So it begins

Keswick

Published Date : February 22, 2001

Derwentwater, Keswick

Very exciting!  Tonight was the first night of the mountaineering course.  There are 8 of us (3 women) and it seems like a good group.

I caught a train from Edinburgh to Penrith, then a bus from Penrith to Keswick.  I had expected there to be a bus service from Keswick to Borrowdale and there is one, but apparently it only operates in summer.  Not having the money for a cab, I walked the 4km from Keswick to Derwentwater YHA.  It was a beautiful walk along the shores of Derwentwater.  The hostel was absolutely stunning and somewhere I would love to return to.

There isn’t much snow around, but supposedly there’s some on the higher fells.  We’re going to the Helvellyn range tomorrow, but not up Helvellyn itself.  The plan is to do ice axe and crampon techniques i.e; self-arrest and step cutting, etc.  Hopefully it will be a good day.

Painful Goodness

Published Date : February 23, 2001

Looking like a mountaineer!

Today was fantastic!  Completely exhausting, but great.  I probably won’t be able to move tomorrow, but that will make it so much more interesting.

We did a little bit of everything today: navigation, step-cutting, ice axe and crampon techniques, as well as some belays and abseils.  For the crampons we did duck walking, front pointing, the French technique and the American style.  We did some body belays, a classic abseil and a little bit of work with deadman anchors.  I particularly liked the abseils and belays because I’ve never done them without a harness before.  Very cool.

I’m completely covered in bruises from practicing self-arrests.  The snow was more liked pack ice so particularly painful.  We worked on the feet-first falls today, on the stomach and the back.  I think we’re going to be doing the head-first slides tomorrow or Sunday.

The step-cutting was especially brutal.  I guess I didn’t really think about it much beforehand, but it was much more difficult than I had anticipated.

We finished off the day doing some rock scrambles using ice axes and crampons.  I really enjoyed that part.  It wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.

Tonight we’re going to watch and discuss a couple of videos on avalanches and hypothermia.  Tomorrow we’ll be doing avalanche detection and avoidance and building snow shelters.  Hopefully it snows tonight so that we have a lot of work with.

That’s it for now.  I’ll definitely be writing more tomorrow.

Logistics

Published Date : February 24, 2001

Today proved a logistically challenging day.  There has been another outbreak of foot & mouth disease, so access to many of the fells was closed.  On top of that there was hardly any snow.  The only places that had enough were the fells that we couldn’t get to.

So instead we did a lot of navigation.  We went through Whinlatter Forest then up to Grisedale peak.  We were doing bearings, dead reckoning, simulated white out navigation – all that fun stuff.  We had lots of variety anyway.

It looks like we may have better snow conditions tomorrow, as the weather closed in just when we were getting back into Keswick.  There have been flurries off and on for the last hour or so.  Fingers cross that it sticks!

Moving forward

Published Date : March 5, 2001

Well, long time no write.  The last day of my course was a short one.  Snow conditions never improved so we didn’t get a chance to practice with snow shelters.  We did finish off with some more self-arrest practice which was good fun.   One of my classmates gave me a lift back to Penrith, which saved me bus fare and a lot of time.  The train trip back to Edinburgh was quick and painless.

I have a plan in motion for the rest of the year.  I’m going to Ireland in May just before the lease on the flat runs out.  I’ll have a week left to get organized once I get back.  I’m thinking of heading to Wales for 3 months where I can hopefully land work in a hotel or guesthouse in the Snowdonia region.  For my last three months, I’m going to brave London again.  I’m not too keen on that part of the plan, but it’s necessary for making the final arrangements for Australia and my flight.

Speaking of my flight, it is officially booked.  I’m flying from London to Vancouver on December 8 and then on to Sydney on January 4!!  I don’t know if I’ll be going through SWAP or not.  I wouldn’t mind going totally solo, but if I’m feeling lazy it would be kinda nice to have everything done for me.  It will come down to money in the end – it always does!

In the meantime there are a lot of places in Britain that I still want to see, but probably won’t get to.  Unfortunately, there’s just no way that I can do it all without going seriously into debt and that’s something I won’t do.  I have considered getting a credit card from my bank here, but I think it would just be too tempting.

As far as my climbing goes, it is now on hiatus.  I just can’t afford to travel and climb unless I’m travelling specifically to climb.  If opportunities come up I will definitely be taking them, but they won’t be my primary goal.

For now, I must sleep.  Gotta work in a couple of hours.

Out of the rut

Published Date : March 24, 2001

Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh

I’m in a rut.  Sigh.  I hate ruts.

I’ve been in Edinburgh about a month too long now and I still have two months left on the lease for the flat.  I knew I was going to regret that decision at some point.  For my last month I’m really only going to be here for one week though, so I guess that’s my silver lining.

Two weeks ago I took a day trip up to Stirling. I had plenty of time to see the castle and the jail.  It’s remarkably similar to Edinburgh in appearance, just smaller.  It was a nice day trip.

Last weekend, I took a train across the Firth of Forth to Queensferry, specifically Deep Sea World.  That was a pretty cool place.  I noticed while I was there that they offer a £50 two-hour intro to SCUBA diving.  Oh, and it’s in the shark tank!  I’m very seriously considering it!

I also went to the Dynamic Earth exhibit last week.  The geology student in me loved it.  It was an interactive geologic history of Scotland the British Isles.  Well worth the visit