Walna Scar Shepherds meet. Cumbria

What a stunning weekend in Cumbria. With a clear cloudless blue sky and the superb autumnal colours it was every outdoor persons dream weekend.

Top of the Park Head track looking at Harter Fell (left) and Bowfell  (just right of centre).

Sheila and i were invited to spend a weekend with friends Tina and Alan in Seathwaite, Duddon Valley.


The agenda included a 4 course dinner cooked by Amanda at the Coffee shop in Ulpha followed by an evenings entertainment at the BrowFoot Rooms, also in Ulpha, with a French female singer, guitarist and comedienne Flossy Malavialle.
Saturday was Walna Scar Shepherds Meet with lunch and entertainment in the evening.
Entertainment Itinerary at the Brow Foot Room.


Although we had not heard of Flossy before it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening with the house full and plenty of beer and wine flowing. She is an English teacher who came to England on a teacher swop in 2002 from the South of France.
  She said that it wasn’t difficult to find people to swop with her and live in the South of France. However she ended up in Darlington. Life can be tough.
That more or less finished her English teaching career in France,  because now her English language includes colloquialisms for example “I ain’t dunit like” and Yerr Right Like.
All her sentences now end with the word “Like”.


Thanks must go to everybody involved for a really good night.


Saturday we were going to Torver near Coniston for the local shepherds “Meet”.  We have been going to this event for many years. It is good day out especially with the wonderful weather this year and the evenings entertainment which is mainly a sing song by the farmers was a little quieter than usual.
 Most of the singers are from the older generation and it would seem that the younger ones are not as keen to keep the singing tradition going. It would be a shame if this part of the day came to an end.


What is the Shepherds Meet?
Before the era of the telephone and motorised transport, the business of returning stray sheep to their owners was communally organised. 

Each fell area had their own shepherds' meets which were held twice a year - in July for clipping time and in November for tupping time. Stray sheep were gathered together to be identified and claimed by their rightful owners and the meets were also occasions for much socialising. 

Shepherds’ Meets today mostly take the form of a traditional agricultural show and/or social occasion.  Their function of returning stray sheep is much reduced but still occurs, usually agreed over the phone and picked up by the owners by trailer. 

There is also hound trailing events.

The Walna Scar Meet rotates between The Newfield Inn  Duddon Valley, The Blacksmiths Inn Broughton Mills and the Church House Inn in Torver.

The Church House Inn is 15th century and lies in the shadow of the Old Man of Coniston which today was looking close and clear. It still has the open fires and many original rustic features.

Good cask beers are served and the food is excellent although in my opinion it is a bit pricey. Restaurant prices in a pub setting.

There is also a decent campsite adjacent to the pub.

 The Old Man of Coniston

The Church House Inn

Here are some photographs i took from this years Meet.

The breeds of sheep in this area are predominantly Herdwick and Swaledale. The overall champion of show was won by my old mate Anthony Hartley from Turner Hall Farm. That’s him in the 4th picture, on the left with Andrew Birkett on the right. They are showing Herdwick Tupps.

 On leaving the show we drove back to Seathwaite via the top fell road and i took a few more photographs.

Overnight the clear skies resulted in the temperatures falling rapidly. The gauge in the car on the way back from the evening social was showing 2.5 ℃. This morning the grassy areas in the shade was covered in a layer of white. It looked beautiful. The first for me this year.

 Wallowbarrow Crag.

 Grey Friar can just be made out in the background.

A cold and hungry visitor.

Thanks to Alan and Tina and all at the Shepherds’ Meet and Ulpha for a wonderful weekend.
The entire album of pictures can be found here

Sad, Sensible and Greendale Tarn. Oh, and a bit of gear.

  This weekend we motored up to Dorothy’s, (Sheila’s mums) in Gosforth West Cumbria for the last time. We were to bring her back to Manchester to live. It was a sad occasion as we had all made a lot of friends in this small village and we will miss the local crack (conversations/humour) but we will endeavour to go back a couple of times a year. 

