As a child I was lucky enough to spend a lot of my holiday time up in the Lake District, a beautiful part of the countryside just two hours north of the town that I grew up in. My sisters and I would be told tales of a mountain called Helvellyn just up in the valley from where we stayed. Too young and inexperienced to climb the peak, I never actually made it up there during those years and future visits to the area would also mark another trip where i didn’t quite make it. This made the mountain seem even more majestic to me as it was fast becoming the one that got away.All this was put to rest yesterday though, as a midweek family catch us brought us back up to this wonderful area for the night. Having logged an all day walk with my Mother and Sister, I set my alarm clock for 6am the following morning, woke up, checked the weather and duly set off with the aim of running up to the summit. My years of not climbing this peak became apparent as i found myself first on an adjacent peak having taken the wrong path 40 minutes earlier. A little bit of extra pace brought me to the summit where around 7am I captured this image (Sony RX100). It’s funny how a mountain that once seemed impregnable could actually be summited in a pre-breakfast run.As well as being a personal milestone, I also sensed the obvious changing of seasons. Having ran the previous week up in the Alps, it’s only too apparent how quickly the snow is melting with the signs of Spring everywhere. Last year took an awful long time for the mountain trails to open (into July for some of them), whereas it feels like we’re already on the cusp of a summer season.If that’s the case then i’m happy with that. Bring it on I say.
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