Walk up a big-ass mountain they said. It'll be fun they said.
We climbed Scafell Pike in the Lake District on the weekend and only now nearly a week later I can finally walk up and down the stairs again without any aches and pains!
We had brilliant weather for it - boiling hot sun, blue skies, no wind or breeze - but as Scafell Pike is SO steep this made it a much harder trek than Llanberis in Snowdonia. Or maybe I'm just that much un-fitter than last year.
It took us just over two and half hours to reach the top. Just as we were getting there with the summit finally in sight and a sense of accomplishment hitting us, a stream of race-runners went sprinting past us and completely stealing our thunder. LE SIGH!
When we finally made it back down to the bottom (which was almost as difficult as climbing up due to the steepness) we headed straight to the nearby pub for a celebratory beer. Not a runner in sight - no wonder they are able to sprint up mountains!
The day after we went for a day trip to Lake Windemere to help blow out the cobwebs. The day involved a much more leisurely walk with plenty of pit-stops (PUBS) to refuel along the way. Even the steamboat had a pit-stop!
Gear wise, I took my whole kitbag with me for the weekend (two cameras, three lenses, Gorillapod) I only took the X-T10 with the 35mm out on the day-trips, to give it a first real test with landscapes to see what it's capable of. I'm pretty happy with the results considering the 35mm (and X-T10 in general) isn't exactly built for landscape photography.
On the whole we had perfect weather for the weekend and I will certainly be making another trip up there in the future. It's simply a wonderful place to visit... especially for the landscapes and pubs!