  It is a sensible decision as the winter can be hard and Dorothy doesn’t drive. So getting into towns like Whitehaven or Workington is a day out on the bus. 

Also, for us it means that we can free up every third weekend and it will obviously save us what is quite an expense.

But most important is the daily contact that Sheila will have now, ensuring that her mum is ok.

  During the previous weeks i hadn’t been out due to an illness and now over training has resulted in a pulled calf muscle. Last saturday Sheila and i went out for a run and i had only done about 1 mile when a sharp pain in my right leg brought me to a sudden stop with a bit of a hop.

 It had to be my right leg because this calf muscle was the same one as i torn badly about 10 years ago playing squash. I have never played squash since and occasionally, it does ache a bit if i have had a long days walk.

  However fellow blogger Old Mortality, bless him. On his fine blog Here was casting aspersions about other fellow bloggers becoming chair bound and so i thought i had better get a walk in this weekend, take a few pictures and chuck some words about. 

  The problem was that the leg still ached, so i had to find something not very taxing. I chose Greendale Tarn near Nether Wasdale as the likely contender for this bimble. 

  Sheila and i drove down to Wastwater first, (well i drove actually but you know what i mean) to check out the scenery and although the cloud was quite low it was still stunning and atmospheric.

It was a bit chilly lakeside as we parked up and headed off for the sheep trod skirting Middle Fell and picked our way up towards Greendale Gill. We reached the 150 metre contour and was enveloped in thick mist and the rain was becoming heavier. Fortunately the mist cleared a little and we got a view across the valley.

 East side of Greendale Gill looking towards Irton and Nether Wasdale

 Greendale Gill

A soggy pair.

  Where the track levelled out at the tarn the mist closed in on us, rendering our efforts for a view of the tarn and some photographs hopeless. We had a sit down and a drink but there was no wind around to move the mist. The tarn sits in a deep bowl so there was little chance that it was going to clear any time soon.

For Sheila’s benefit and for others who have never seen the tarn here is a photo taken on a better day that i downloaded very kindly from Mick Garratt.

Boulder near Greendale Tarn

© Copyright Mick Garratt and licensed for reuse under thisCreative Commons Licence


  Just as i stood up and started to head down i felt my calf pull again and so it was a tentative descent for me. About 10 yards further and Sheila disappeared down a Sphagnum bog. Disappeared is a bit of an exaggeration but she went down to her bum in the stuff and was a bit upset with me because i was laughing. Ooops! Silence and dripping wet through.
  Another 100yds and all was ok.


  As we came out of the mist i thought this would be a good spot to photograph my gloves. Sorry gear haters.

  Now these gloves are new. This was the first outing and a complete experiment. I have never been happy with “Hiking” gloves and  i am determined to find something that works.
I went to a local diving shop and told them i knew nothing about diving gear and explained what my perceived problem was with my gloves and does their sport offer anything better.
A very nice chap showed me all the range of diving gloves and explained the properties of each pair. There are so many options, Kevlar, 10mm, 5mm, 3mm, long, short etc etc.
He spent a lot of time with me and i eventually chose a pair of soft stretchy 90% neoprene/10% nylon gloves that have a fine fleece lining and are very light 3mm thick.  They are very much like wet suit material. They are made by Fourth Element and you can read about them here if you wish.

  We had been in the rain and mist for about 2 hours and my hands were lovely and warm but a little clammy. The outer material has sealed seams so there is no water penetration whatsoever but obviously they don’t breathe.
  My thoughts at this moment in time is that i would rather have warm clammy hands rather than the usual wet and cold hands. I turned the gloves inside out when we got back to Dorothy’s and they were dry in a  few hours. I am going to try them with a very thin liner glove the next time i wear them and see if there is any difference.
  I could also operate my camera with them on and working the zips on my camera bag and jacket proved to be easy. So operating a 2 way radio on my fell race stewarding duties will be ok.
  They can also be repaired if they get cut or show signs of wear by applying Black Witch. Readers might find this useful for other outdoor gear.
  As i say,  these gloves are experimental and only by using them more will i be able to give a better assessment but i am pleased with them so far. (Oh and i won’t mention the new jacket).

