And then the snow came . . .

I don't remember the last time I've lived somewhere with snow on the ground for so long, not including short stays in the Alps and elsewhere that is.

It started falling properly last Monday 2nd February, I left Manchester with continuous snow falling but not settling. As I travelled up the Hope Valley the snow increased in intensity until I arrived at home in Grindleford.

The snow was falling heavily back in Grindleford and I gratefully accepted a lift into the village that night. Once in the village, all sorts of mayhem was afoot! Traffic Police controlling the flow on the Hathersage road, with a large oil lorry stuck at the top of the Sir William Hill, and one car that had already been unable to halt itself in the snow and had hit the wall on the other side of the junction.

After all this drama, the following day was one of peace and quiet after the village received none of the usual traffic through it, and most didn't make it to work due to the treacherous roads. Children were out playing, sledging was in full flow on the perfect sledge field out of Froggatt woods.

For me, preceding this fall and after the fall, it led to some fantastic runs in the snow almost in solitude, passing only a few other runners. I got out for some great runs across the top of Froggatt and Curbar Edges.

A run on the Thursday in particular was spectacular, with fresh snow falling as I made my way up through the snow laden branches of the silver birch woods, with no one around except our springer spaniel, Dylan.

Once I'd made the push up the hill onto the top, via the road over Curbar gap, I set out across the top as the weather closed in. Stormy snow clouds drifted in and soon obliterated the usual fantastic views across the Hope Valley. The isolation I found in these clouds reminded me of winter climbing trips in Scotland, were often you have no more than 5 meters visibility, but the muffled sounds become eerie companions.

Jumping down the stone slabs that take you from the Curbar area of the edge to the Froggatt plateau, I have to take care to place my feet carefully. Drifts of snow cover rocks and possible ankle twisting scenarios. As I approach these rocks I pass two other runners coming up from Froggart, they too seem to be enjoying the relative isolation as much as I am.

I open up once on the Froggatt plateau and suck in the cold air, feeling my legs warm up in the falling snow as my pace quickens. My Innovate shoes are sticking to the snow as the applied pressure of the shoes melts the snow and then refreezes as I lift my shoes, letting in the cold air. This provides a strange sensation and noise as I make my way through the already surreal environment.

I cross the road and into the Longshaw Estate woods, dash across the stream and sprint up the last small hill before the descent into Grindleford. Again, taking care to place my feet onto solid ground, I pace down the hill and back to the sounds of sledging and children's laughter in the village. I love where we live.

The snows are going now, after being on the ground for almost two weeks. I don't remember the last time we had snow around for so long. They've provided some fun for children and adults alike over the last few weeks, but as they recede you start to think of Spring again.

I am sure there more cold snaps to come, well I hope so as I have a winter climbing trip planned to Scotland in March. But, this visit of snow will be remembered by me and many others for years, the snows that brought London to a standstill for several days.

Helvellyn weekend

We left the peak this weekend and returned to my home territory of the Lakes for a weekend at the Helvellyn Youth Hostel with a group of climbing friends. It's an annual event we have in different locations every year, with a weekend of outdoor activity doing what ever suits you, and then a fantastic meal laid on for the Saturday night.

We left our daughter at my parents for the Saturday night, and it was nice to relax and let our hair down knowing she was in safe hands. Eventually making it to bed at the unbelievably late hour of about 1.45am after a marathon session on Sing Star, encouraged by too much wine.

The evenings festivities had been precede for me by a fantastic run out on the tops around Helvellyn.

I climbed up from the Hostel along the side of White Side Bank, hitting the summit at the cairn there and then returning along the ridge to the summit of Raise.

Whilst up there it was fantastic, winter in full effect with fantastic winter views across most of the Lakes. Superb, reminding me why I love the mountains so much and more specifically my love of the Lakes.

With a few odd stares and a few questions asked I ran past walkers in gore-tex's and crampons, making sure my Inno's gripped the snow and ice well. Great fun.

From Raise I dropped down towards the mine workings above the Hostel, but feeling good I decided to push on further, turning east to go up again and aim for a contour round Sheffield Pike and into Glencoyne.

Glencoyne was beautiful, with no one else around, I traversed round to the fantastically named "Seldom Seen" farm, but before I reached there I headed up and over the shoulder of Sheffield Pike, leg burn on the push back up the steep incline reaching a maximum.

Once up and over the top I could feel the cold wind coming off the larger mountains at the top of the valley, reminding me that was still very much winter. Heading down the steep bank to the road that leads to the hostel, I have to dig my heals deep to ensure I don't lose my footing.

