Category: alice

Bucket List Item #48: Climb Scafell Pike

Once upon a time, I went on a little road trip around England. One of the things I was wanting to do was to climb Scafell Pike. I ended up not doing so. For a few reasons. 
1. It is really big and I am generally quite lazy.
2. I was on my own and thought I might navigate myself to certain doom.
3. The weather was supposed to be bad for climbing mountains.
So instead I did other things. However, climbing the mountain got put on my bucket list as a result of not climbing it. I resolved to do so when I wasn’t so lazy, had someone to navigate me away from doom and when it wasn’t so windy.
Therefore, I gathered a band of intrepid adventures and we made our way to the Lake District on holiday (having previously done a similar thing in Snowdonia at the same time last year) to complete this feat. Due to amazing planning, we were there the week that the wettest place in the country had its summer and all managed to get a little bit of a sunburn.

The mountain is 980 metres high. This doesn’t sound like much until you try to go that high. Then it sounds a lot harder. When you have been climbing an hour and still can’t see the summit, it appears infinite. 

Compared to Snowdon, it is actually smaller, however as a climb it is a lot more intense. Snowdown has more scrambly bits (I learnt that the technical term is scree) but also more flat bits. Scafell Pike is basically a 980 metre staircase. With big rocky stairs. I thought I knew what to expect having done Snowdon but this was a lot more intense. But we all managed it, see! Go team!
Several years ago, I always got confused by people who went up mountains because they were there. Now I am that kind of person, and I can recommend it. You get a great sense of achievement, and you feel like you are on top of the world (both literally and metaphorically) and that you can achieve anything.  I would definitely recommend it, as long as you have some idea what you are letting yourself in for and prepare adequately in advance.
There has already been talk about doing Ben Nevis next year to complete what is one of the slowest Three Peaks challenges, I am just giving my body a little time to recover before telling it about this.

Snow fun

Snow is ace. Maybe it’s because I try to always have a childlike outlook on life but I can’t fail to get excited when it snows.

The last few times it’s snowed I’ve not been able to go out and play in the snow properly. Various things such as work, sickness or being in a recording studio have prevented me from doing so for quite some time. 
However, on Monday evening this week, whilst I was enjoying a nice warm bath (snow makes you cold, apparently), I had a ring on my doorbell. Which I promise you isn’t a euphemism. I went downstairs and found Natalie, Adam and Alice on my doorstep asking if I was coming out to play. 
The answer, obviously, was yes.
We spent an hour outside, freezing, with snow pounding down in our faces and it was possibly the best hour I’ve spent this year. We tried throwing snowballs and making a snowman but unfortunately the snow was a bit too powdery to stick together. So instead we kicked the snowman to death and drew a face on Lisa’s car so that it looked like a car from cars. We made snow angels and jumped in the deepest snow we could find.
I don’t get why people don’t enjoy snow. I love snow. I love it so much that me and Natalie once made a snowman outside the Kremlin. True story. Here it is:
I know that snow does cause problems for people. I know some people had ludicrously long journeys home or got stuck in their cars overnight or even had accidents and these things all suck.
And I know – from looking at Shepway District Council’s Facebook page – that some people were exceptionally angry about the snow. Regardless of the fact that they don’t deal with gritting the roads. The anger vented is in some ways understandable, however the manner that some posters go about it is nothing short of disrespectful and I’d quite happily pay a bit more in council tax if they promised to spend it on teaching the local community some common courtesy (not to mention nothing of spelling and grammar).
Sure, other countries are more prepared for snow. This is because they have snow all of the time. The same people moaning about the lack of gritting would I’m sure moan about the misuse of spending disproportionate amounts of money on snow protection for the 5 days of the year when it actually snows.
The fact is that voter turnout in council elections in 2011 ranged from 30-60% although was generally at the lower end of the scale makes it more likely than not that the people complaining didn’t vote in the election which is the best way to complain about the current state of affairs rather than abusing people who can’t see you from behind your computer screen or mobile phone.
But I digress. Maybe these people would benefit from relaxing and playing in the snow for a little bit. After all, life is short and it snows so infrequently.