 On the descent back to the car the mass of cloud cover was easily discerned at about 250 metres along the entire length of the Screes and Illgill Head

 Although it looked to be clearing out towards Ravenglass.

Was i right to let Old Mortality get me out of the chair? I’m not too sure it was a good idea, it will be another 2 weeks to recover.

Mens Merino wool zip top.

  For the last few weeks i have had some time to search around for a Merino wool top.
It's getting to that time of year when we need a bit more warmth from our gear and that was one reason why i wanted to buy a new one but i also wanted a zipped neck top which i could take on an up coming trip to New Zealand and wear not during the day but as the evening temperature falls.

  I currently have 3 Icebreaker crew necked long and short sleeved versions in 160gsm material and i remember buying my first one in a small outdoor shop in Oban. When i saw the price of £45, and i am going back about 8 years,  i was in two minds if i should get it or not. I thought it was so expensive for a base layer, but i bought it.

  Having now got used to wearing Merino base layers i find the properties of the material suits me just fine.
Merino has good warmth to weight and wicks moisture really well. And the important thing is that you can wear it for days without it ponging unlike other lightweight materials.
Depending on the time of year you can also just wear this baselayer directly under a waterproof without the need for a mid layer.

  So i was going to wait and get a new Icebreaker Merino top when i arrived in Auckland but when i checked out the local outdoor shops that i had been advised to try by fellow blogger Rob who’s fine pages can be found at Lightweight Tramping Gear, they were actually a little more expensive than what you can get them for in the UK. Strange.

  I eventually found a Merino 100% ultra fine wool long sleeved zip top in 200gsm for the cheap price of £25.76 and £3.95 P&P.

  Straight out of the packing i saw the thumb loops which was a bit of surprise because they didn’t show this on the web page. A plus point.

  And then, trying it on another plus point was the length. As you can see from the above photo of moi. it covers the cold spots and therefore it shouldn’t ride up when carrying a rucksack. Excellent.
You can also see that the top of the zip is just slightly off centre which makes up for the lack of a zip guard which i still would have preferred to have.

 There are no seams across the top of the shoulders and all of the stitching is flatlock and good quality.
There are no pockets, after all this is a base layer not a mid.

  They also do a ladies version which is here and costs £25.32 +P&P. I think this is very good value for money.

Unfortunately the Mens version has had a price increase since i received mine and doing this post. It is now £33.72. which is still very much cheaper than many other similar style tops.

For example the Icebreaker Mondo 200gsm LS Zip neck top is Here at £62.99. And Amazon are selling it for a little less Here at £56.00

Recovery Road

The last 2 weeks i have been running at the football pitch’s adjacent to Oldham’s football ground. The circuit is 1k so it’s easy to keep a tally without all the Garmin stuff.
So today come hail rain or shine i was going to get out and do another 5k.
Well that’s exactly what i had, all three conditions within 40 minutes. And yes i know that’s slow for 5k.
I’m not a fast runner and i know there is a bit of weight i need to shift but i am working on it, honest.

It also gave me a chance to try out a new pair of gloves. I bought them at Aldi store in Whitehaven on Friday and they seemed too good not to try them. At a cost of £4.99 what was i expecting. Well miracles of course.

Picking them up i was impressed just how light they are and very comfy as well.
The label says they are Waterproof and Breathable and made from Hipotex. I’ve never heard of it either but that’s what it says.
They are also cycling gloves but i wasn’t bothered about that. If they keep me warm and dry that’s all i ask.

 

Inside, the label reads.
HIPOTEX, This special membrane prevents the entry of rain and melting snow but allows the passage of the body’s natural moisture vapour. (That’s perspiration to me and you.) The result is a remarkably comfortable glove that is waterproof and breathable.

