warming, it may be that snow is encountered less and less, making going on a course at the likes of Plas y Brenin or Glenmore Lodge a very good idea. I once popped up to Fort William for a weekend in January only to see little or no snow while pottering about in Glen Nevis. It was later in the same year when I finally encountered the white stuff and it was very crisp and crunchy underfoot as I wandered about on local hills between Macclesfield and Buxton. So snow need not be that threatening, so long as you keep your wits about you. Having said that, I’ll be mindful of the need for winter skills when plotting trips to the higher places of Scotland, Wales and England, particularly when potential encounters with snow and ice are forecast.

It would be a shame to let thoughts of inclement weather and shorter days put you off; there’s a spot of very special magic be sampled at this time of year. After all, you can getting torrential downpours at any time of year and I spent a soggy sojourn in Fort William on one July visit that rather proves the point. It can be very memorable to see how the way that light plays upon the landscape does enliven the views on those cold, crisp, clear sunny days. Intriguingly, mixing sun and cloud can make those views even better as I found out while on an excursion around Harlech last year, and you may find that you have the whole experience to yourself. I must get back to plotting that escape…