Back onto the track and I make my way back up to the hostel, my legs are heavy and my energy is starting to run low now. I push on, extracting what's left of my energy supply, as I do so my mind starts to wander with the end in sight. Passing the Travellers Rest, I can smell the ale drifting out of the bar and the quick gasp of warm air as someone opens the door. I'll be back here after a shower I think.

What a great weekend away we had.

Post OMM Review

Well for anyone who reads this blog, you will have read in my previous posts the lead up to the last weekend, my training and preparation for the OMM race in the Lake District.

You will now most likely of heard of the race on the national news after a weekend of intense weather. Granting insight into the little followed sport of fell running and the individuals who are involved.

It was, as expected, wet, windy and generally very wild. What follows is an account of Ayshea's (my wife) and my experience on the day of the race.

We had a late start time 11:05am, much to my annoyance, by the time we were under the start gun it was throwing it down with rain and the wind was picking up by the minute. It immediately started hampering our progress up to the first checkpoint. Knowing our times were going to be significantly affected by the weather compared to the early starters was frustrating.

After reaching the first check point we headed across the source of Sour Milk Gyhll to checkpoint two. Not being able to take the preferred route due to the extremely high torrent that the usual stream had now become, we contoured below Raven Crag and up to the second checkpoint.

Leaving the second checkpoint, by this stage thoroughly soaked to the skin but warm, we headed down to Honister Pass where we dropped in to empty our pockets of energy gels that we had already spent. In the cafe we found half the races participants, drying off, brewing up and generally making themselves at home. Presuming them retiring from the race, we zipped up and went back out into the weather to reach checkpoint 3, as we left we bumped into a fellow who asked if we were heading back to the base, bemused I looked back at him and told "no, why would we" and head off into the rain to find checkpoint 3. This must have been about 12.30pm-1pm.

Heading up the steep incline from Honister we passed streams of folk pouring off the side of Dale Head. Assuming they were on the score courses we ran on and headed off towards High Spy. After battling our way across the tops in wind and rain, which on the whole was coming from behind us we made good time to checkpoint 3. After turning around and heading back into the wind we released what the rest of the course was going to hold, very bad weather.

Reaching the crossing point of the stream at the top of Dale Head Crags by a technique of head down and just starring at a compass baring, we looked up to the summit to see squalling winds battering the top, with winds that must have been reaching 90-100mph. We decided it was unsafe to cross the summit and rerouted to run down the pass road and then up the hillside of Buttermere Fell to reach checkpoint 4. It was on our return to the Honister Pass that someone asked if we were still competing and we were then told the even had been called off.

We were disappointed, we'd been training for a long time for the OMM and wanted to achieve good times. But in the conditions it had just become a challenge to complete the course.

We ran down off the pass, back towards the HQ, encountering the deep water on the lane up to Seathwaite that had drowned several cars. Returning to Wilfs after checking in to get some welcome hot food.

After spending the night in our car, only occasionally waking to check the water levels weren't rising any further, we escaped the following morning.

In review, we didn't get much from the weather than we weren't expecting or didn't come prepared for. We knew before we arrived it was going to wet, very windy and generally very wild.

We were disappointed that we didn't get the opportunity to run much after all the training we'd put in. But we didn't blame the organisers for running the event, we wanted to go, its a mountain marathon for crying out loud and mountains can have bad weather.

I'm currently finishing off Richard Askwith's Feet in the Clouds, during the book Askwith covers the subject of risk and responsibility whilst on the fells eloquently. In my own opinion, which echoes most of Askwith's quotes from fell runners, I made the decision to compete on my own behalf, I didn't need anyone else to tell me what I could and could not do.

The freedom I find on the fells and the weather that mountains can throw at me is one of the many ingredients that actually brings me satisfaction from a day or night, or in fact several days in mountains. My decision to go out into the fells or larger mountain ranges are based on a life time spent walking, running and climbing in mountains, as were most of the other competitors in the OMM.

The inevitable press backlash on the event only saddens me further to see what a cushioned soft society we have become. A society where individuals will not only avoid all risks themselves, but they will go further and criticise those of us who take risks on our own behalf.

There's a animal part to the human spirit that is being heavily sedated in our sedentary office roles in modern life. It's unnatural in my opinion, and for those of us who still like to run like mad mountain goats once in a while jumping for rock to heather, we should be free to do so without criticism.