In the photo above they look like they have done a good few miles but i assure you i have only worn them for 40 minutes and about 20 of those minutes was during rain. Heavy rain.
Well i can guarantee that this pair of gloves are not waterproof. I am so pleased i tried them out under short duration. I would have been a bit annoyed if i had to be wearing them all day.

Well, i know the old saying, “if you buy cheap you buy twice” but how do they get away with selling outdoor gear, supposedly breathable and waterproof when it’s not. What ever the retail price.
I must admit though i think outdoor gloves are probably the worst bit of kit, even expensive ones. I have never found a really good pair and i have had quite a few different makes and paid over the odds.
 I just want a pair that keeps you dry and warm, with seams that are leakproof and with an outer material that doesn’t soak up the water. How hard can it be.
Water resistant probably would have been nearer the truth for these Aldi gloves, but even that is pushing it.

Another item of gear that caught my eye recently is the Gerber Steady. Gerber make good quality knives and Multi Tools.

The Steady is a Muti tool and it has a cleverly designed built in camera tripod for compact cameras. Ideal for the solo hiker who usually has both pieces of gear in the pack.
It’s not been released in the UK yet but i am reliably informed that it will be available in March 2012. Just in time for the TGO challenge. I don’t have a UK price as yet.

MYOG Windsheilds

I make quite a number of stoves and windshields and over the years i have used some odd bits and pieces that started life as household items.
Windshields for example, i have used foil roasting tins, take away cartons, baked been tins etc etc.
It gets a bit silly at times, before Sheila throws anything out now she usually shouts me and asks do i want this “Packaging” before it goes in the rubbish bin.
All well and good but to get these items exactly what you want can take a bit of ingenuity with a rolling pin and a pair of scissors or even more if you want to make a cone shape.

Then i remembered that we used to use foil to make templates and prototype parts during my working days and i wondered if i could find out where it came from. Not std kitchen foil, but similar, just thicker and less tear resistant.

It surprised me when i was searching, just how little of it was available nowadays. But i did find one suitable item in the US.
It was in the St Louis craft shop and as well as aluminium, they do copper and brass too.

The aluminium foil is 1ft wide and in various lengths and 36 gauge thickness. That’s 0.005" or 0.127mm. It’s called Maid-O-Metal.

Then by a chance search i found a site in the UK. Fred Aldous and i couldn’t believe it was in Manchester.
It turns out that it is the exact same product as i originally found in the St Louis craft shop.
I ordered it at around 3.00pm and it was delivered before noon the next day. Fantastic service.

I have since found it available on Amazon, search "Aluminium Tooling Foil” but it is still shipped from Fred Aldous in Manchester.

I hope you MYOG people find this useful and put it to good use making your own shields, bases, pot/pan lids etc.
It can be cut with a good pair of kitchen scissors and holes punched in with a standard paper hole punch.

Tilley reply to my Zem shoe Amendment.

I emailed Natasha Wright who is the Marketing co-ordinator at Tilley UK about the lack of visibility of the Zem shoe on the high street.
The response from her is below. I would like to thank her for that quick response.
People who have read my post and have been interested in the shoe like myself,  must make up there own minds on how they want to proceed.

Dear Alan,

Thank you for your email.

ZEMgear is a brand that has just arrived in this country and all our Tilley retailers have received information on ZEMs and have been invited to consider stocking them but it is their decision, we can only encourage them.

Initial responses have been extremely positive and we hope to see many more points of sale in the UK in the near future….In the meantime ZEMs are available online and by mail order, and sizing has not proved a problematic issue so far.

If you are unsure then we can send you a couple of pairs to try and whichever pair does not fit you can return for a refund.

Regards Natasha

Amendment added at end of post on Zem shoes.

Shoe post here

Zem Lightweight Shoes

This leaflet dropped through my door the other day and i found it was interesting and so i thought i should find out a bit more and pass it on via the blog page.

