Would I work outdoors?

When I was a teenager, my best mate became a climber. I'd often go out to the Peaks with him, along with a few others he'd met through work who were also climbers. At weekends we'd go camping in the field at the side of Fox House (Before they ruined it), having breakfast in Grindleford Caf and generally enjoying the outdoors. But it started to change, When they would talk, an adventure was something that happened to someone going to Peru, or someone making an attempt on Everest or finding a new route in the Alps... Essentially, someone with money. I did not have any money. I had a crap job that paid little, along with even crappier shifts. So as they got further into climbing and got better and better gear, able to spend more time on the wall, I was left behind.
I'd still go occasionally, scrambling around at the bottom while they leapt from one hold the next, high above. I thought at the time it was simply that I wasn't good enough to be a climber, I realise now, I just wasn't one of their clique and that their idea of an adventure was well out of my pocket.

Fast forward 15 years and I get back into walking. While I was reading on the net, I found a couple of websites that really fired my imagination. The first was 'One man and a Bivi' a website with the story of a man who sat up one day and decided that he wanted to go camping in a Bivi bag..
He didn't go climb Everest, he wasn't doing this for anyone else, he just wanted to try something different.
Around the same time I started to go onto the forum at Live For the Outdoors (an offshoot of Trail magazine. If you don't go there and you are into walking or climbing, give it a try. No matter how trivial the question, there's always someone who will help or lend an opinion. The people who post helped me enormously in getting back out there and if you have a question and I'm online, I'll do my best to answer it).

The story of the man and his Bivi kept coming back to me. I'd read it every now and again. It's essentially the story of a middle aged man having what seemed to be a very quiet middle age crisis, it inspired me to just go out there and do what I want to do. I don't need to go overseas for an adventure. In fact I don't have to travel far at all.

A few months later one of the Trail staff posted this question to the forumers.. "Would you work the outdoors?"
Since I had discovered that adventures were where you made them, I was Horrified... with a capital H and a lot of why's. Why would I want to spoil my hobby? Why would I ever want to feel obligated to go out there. Why would I do something that meant I had to follow a set path or stop where I didn't feel like it? Why would I spoil my enjoyment for that?

I found myself re-examining this question tonight. I still feel as protective of walking as I did before, but now I want.. I want people to feel the same way as I do when you're stood on a summit with the wind in your hair, like I did on Bleaklow last year. I want people to understand, just how otherworldly Kinder can be when the fog rolls in and one day, While I'm in the Pub having a well deserved after-walk pint - If just one person utters that they are there because they read something that I had written...


Oh! whare are my old mates?.. They are at home watching Eastenders...
Cheers!

A quick trip to Kinder.

A couple of weeks ago my good lady was going to her parents for the day and instead of taking me, she asked if I wanted to go out walking..
Not needing to be asked twice, I gave my sister a call to see if she wanted to go for a walk. She was happy to go out, but was wasn't keen about going up Kinder.
You see when my mum was young, she had gone up Kinder and she had hated every minute.. She had inadvertantly filled my sisters head with visions of a dready (wo)man-eating-bog trudge that should be avoided at all costs.

I eventually talked her round (but I'd trimmed the trip down to a simple scramble up Crowden Clough, around the edge of Kinder to avoid the boggy ground and down Jacobs ladder.

Setting off she put on a brave face Soon after she settle in and was having fun. We'd talked on the way and she'd reminiced about the fun she'd had doing her DoE. She had been over the great ridge, but not on Kinder before. As we passed into the bottom of the Clough itself, a pretty waterfall presented itself to us and she came to life, noticing more around her, becoming more animated about her surroundings. We chatted about what she could expect on the top and as the climb became steeper, I slowly built her confidence on the rocks, crossing the stream more than was needed and going over tricker sections, rather than round them. At one point, Trina said that if it got much more difficult, she'd need to turn back. I helped her build pride in what she had already done, as she had heard the bad stories of kinder and we were soon back on our way. As we neared the top and we came up to the scramble itself, She was ready. With the exception of one section that required something more technical than she had done before, she did brilliantly and once at the top, we followed the stream up the river bed to get a look around, and then followed another fork of the stream to find a sheltered spot to have lunch.
About this point it started to rain a little, but it didn't last long.
We followed the path around the edge of kinder taking in the view Which is always one of the strong points of kinder. We crossed through the blasted rock formations, and soon came to the head of the path that leads down to Jacobs Ladder.
I always forget just how steep this path is, or at least, appears to be. We carefully picked our way down, passed by a group of mountain bikers going the other way (If this was you, or you have done this - you are mad).
Soon after, we were off the hill and in the Nag's for a quick one before going home.

Did my sister end up enjoying her day out on Kinder? Have a look for yourself.

The Beginning

I decided last year that I should go back up Kinder for the last time with my Grandad. He took me first when I was 5 and now I was returning the favour. He had died not long before and taking some of his ashes seemed fitting (he virtually lived in Edale as a young man and loved being on Kinder).
I started re-kitting myself for walking and remembered how much I love walking and camping. Something i had eschewed for well over a decade now. As I started to spend way too many beer tokens buying kit I wouldn't need (nor did I take on that trip) I thought about walking the Pennine Way..
It seemed so simple, Buy a lightweight tent, find some other nutters and just set off. Ensuring my place in the family history (No-one else has done it).

The first Hurdle came when i went up kinder For the send-off. I went with two of my cousins, their dad and a dog (which was white and had curly fur.. not a good colour to take on the dark peaks. It looked like a small sheep by the time we got down)..
Setting off from the car park at Upper Booth, we walked down a small road, than along a stream. It was all so relaxing and fun and peaceful, until it got steep.. no, near vertical.. I loved every hard fought meter of altitude but By the time I got to the top of Crowden Clough I was Half dead.. Gasping for breath, bright red and dizzy from hyper-ventilating, I was an embarrassment.
My cousins and their dad were all fine. The dog was the only other unfit member of the group. I know this from the way he was panting as hard as i was ;)
Around this time I remember Sitting at the top looking down on Upper Booth and thinking I'm gonna need to be A LOT fitter if I'm even going to consider this for real.

The rest of the trip was great, Kinder was in one of it's nicer days, dry and easy transit across the top. Sadly this also meant there was no water on the downfall, but also meant we could stand between the kinder gates for photo's. As it was dry, grit and heavy wind ensured we were all scoured before we came down the Jacobs ladder.
On the way down we passed loads of Sunday walkers, no pack, no map, no water, Girlfriend in tow (some in heels)!
As I passed these, I wondered if they were going to die, or if I might have over packed just slightly more than i needed for this trip...