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The Ridge, from the top of Old Man, looking very foreboding a couple of months ago. We've been going up all Winter, conditions vary greatly, my first time up in crampons with two foot of snow was really exciting and terrifying the coming back down where all the terrain was levelled with no foot or hand holds.

A beautiful day on Langdale Fells via Pavey Arc last summer, hoping for some good weather for the Mountain Marathon.

Today's climb, was a lot of fun and very quick time!

The last day of May, beautiful hot day, too hot to climb, so we waited for the cool of evening and headed off to Coniston. Barely a soul in sight and although a lovely evening we were treated to very strong winds on the summit, which made for an exciting climb in the gusts. We decided to come off the back, a longer haul but a pleasant walk as the sun was going down and six miles and a mountain under our belts.

Evening view from the top of Old Man and well worth the windy climb.

Just a bit of contrast here to show those not familiar with the mountains that weather can be extreme on the tops even when at ground level things don't seem so bad. This picture of Sion was taken mid Winter, crampons were needed and the right gear is vital in these conditions.

Getting plenty of coverage in the Evening Mail and the Westmorland Gazette ~ special thanks to Ken who took some lovely photos for us and got our story together so well.

The Marathon is creeping up on us now and we are trying to build stamina for the big day, for someone like me who has never done more than a couple of mountains together it truely is a challenge, but I am starting to look forward to it.

Friday 10th of June ~ the route down after a misty climb, reached the summit of Old Man at about 7.30am ~ very hot going, still air and hard work, the light rain on top was quite a relief.

W + S

View of the Youth Hostel on this mornings walk (10th June) ~ the mist was down from Low Water. Someone asked us if the view was good from the top, on our way down, Sions response, "It depends how good your imagination is", the view was not the highlight of todays climb, but then contrast is always good!

June 12th and Si snapped me reaching the summit, the most exhausting climb, very humid conditions and so misty again on the top, still, good exercise.

No excuses, I just love this photo, another of Kens ~ thanks!

Well, we don't look too tired, we'd just been over Old Man and come down to the Walna Scar road, hence the beautiful backdrop. I guess the extra 11 peaks will take more of a toll!

We have been trying to work out a time schedule between summits, I like this idea, I need to be ticking off the height as we go along, Sion is more the time keeper, just hoping I can keep up, personally I'm not averse to a wee kip along the way but then I'm sure the thought of a cold beer at the end will keep us moving.

We have been currently testing this rucksack with a view to using it on a regular basis after our Marathon Mountain walk.

To find out details plus a comprehensive review of its performance please go to our equipment page.

The North Face Shaddow 30+10ltr Waterproof Rucksack

Tuesday14th June and a fair day with a hot climb but clear on the summit

As you are aware we are encouraging donations to two charities, the Alzheimer’s for which the reasons are obvious but we wanted to explain why we thought it so important to raise funds for the Mountain Rescue Teams.

In February 2015, Sion had a serious accident on the fells and thanks to Mountain Rescue Coniston, he was rescued in time to save his life.

Conditions were very wintery with lots of snow and ice on the main path, Sion was making his way down from Coniston Old Man summit when the incident occurred. Below is a synopsis of what happened:-

Whilst descending from the summit I encountered two young men having serious difficulties ascending the zig zags above Low Water as they weren't equipped with crampons necessary for those conditions.
They required my assistence to get them down to a lower part of the path, which I did successfully, after which I continued to descend towards Low Water ahead of them. I was wearing crampons which enabled me to gain some distance ahead of them.
Having descended some distance, I decided to turn around and check on their progress downwards during which I caught my crampons on a rock protruding from the ice and tripped causing me to fall heavily on my right arm on a patch of ice resulting in total dislocation of my arm and sliding 20 to 30 feet further down the slope.
Although having emergency equipment in my rucksack I couldn't access this for two reasons, one, I only had one arm and couldn't manoeveor to undo my rucksack and two, I needed to lift myself onto the rucksack in order to isolate myself from the solid ice I was lying on.
I managed to phone the Mountain Rescue via the Police 999 having the specific reference on my phone which enabled me to have a much stronger signal than normal in the vicinity I was in.
Given that this was the middle of Winter, middle of the week and middle of the day the local Mountain Rescue Team Coniston managed to assemble 13 members and reach my location 3/4's of the way up Coniston Old Man well within 2 hours of my call, in addition, they had also arranged for the GNAAS Air Ambulance to be waiting at Windy Gap by the time they had stretchered me down.
From that point on the rescue was a textbook rescue. A number of the rescuers were familiar faces to me and their reassurance plus their years of experience immediately made me feel confident that I was in good hands and despite having Hypothermia and a dislocated arm, I was going to survive this experience.

