Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club 

                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                             

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Winter Walks Programme

Walk Programme October to March

 

The time has come (the Walrus said) to talk about the winter programme.  As I am new to this particular task I would like to share a few thoughts with all club members and would be delighted with any feedback,  guidance or help.

Having discussed the issue with a number of people,  and with very valuable input from Heather and Graham who have both done this job,  the general consensus seems to be as follows.  Most people prefer it if there is a designated leader and route in the programme.  While the majority have access to the internet and can catch up with late changes or additions to the lists on line,  the majority of people,  whether with internet access or not, prefer to rely on the programme.  It is far better for there to be a specific route and leader actually printed in the programme,  rather than a “to be arranged” notice.

The A parties have a good number of experienced leaders,  and on most expeditions if anything untoward happened,  there would almost certainly be someone present who could take over or lead the walks.   However,  there are some people who regularly take part in the A walks who have never led a walk and have always relied on others to do so.  Would these people actually know of at least one,  or preferably two walks they would be confident enough of finding their way round? 

The C parties also tend to include a number of people who have a good knowledge of the fells and hills round about.  Again,  there is a “however”.  The numbers on the C walks are dropping and there are a number of people who are quite capable of finding their way round some of the easier walks.  The routes chosen by the C walkers tend not to have the difficulties of height or severe weather that can be experienced on the high fells.   If you know one particular area reasonably well,  would you be willing to have a go at leading a walk (or 2)?

There can be more of a problem, however,  with the B walks.   I suspect that the B walks attract more people than the others most of the time.  Often new members who may not be convinced of their own abilities to keep up with the more demanding pace and the greater height to climb of the A walk,  but who would also prefer something more serious than the C walks opt for the B walks as interesting and sufficiently challenging.  Also there are A walkers who prefer to avoid some of the more “interesting” A walks or who may be recovering from an injury or simply an eventful Saturday evening. Many B walkers would be reluctant to attend walks if there were no clear leader or route,  but, as the current programme shows,  the number of leaders available for the B walks is posing quite a problem. Do regular B walkers have any proposals on how to select walk leaders?  For example,  would it be worth considering two people taking joint responsibility for a particular walk?

I would ask regular walkers – A, B and C - to consider whether or not they do know an area of the Lakeland fells,  the local Scottish hills or the Pennines sufficiently well to be able to walk it on their own?  If so,  would they be confident enough walking it with a group of friends,  because that is basically what walk leadership is?  Also,  would regular A walkers be prepared to lead,  say,  a couple of B walks?  And regular B walkers,  do the odd C walk?

What I intend to do in the near future is to draw up,  with help from other leaders, past and present,  a guideline for leading.  Expectations,  navigation skills,  unexpected events, bad weather, emergencies,  that sort of thing.  Also,  again with help from some of the more experienced,  we have discussed the possibility of  holding a simple navigation and fell safety day.  This could, in fact,  be part of the regular programme and constitute a Sunday walk – somewhere like High Rigg would be ideal.  It would be a fairly light-hearted fun day,  but hopefully we would all be able to learn something from it.

One type of walk I am proposing -  perhaps suitable for Bus walks round the Xmas period is for us to take the bus,  have them drop us off at different locations and walk back to Carlisle. The bus would only be needed for one journey.   For example,  the C party to be dropped off at Dalston.  The B party at Rose Bridge and the A party at Bell Bridge (all on the River Caldew).   (I will ignore the suggestion from one person for the A party to be dropped off  somewhere between Bristol and Birmingham.)  While such walks would need to be within range of Carlisle,  any other ideas on routes would be very welcome.

Most people are unaware at this time of year of their plans for 4 to 10 months hence,  and may not be able to commit to particular dates right now.  However,  I will be sending round a list – hopefully from this Sunday – for the walks and the list will have a space for people to put down walks they cannot immediately commit to,  but could actually lead in the future.  I am attaching a brief list to this note for proposed bus walks initially.  Then, nearer the time for the list going to publication, I would try and get in touch with these folk to try and get a clear commitment for a particular date.   Car walks will take less forward planning as the walks do not need to be coordinated with each other.  The destinations on the list are simply suggestions at this point in time and are not “written in stone”.  If you had any ideas for good walks,  or were thinking about leading but not sure of what is required or had any dates you could commit to at the moment,  then I would love to hear from you.  My email address is familycourtadvice@outlook.com and the phone numbers are 01768896517 or 07900883694.

 

Peter Flynn

 

04th Oct.           Car Walk

11th Oct.           Grasmere

18th Oct.           Car Walk

25th Oct            Housesteads  (Clocks!!)

 

Nov 1st           Car Walk                                                        

Nov 8th           Grange  (Remembrance Sunday )

Nov 15th         Car

Nov 22nd          Patterdale area

Nov 29th          Car

Dec 6th             Caldbeck

Dec 13th           Car

Dec 20th           Dalston area (one way by bus only)

Dec 27th           Car

 

Jan  3rd             Annan / Kirkbride area

Jan  10th           Car

Jan 17th            Kendal

Jan 24th            Car

Jan 31st            Croglin

 

Feb 7th             Car

Feb 14th           Dumfries / Caerlaverock

Feb 21st           Car

Feb 28th           Ennerdale

 

Mar 6th             Car

Mar 13th           Langholm

Mar 20th           Car

Mar 27th           Helvellyn   (Clocks forward)