Good to see that scientists, always so quick to dismiss anything they perceive to be ‘airy fairy’ till they’ve involved a furry creature or two, have finally caught up with things on the hearing front. Apparently, a series of experiments with ferrets, ‘which hear the same range of frequencies as humans and appear to distinguish…
Category: Mountain Rescue
An avalanche of social media and ‘how to survive’
‘You are only as good as you are at the moment people are listening’, wrote pianist Max Levinson in 2009. By which measure, I might well have peaked last week. Because, last week, people were definitely listening. I know this thanks to the verging-on-obsessive, mesmerised eye the Gremlin and I kept on the rapidly mounting…
Sir Chris Bonington, mountain rescue and misrepresentation in the media
‘Rival mountain rescue teams are competing to get to stranded climbers’, said Sir Chris Bonington on Friday morning, in both The Times and The Telegraph, adding that he considers mountain rescue ‘a sport’, in which the volunteers engage because they ‘enjoy the thrill’. None of these contests have ‘quite got to fisticuffs’, he said, despite getting…
Mountain man returns
It’s business as usual, now the wanderer has returned from his travels. The smelly bits of ski kit have been subjected to a good thrashing in soapy water, the ski boot inners duly aired and the clanky bits stowed away till next time. True to form, mere minutes in from stepping back through the door,…
Images from a warming climate: Interview with photographer Ashley Cooper
If you ever doubted it, climate change and global warming are here. Ashley Cooper travelled the world with his camera to record the devastation for his stunning coffee table book ‘Images from a Warming Climate’ and it makes sobering viewing.
On Risking Life and Limb and winning a TGO Award
Well that was a busy 48 hours! It’s times like these when you realise just how wide your ‘network’ is. Or isn’t. Although I’m happy to report that mine appears to be flourishing. And it always comes as a welcome surprise when you hear that people out there have actually read – no, not just…
Big shiny medals and bags of cash
Thanks to having been privileged to represent mountain rescue on a number of occasions, I’ve met some pretty amazing people, been invited to things I’d never have been invited to otherwise, in places I might never have seen. I’ve eaten dinner on the Cutty Sark, nibbled cucumber sandwiches at Buckingham Palace, quaffed champagne in the…
Party of the gods
If thunder and lightning is your thing, I can recommend no better spot than Vassiliki. I rather think that rascally pair, Eric the Wind God and his old mucker Zeus, have rather enjoyed this week’s humdingers, judging by the way they were throwing our balcony furniture around. What with that and the rattling shutters, all…
Gateway to the lakes…
Browsing the glossy sales brochure for the soon-to-be Strawberry Grange, I was fascinated to read that Cockermouth is ‘often described as the gateway to the Lake District’. It’s not an expression I’ve ever heard and nor had a straw poll of friends who’ve lived here all their lives. Surely you have to drive through or past most…
Weddings and water
‘Customers!’ The simple, heartfelt greeting from one very excited bar man, as the first of our friends to check in to the Trout Hotel for our Big Day, strode into his bar. His first of the day. In fact, the first two guests to check in to the hotel at all since 6 December 2015. Now here they…
Kidnapped
When it comes to stag dos, the under-25s are swearing off the alcohol in favour of ‘dry’ activities such as climbing, coasteering or generally risking life and limb over their livers. Or so said The Telegraph in June. Chilli Sauce, Britain’s largest stag celebrations company, has apparently reported a mere 30% of bookings involve alcohol –…
There but for fortune
It was thanks to the climbing gremlin we’d headed for Wales at the weekend. He and three other Cockermouth ‘rescue rock-rats’ had arranged to swap ideas with members of the Ogwen team on the Sunday. Would have been rude of me not to take the opportunity to visit too. Strange how the threads of life connect, often in the…
Hackette on the How 