Keswick Mountain Festival our walks are filling up!

Yes, we have taken more orders over the last few days and now the Helm Crag to Stonethwaite walk is fully booked. So a big thank you to all of you for supporting us and we hope to see all 20 of you on the day.

More of you have been turning up at the Moot Hall after reading about us for the first time on the new website and you have been most complimentary about it to me. Also I know that you all say you will be back, so we look forward to that too. We had a couple of lovely ladies all the way from Florida and a Norwegian lass + Mary from Kent and Neil up Catbells last Tuesday so if you have any photos you want to send in please don't hesitate as I have not been carrying a camera on the last few walks I have taken out. I know that yesterday's walk up Skiddaw with Alison and Halle was thoroughly enjoyed by all and I was told the visibility and views were superb.

Keswick Mountain Festival again

The Helm Crag to Stonethwaite walk has now only 1 place left. There are still places available on the following walks:-

Haystacks Wed 19th May, High Seat & Bleaberry Fell Wed 19th May, Helvellyn Thurs 20th May, Newlands Round Thurs 20th May, Gable Girdle Fri 21st May, Glaramara Fri 21st May, and Haystacks Sun 23rd May.

George Fishers shop is going to be offering trials of Salomon boots again this year during the festival and last year quite a number of my walkers on the Haystacks walk took a pair out on trial. As far as I am aware, there will be the Leki rep with us on some of the walks too and he lets your try out the poles for free.

Helm Crag to Stonethwaite - Keswick Mountain Festival Sat 22 May

Just a quick posting to tell you that there are only 3 places left on this very popular walk. So if you are thinking about booking it I would advise you to do so soon, as once it reaches 20 people we will not be taking anymore. The minibuses have been booked by Pete so we are ready to roll. He will advise on the day how much extra you will need but it will be approx £4 each for transport to Grasmere.

The best guided mountain walks in the English Lake District

This blog was developed by me to showcase Keswick Rambles' commitment to offering the best guided mountain walks in the English Lake District. Given that aim, I intend to develop the blog over the next few days or even weeks to reflect some of the comments which you have kindly given us on our walks. Some of you follow this blog avidly and it is a real compliment to know how much you appreciate my efforts. I cannot promise that the changes will all happen tomorrow but I have taken on board some ideas and other inspiration comes from Blogger who now offer a much better product than they did when I first started using them.

Your comments are very welcome and in the next few weeks I hope to improve the system whereby you can send in your photos and descriptions of our wonderful walks together. The whole idea is to build up a significant number of walks descriptions so that anyone who has not been out with us before can see for themselves what the walks are like.

So keep an eye out, you may be surprised at the result, I have taken the first step which is to significantly increase our Broadband usage so that we can now show far more photographs than our previous allowance gave us. Also, if you like what we do, please tell others. Word of mouth is the best compliment of all but we are not immune to putting links onto this blog with you reciprocating on yours ;-)

Keswick Mountain Festival 2010

Last year the Keswick Mountain Festival was in its 3rd year and was the most successful yet. This photo shows my Haystacks walk on the Wednesday kick off day when we had the chance to try on and walk in Salomon boots for the day courtesy of George Fishers staff and the Salomon Company. This photo was taken by top photographer Steve Razetti who came on the walk along with the Salomon reps Rich, Cat, and  Mat.  The day was superb and the photo shows Tim, my assistant for the day, trekking up the path of the C2C soon after leaving the Drum House on the Tramway from Honister Slate Mine. It was a very popular walk with over 20 participants (hence the need for a trainee Mountain Leader) and we had to arrange taxis up to Honister for the start. This year I have put this walk on again on the first Wednesday of the Mountain Festival so if you want to walk up Haystacks via Wainwright's favourite route, then this is the walk for you. It takes in stunning views of Great Gable, Scafell Pike, Scafell and Ennerdale on the way. There is also the famous view down Buttermere and Crummock Water which Ken Russell used in the film 'Tommy' starring Roger Daltry of the Who. Check out their website for more Keswick Rambles Walks. http://www.keswickmountainfestival.co.uk/

kira from Germany sent in this description of a recent walk.

Alison is one of the two new Keswick Rambles' leaders. She started her first walk on Easter Sunday. Though the weather wasn't very promising on Saturday, Sunday started dry and improved steadily to a sunny spring afternoon! There were three of us participating the walk. Andy from York, Rosy from Australia and myself, over from Germany for the Easter weekend. Now there is another Keswick Rambles' dog, Dusk, who accompanied us. We started at the Moot Hall, walked through Fitz Park, crossed Briar Rigg and followed Spooney Green Lane up Latrigg. Soon we passed the gate to the right into the woods and followed the path until we reached a comfortable staircase. We climbed it and walked on through Brundhome woods. The first photo shows Alison and Rosy on this path. Eventually we reached a fence and climbed the stile. Snow!

The second photo shows Dusk there. How much she enjoyed the snow! We reached the top of Latrigg from the back. It was a bit chilly on the top, so the tea from the Bassenthwaite Rotary Club was very welcome. We've had a little break at their stall on top of Latrigg. Onwards to Skiddaw car park, and then we followed the path to the right into Glenderaterra valley.

The next photo shows Glenderaterra beck at the head of the valley. The bridge wasn't there when I was there last time, it's rather new. We followed the muddy path along the fellside of Lonscale fell until we descended into the valley to walk across two bridges over to the other side of the valley.

The next photo shows shows clearly how impressive Lonscale fell looks like from this side, quite different from its smooth surface showing to Keswick. We enjoyed our lunch here before we climbed on to the path leading alongside Blease fell.

The next photo shows Rosy, Andy and Alison looking across the valley to High Rigg.

We passed this impressive waterfall by following the path on to the Blencathra centre, passed it and walked down, across Derwent Folds, into Brundholme woods where we followed the path along River Greta to the hamlet of Forge. We crossed the bridge, followed the road for some time and climbed up to the old railway path which lead us back to Keswick. It was a very enjoyable walk for all of us including Dusk who couldn't get enough walking and playing with sticks. Thank you, Alison, for this wonderful day and good luck for your coming walks!