A Rip Roaring Romp

Having notched up 13 Wainwrights in stunning, clear, calm weather before the official launch on 2 June on Latrigg, the blustery, wet weather served as a wake up call that this was not going to be easy. And so I spent a week watching the weather wondering if I would be able to get the challenge off with a rip-roaring romp around the Fairfield Horseshoe on the forthcoming  weekend or would I be beetling up and down Binsey in half an hour and retreating to the Sun Inn in Bassenthwaite, working out how many years it will take to do all the Wainwrights one at a time?

The stormy weather played ball and passed through on Saturday so we woke up to a warm but cloudy Sunday morning and very out of character for my family the alarm went off at the usual 7am. To be walking out of Ambleside at 10:10am was quite an achievement, not least because the compass fell apart, so trying to  teach Bheinn  (12yo) how to orientate the map with a compass held together with an elastic band that had seen better days proved an early challenge.  Luckily the good weather stayed with us and visibility was 100%, so the orienteering lesson was more in principal than in practice.

The aim of the day was to tick off the 8 fells of the Fairfield Horseshoe (Low Pike, High Pike, Dove Crag, Hart Crag, Fairfield, Great Rigg, Heron Cragg and Nab Scar) bringing my total to 22.  A day to breathe in the the views and leave the cares of the day below us behind.  I hoped….

As we rose between Low Pike and High Pike I could hear a gaggle of voices behind me.  I looked around to see one man and wondered why I could not see the group following up behind.  We walked on and as he approached the noise of the crowd grew louder. I was shocked, when he passed, that he was alone apart from the millions of people listening, on the same wavelength, to the Cricket World Cup being broadcast to the world from the back of his rucksack.  My jaw dropped and as I exclaimed “Why? the broadcaster co-incidentally cried out to the open fell…“the question is why?” So as I puffed to the top of High Pike, and the chatter of the radio disappeared into the wind I was ruminating on the word WHY.  Why would somebody be so selfish as to bring the noise we come to escape into our little piece of heaven? Why would they think it is in the least bit acceptable to broadcast this to everybody? Why would he dare to ruin my day? Why do we come onto the fells? Why do I think my interpretation of use of the Fells is superior to anybody else’s?

The Question is Why

I know I walk in the fells to leave the cares of the world at ground level, for fitness, for self-fulfillment and achievement, to catch the wind, to catch the sun, to see the grandeur of the world to remind me of my small place among its majesty and to be among like-minded people, in short, to belong.

Being confronted by this disturbance from the real world  had touched on insulting  the senses of escaping in order to belong to something superior,  but I had to ask myself was I not doing something similar? Was my spinning wheel challenge not bringing the everyday into the world of the escape room?

One of the problems I had with deciding to embark on this charity event is that I do not like asking people to sponsor me.  I have always believed that the main reason to achieve something is for your own betterment and self development.  Also, having notched up the best part of 100 marathons, and various ultras in the past, I find it difficult to convince anybody that I am doing anything extraordinary or challenging enough to warrant sponsorship.  I also do not like to disturb other people’s enjoyment. I think that just because I love doing something it does not have to be of interest to anybody else (perhaps I am too self contained for my own good).  I debated if  just seeing me with a spinning wheel might destroy the seclusion. or that I might be responsible for interrupting somebody else’s walk with a reminder of everyday life they have left behind by my request for charitable donation, even if that is only implied by my being there, I might ruin somebody else’s day. Could my actions be just as imposing on somebody else’s day as the noise from a radio?

When I put the question to my son as to why he likes to walk in the mountains he cleared up the dilemma

his list was :

Because it gets me away from my computer games.

It stops you nagging me to get away from my computer games.

Because it stops me getting unfit and fat.

Because it’s nice.

“What is nice about it?” I asked, “what feelings does it give you to describe that nice feeling?”

I feel healthy and I can eat lots of biscuits.

It’s nice when I get back to my computer games!

In a nutshell we head out into the hills to get away from it all so we appreciate what we have more fully when we return.

So  I hope my challenge is extraordinary and challenging enough to lift it from the everyday and not cause anybody’s enjoyment to be disturbed and that my own enjoyment of spinning will be affected by taking it with me into place we go to escape?

#spinherdwick #candocalvert #louetnorthamerica
Raising money for the Lake District Calvert Trust.  Donations can be made at:
https://wonderful.org/fundraiser/spinaround-740bcfeb

“Launching” the Spin-A-Round Challenge

It had taken 2 years to get to the point that I could “Launch” the Spin-A-Round Challenge. Life, building works to our house, business and family matters had always contrived to take precedence, so  it was  on 2 June 2019 at 9am, 2 years after I had bought my mountaineering spinning wheel I set off for the summit of Latrigg above Keswick in the Lake District with Mark and Bheinn to Launch the challenge to spin Herdwick wool on the 214 Wainwright Fells. It was a 3-person job to carry my wheel, leaflets, sheep biscuits, chairs, table, banner and a shelter.  More kit than I plan to take for the regular spinning walks, but we hoped to host a picnic for the Calvert Trust volunteers and have a chance to showcase the spinning wheel and challenge.