These light shoes which i am informed weigh between 70 and 80 grams depending on the model are ideal second shoes for backpacking as they fold down completely flat and weigh so little.
As the leaflet below says, they can be used for travel, which is what initially caught my interest and pretty much anything else to do with the outdoors scene.

With them being sold in Europe by Tilley the hat people the quality must be good or else they wouldn’t have anything to do with them.

Click on the image to zoom.

Now i know a second pair of shoes is not every backpackers cup of tea but, Sheila and I like to have something else to put our feet into after a walk. (apart from a cooling stream that is).

Over the years it is amazing how things have changed. 

From just an old pair of trainers weighing almost as much as a pair of boots do today, down to crocs which are light but bulky and not that packable to Vibram five finger shoes (below) which should have been called five toes surely. The Inov-8 190 sandal and the Saucony Hittori light shoe.

Vibram five fingers

And now the Zem shoes. 

The Zem1, 2 and 3 are being offered in Europe through Tilley Endurables.

Link.

Zem1 is £24.95 with the split toe.

Zem2 is also £24.95 and has a std round toe.

Zem 3 is £29.95 and is same shape as Zem2 but has a little more padding for travelling.

Apart from plain black, other colours are available, blue, pink and white stripes.

ZEM 1

ZEM 2

ZEM 3 with additional padding.

Hope you find this of interest.

Update 4th October 2011.

I went in search of a pair today in all the shops that Tilley show on their website located in the Manchester centre area. 

None of the retailers had them in and most had never heard of them.

I can only suggest at this moment in time that they are only available over the internet which is a real pain because you need to try them on unless you don’t mind the fuss of sending them back if they don’t fit.

I will contact Tilley and find out what’s going on. 

Cuben Rain Mitts.

Black Rock Gear are due to release a pair of Cuben Rain mitts. Weighing in at between  8 and 12 grams depending on size.
How ridiculously light are these.
I think you will need to get the orders placed quickly if you are interested. They will fly.
You can find them here.

Here is a snippet from the site.

Last Weekend, An explanation.

Last weekend was a time i would prefer to forget. It just didn’t go well.
It’s not often bloggers posts are written of bad times but this is one.

It all started after the Duddon Valley Fell race back in June this year. Sheila and i were marshals on Swirl How as we have been for the last few years.
After the event we had a message asking if we would help out at a inaugural charity fell race to be held in September for the Alzheimers Society. 
We agreed.


In the meantime, as you will be aware i got Shingles. This was mid August. It immediately sent me into a bit of a panic about whether i would be ok or not to do the fell race.


September arrived and at the end of the first week i had a phone call to check that i was ok to do the check point. I said yes. The Shingle blisters were on the mend and i had only a small patch remaining on my Kidney area. I thought another week and i will be fine.


So last thursday i was in the loft sorting out the camping gear for the weekend when the phone rang. It was Tina in Seathwaite offering us a bed for the weekend at their house. Considering the weather forecast  
we accepted gratefully.


Friday morning we set off. First stop the petrol station. The car hadn’t moved for the best part of a month and it needed fuel.
What did i do? God forbid! I filled it up with unleaded instead of diesel. Well you can imagine the utter bewilderment at why the hell did i do that!
I still havn’t got a clue, but i know i am now £250 lighter for doing it. It will not happen again i know that much.


Anyway, we got to Seathwaite. 


Saturday morning i felt fine and although it was a shocker of a day with rain and low cloud we were optimistic that it would be good.
Getting our winter clothes out and picking up the radio, number boards, pens etc from Race Control we set off to Three Shire Stone at the watershed of Wrynose pass. We arrived to find we were the only vehicle around which i must say is very unusual, but it was a lousy day. 


Occasionally the murk would clear for a few seconds and gave us a bit of a view as we donned our gear and set off up Wet Side Edge.

Pike of Blisco in the gloom

After only about 150m of ascent i began to physically shake. Just like you do when you are very hungry or exhausted. I had only breakfasted about 1hr ago so i wasn’t hungry. I was a bit worried.