The OMM approaches

As a transgression from the last few posts on Digital Media, fell running.

Only a few weeks to go now till the OMM event and I can't wait to get over there and get thoroughly knackered, wet and miserable.

The training to date has continued to go well and I am currently trying shake off a seasonal cold, but even that didn't stop me fitting a 12km run along the edges (Froggatt, Curbar and Baslow) on Sunday.

I've invested in some new shoes from Accelerate as the New Balance M800's I've been running in over the summer occasionally let me down in wet open fell conditions, which are exactly the conditions I am expecting in Borrowdale in a few weeks.

Now its just a matter of some more light training, about a 25km run this weekend in Edale I think and then a much lighter weekend run the following weekend and we are there!

I'm looking forward to a challenging few days back in the Lakes, in an area I infrequently visit.

Avoiding injury and illness are my tasks now . . .

What I think about while I'm cycling . . .

Just reading "Murakami's" "What I talk about when I talk about running" and enjoying it immensely.

I try and mix up my reading with a bit of fiction, biography, educational, swapping alternatively to keep the interest levels up.

Every so often a book gets read at just the right time, I've just finished Wilfred Thesiger's "Marsh Arabs", which although interesting I was looking forward to moving on and it was no reflection of the book itself. I just wasn't what I was needing to read at the time.

"What I talk about when I talk about running" is timed to perfection. Over the last 8 months I've been workingto regain my fitness I had in my younger years and I have just reached a point when I am happy to call myself fit.

Murakami covers his path to writing, through jazz bars etc and then I finds the running he takes up helps him adapt to his new career choice. Falling almost in line with my recent career change and my progress back to fitness.

I've always been a big adovocate of fit body, fit mind and feel I am getting back to where I was a few years back, with a new lease of life in my career I felt invigorated and passionate about work again, something I've not felt for years. Now with my fitness returning I am actually starting to feel years come off my age.

But the real interest I find with Murakami's account of his life is the solitude he seeks when running and how this has helped him. This is something I seek in both my running, cycling and when out in mountains in general. It's a defrag of my mental hard drive, a resorting of unnecessary information and filing into the depths of my mind, whilst at the same time running over items of interest that I have active in my mind that might develop into projects for the future.

My hat off to you for your "as it is" account Haruki, perhaps if your passing the Peak District you can drop in for a run, but don't expect me to say much.

So Where Are We . . . ?

Probably going to be another quick post again, life seems so unrelenting at the moment, I suspect it might stay like this until our kids reach the age of about 30 . . . Anyway its all good at the moment.

I'm in a new job, which is great, working for agency out of Manchester called Elevator Digital and loving it. A predominately .NET agency so a new technology for me, but I've worked with Microsoft for so many years its all seems like an old friend.

The works good and varied, with it being a relatively small agency I am getting busy with all sorts, which at the moment is the way I'd prefer it. Briefs, tenders, bit's of CSS, design, client liaison, you get the picture . . .

In the meantime I've been doing some interesting background reading about human networks, after reading this interesting article about the "Tipping Point" and super influencers or Uber-Influencers as I like to call them.

It infers that there are individuals who are so in-tune with their social group that others turn to them for ideas and acceptance of what's the next big thing, the idea being that marketeers can then harness their potential to unleash a new brand or idea/trend and it will be picked up virally by others.

The article itself introduces a sceptical take on this devised and researched by a guy called Duncan Watts, a mathematician who has spent sometime researching and trying to prove the tipping point argument right or wrong.

I've got to say I'm in agreement with Duncan's finding so far. I've ordered his 6 degree's book to read further on the matter.

Like Duncan I do agree that there can be uber-influencers that can have a substantial affect on how a concept or product is adopted, but that this is not the only factor.

Tipping point famously talks of the adoption of Hush Puppies by uber-influencers and then how they then went on to out sell many much more established brands by the fact they had been worn by a number of uber-influencers and so been deemed as "cool", but I wonder and Watt's findings support this, had the uber-influencers been wearing clogs would they have become quite so popular?

I don't disagree that the market/popular thought/paradigm can be influenced by certain individuals that might speak/wear/buy things and everyone else watches and follows, or at least a large number do. But its just not that simple, it has to be at the right time and the right product, it can't just be anything.

Anyway, perhaps Watts himself is becoming an influencer and he's just got me at the right time, either way I'll read what he has to say and perhaps come back here and share my findings.

Well, the suns shining again here so I am going to don my running shoes and go for a fell run with the dog . . . laters.