The shelter had been a last minute decision and in the tradition of all all great, daft events it was erected for the first time, on the mountain, in the wind with the instructions tucked under my chin.  Assembly was easy, keeping it up was more of a challenge.  When I had considered the need for shelter from the rain, I had overlooked the fact that in the Lake District it is a certainty that rain will be accompanied by wind. The shelter proved great at keeping the rain off, however keeping it in place to stop it taking on a secondary role as a paraglider proved a full-time occupation for my helpers and supporters, so taking the idea of “Launching” an event to a whole new level.

Despite the inclement weather we were joined by a steady stream of passers-by, runners, dog walkers, parents carrying 2 children and regular Lake District visitors. Some who had made the journey specifically to see and support the launch and others, who found us by chance and thought it was the most “surreal” event they had witnessed on a mountain.

I felt very honoured that so many volunteers and supporters of Lake District Calvert Trust came out on this rather wild day and I enjoyed many conversations about spinning and the work done by the Trust to make this spectacular place we live in accessible for everybody. We were even featured on ITV Border TV (Link below), Fiona the reported captivated by the unusual notion of the event and my determination not to give up because of the conditions

The weather conditions were not as I had envisaged, but that served as a great reminder that the challenge was not going to be plain sailing, even if that was what the shelter thought it was made to do.

To support this wholly surreal challenge go to https://wonderful.org/fundraiser/spinaround-740bcfeb

Follow the progress on Instagram “wildwoolworkshopennerdale” or sign up to the Spin-A-Round newsletter by contacting susan@wildwoolworkshop.co.uk to find  out where I will be spinning next.

Taking a Spinning Wheel Mountaineering

I was very impatient to try out the chosen wheel, so having picked it up from The Threshing Barn https://threshingbarn.com/ at Farfield Mill https://www.farfieldmill.org/ we set out for the the most easily accessible but remote-feeling place on the way home – Ravenstonedale. This is a limestone plateau, which means the top is relatively flat and made up of regular shaped blocks, making siting a piece of industrial equipment on a relatively stable platform quite easy.

To my relief, my first observation about the wheel was that it was so small I did not need to take a chair with me but could perch on practically any rock and have enough space between my knees and the treadles to give the wheel some momentum. To my delight I found it was very stable, took less than a minute to put together and was very stable on the most rocky of surfaces.

The only minor niggle was that the bag was not padded enough, but I was able to remedy that by buying some upholstery foam from Dunelm and cutting it to fit the wheel.  I guess the wheel/bag were not designed for mountaineering so I was planning to really put them through their paces. Even with extra padding I am able to fit extra clothes, food and drink into the bag and all in all it weighs less than my husband’s camera bag.

And so I was ready to start the challenge to spin Herdwick Wool on the top of the 214 Mountains in the Wainwright Pictorial Guides.

My First real mountain Climb was Blake Fell in the Western Fells in May 2017.  The plan was to start the Spin A Round Challenge from then going forward, but those of you who know me well will, remember that 2017/18 was a very busy time, renovating a barn so I can teach spinning and weaving classes and provide accommodation to walkers and crafters in our remote ex-farmhouse and barn, and celebrating many 50th birthdays.

As well as being a personal physical challenge for me the Spin A Round challenge needed to benefit other people to be truly worthwhile. In 2016 The Lake District Calvert Trust had organised the Go Herdwick Public Art Trail where local artists and organisations had taken part in decorating a life-sized fibreglass sheep for display and auction.  I had enjoyed visiting the colourful artistic sheep with my son and niece and thought my spinning Herdwick idea would link really well with this love of all things Herdy in the Lake District.

The work that Calvert Trust do is also close to my heart. They provide challenging outdoor activity breaks for people with disabilities.  I have never had personal need of their services, nor anyone close to me, but I have taught in adult education with people with all sorts of physical difficulties and always had the sense of “there but for the grace of god go I,” and what would I do if I did not have the freedom to go where I wanted when I wanted, with the limitations our able bodied-centric society puts on us?  Life and physical fitness is a precious gift that I could so easily take for granted and I wanted to use my good fortune to make a difference while I could.

After some explanation, I was able to convince The Calvert Trust marketing team that I was serious and “extreme” spinning (without a bike), on mountain tops could be a thing and so the partnership was born.

It took me, however, 2 more years to create the space in my life required to organise the launch date. Permissions, advertising, press releases and shelters for the likelihood of Lake District rain! all needed to be put in place.  So on 2 June 2019 I will be spending the day on top of Latrigg, joined by volunteers and supporters of Lake District Calvert Trust  oh! and a few hundred mountain runners who will be in the trials for the national Fell Running team and any body else who will be enjoying a day out on an easily accessible mountain with stunning views (if the clouds part) of the central Lake District spinning Herdwick wool.