I would just like to make a further point, that a number of the rescuers were my age or older and this reassured me due to their years of experience and long term service in the Coniston Rescue Team. After having two morphine injections at the scene which had absolutely no effect due to my low body core temperature, the sight of these familiar faces had a much more beneficial effect than the injections did.

We hope this helps people to appreciate the importance of Mountain Rescue all of which is a voluntary service and is directly involved with saving peoples lives.

Wednesday 23rd June ~ beautiful weather for a training day, only one more if the forecast holds out as we hope to be setting out on the Mountain Marathon at 3am on Sunday morning.

We will confirm this on Friday evening when there is less likely to be any surprises in the weather.

On the day we'll take pictures from all the peaks along the way. Getting very exciting now.

Friday 25th June ~Forcast for Sunday now looking very wet and windy ~ putting off for good weather!

Sunday 28th June

Well, we had been hoping today would be the day having heard the indepth forecast from the Met Office. The forecast changed and turned to rain for the afternoon and evening so fortunately we were able to change plans.

We are being interviewed for Border T.V on Friday and are now planning to head off on the first available good weather day from Saturday onwards. Time for a couple more practices for me and a schedule emerging which gives us a possible 17 hour walking/climbing day with several stops.

We have a good supportive team with regards to transport, communications, as well as support from Andy Simpson, the press officer for Mountain Rescue England and Wales who has not only given us some excellent advise re our schedule but has helped in a practical way by providing a safety net re local mountain rescue teams in the area that our Mountain Marathon passes through. Thanks to Andy we feel confident that if anything goes wrong in any way, particularly with the last sections of our walk, Mountain Rescue are there to help if and when necessary. This reflects the advantage of mountain rescue teams in all areas, not just our own for providing confidence and reassurance for anyone venturing into the hills, knowing that they can rely on these individual teams of volunteer members to help when things go wrong. I would like to say personally that I have benefited myself on one occassion and their importance shouldn't be underestimated just because on most occassions they are not needed. With my condition in these last few years, although I don't put myself in any serious danger, it's good to know that there are people there to help if the occassion should arise and to me they are just as important in what I do on a daily basis as the support people get through the Alzheimers Society, so please consider Mountain Rescue England and Wales as supportive as any other organisation with regard to people like me.

Sion

Grizedale Pike and our final peak

We are posting our Route Schedule for the Mountain Marathon at some point today, so that everyone can see the route in some detail and our timings. We would very much welcome anyone available on the day meeting up with us at some point along the route. We will post on our website and Facebook two days in advance of the walk and are keeping a keen eye on the changeable weather for a good day.

We are grateful to our small but brilliant support team, Val, Mike and Carlton who will follow us by radio or car along our route, meeting up with us at two points with refreshments and being on call to ferry us if necessary and bring us home at the end of the day.

We are also very pleased to have the support of Andy Simpson, Press Officer for Mountain Rescue England and Wales on our team. Andy has kindly given hours of support and advice and will support us on the day coordinating Mountain Rescue if necessary. We have planned well and hope for no misfortunes along the way but find it very reassuring to have Andy’s support.

Finally, we agreed amongst the team that if either of us have difficulties we would call a stop to the walk for safety reasons.

Fiona from Border TV interviewing Kizzy from the Alzheimers Society with the fabulous backdrop of the fells from Walna Scar car park at Fellgate.

A very strange figure seen on Old Man in the mist today Friday 1st July ~ wintery, misty and cold on the summit

Here is Sion explaining the symptoms of Alzheimers as they effect him from day to day, and how we hope to raise awareness with those suffering that physical exercise is a great way of holding the disease at bay, keeping fit and healthy and enjoying life.

Just to let everyone know, all being well we expect to start the Mountain Marathon at 3am tomorrow morning on Tuesday 5th July..........

Please bear with us ~ we have many pictures and the story of our adventures on the Marathon to tell ~ the site will be updated soon with all the details and photo's of our journey across the mountains.

Wendy and Sion

Thanks to Kev ~ Simply Pictures for this lovely photo

A special thanks to all those who supported us by donating

Well, here we are, the walk is over and £739 raised for the Alzheimers Society and Mountain Rescue England and Wales. We wanted to include a thank you to all those people who have supported us, in particular to Valeria who set up our website and was always on call in a technical (or otherwise!) crisis, with great coffee, friendship and advice; to Emily, who jumped in to help at the last moment in time of need and to Andy Simpson of Mountain Rescue England and Wales who went to the effort of promoting our walk and alerting the Mountain Rescue Teams on our route. I need to mention Ken Oxley from the Alzheimers Society, Ken has travelled for hours to catch up with us, interview us, taken some fantastic pictures and promoted our walk so well, he is a great journalist and publicist (he is also a patient, considerate and lovely man!) thanks also to Carlton, Mike and Lynn, for their support and to Lynn M who is a constant friend and source of encouragement. Finally a special thanks to all those friends and supporters who encouraged and helped us to the raise funds for these two good causes.