A little further on my legs were wobbly and i thought i wasn’t going to make the ridge top.

I could see Sheila knew there was something wrong because she was overtaking me and looking back saying are you all right. Yes i said i’m fine, i’m just a bit unfit, first time out for a while and all that.

Eventually attaining the ridge i sat down. Sheila was worried now and said "come on this is not you what’s up". I said i had no energy. She plied me with a Snickers bar but i couldn’t eat it. I felt sick.

I knew i had to go on and get to Swirl How, people were depending on me to be there for them.

I moved off slowly toward Carrs. I felt just like i had altitude sickness. Nausea, headache, tired, aching,

i could hardly lift my feet. One step, then slowly followed by another.

I had the voices on my shoulder. "You shouldn’t be here you know, go back down". Then the other one saying “come on you can do it, not far to go now”.  

Sheila was holding on to me like i was in my 90’s in the snow. I tried to reassure her by saying “I am ok”

Sheila took this photo, i look and felt like a doddering old fart.

If you wonder what the blue things are on my hands, it’s what i have found to be best on fell races, a pair of liner gloves with surgical latex gloves on top. It makes writing and operating the radio far easier as well as keeping your hands warm.

Eventually through the cloud the large cairn of Swirl How came into view. I have never been so pleased to see it.

The visibility was around 30ft and it was howling a gale, 30 - 40mph with gusts at 70mph and the rain was lashing sideways. I collapsed at the back of the Cairn out of the wind and Sheila plied me with Green Tea and Mushroom soup.

I felt dreadful and wondered if i was going to become a Mountain Rescue statistic. Oh no!

I radio’d in to Race control telling them that we were in position and what the conditions were like. I told them how i felt. A voice i new came back. “Have you been drinking petrol”! was the reply.

Then on a more serious note they asked to be kept informed and if required a marshal off Grey Friar would come over.

I said i am here now and sat down so at least i will do the job. 

Just prior to the first runners through, 2 runners came from Wetherlam. They were from Kendal fell runners, not in our race. They stopped for 5 minutes chatting. They were off to Three Shires and onto Langdale. They took a bearing and then set off. 10 minutes later they returned to us and surprisingly said oh S--t we must have took a wrong turn. That’s how bad the weather was up there.

A new bearing set and off they went. We didn’t see them again.

The runners appeared from the gloom with only metres to go to the cairn and then set off into the rain and headwind to Old Man Coniston after check in.

I called race control and let them know all runners were through Swirl How and that we were heading down. I was so pleased to be leaving. Sheila held me up and we set off downhill. My legs were like jellies and as soon as i exerted my self the nausea re-apperared.

Half way down Wet Side Edge we had our first break in the cloud and i had a sit down and took a couple of photo's.

About a minute later the mist wrapped round us once more and the view disappeared. Only as we approached the descent to Three Shires did it start to lift.

Back at race control, no runners lost or injured. Plenty of food and drink was laid on.
The winning time was 1hr 55mins 30 seconds. Won by Ian Barnes from Ambleside. 11 miles, 5 mountains and 3000ft of ascent.
For me it was a hot bath and a couple of hours sleep.
Thanks Sheila for getting me up there and back down again, it’s a feeling i hope never to have again and i must not be so stupid in future.

Unfortunately we had planned a walk with Mike Knipe and others in the Dumphries and Galloway hills very soon and i have had to pull out. Sorry peeps.

Turner Landscape Charity Fell Race.

Hello,
Just wanted to say well done to Alan for all your hard work and effort getting up Swirl How to marshall the Turner landscape charity fell race in the Duddon Valley yesterday.  I was very worried about you and clearly the shingles are taking their toll on you.  I am so proud of you that you didn't give up getting to the top as you didn't want to let anyone down even though you were ready to drop down onto your knees and also be sick.
love you so much, your soul mate Sheila. xx