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tom scott - Eskdale, The Lake District, 1969
MALLORY PATROL, ESKDALE OUTWARD BOUND MOUNTAIN SCHOOL, COURSE E197, NOV TO DEC '69.
Woken each day at 6.30 am. Run down side of tarn to old stables in shorts and trainers for cold shower. Circuit training outside each day at mid day that involved lying on ground for some exercises before a hot shower. Bromide in tea at supper time. Excellent ropes course at back of building. Place was in a magnificent setting with modern accommodation block to one side, outstanding modern chapel to the other and a beautiful man made(?) lake at the front. Original building is a really beautiful Victorian mansion.
Mike Goff, patrol instructor, a non conformist, obsessive rock climber and excellent instructor. Roger Selman, temporary instructor, royal marine, brilliant bloke and outstanding pianist. On the fell race an older instructor we nicknamed "oberhaven bahanna,"� why, I never knew, showed us how not to run and on the steep bits passed most of us.
Lovely Christmas dinner one evening in the mansion with oak panelled walls and log fire. I was shipyard, one was a fireman, one a bank clerk, others were police cadets as well as others from other occupations. Last part of journey to and from the school was on Ravenglas to Eskdale railway, not as enjoyable in winter as it might be in the summer.
Voluntary abstinence from smoking and alcohol was rewarded with a badge at the end of the course that says "To serve, to strive and not to yield."� Brilliant experience that has helped me ever since to walk regularly in the lakes, and prepared me to learn skills that allow me to walk in the night to be on a summit for sunrise, the very best time of day to be on the fells, and in mid summer, having watched it to do four or five hours walking and be back down before most have started to walk. If you've never done it before, try parking at Gutherscale (Newlands), and walking even half way up Catbells, you'll never forget it and I would be surprised if it didn't become a habit.
Woken each day at 6.30 am. Run down side of tarn to old stables in shorts and trainers for cold shower. Circuit training outside each day at mid day that involved lying on ground for some exercises before a hot shower. Bromide in tea at supper time. Excellent ropes course at back of building. Place was in a magnificent setting with modern accommodation block to one side, outstanding modern chapel to the other and a beautiful man made(?) lake at the front. Original building is a really beautiful Victorian mansion.
Mike Goff, patrol instructor, a non conformist, obsessive rock climber and excellent instructor. Roger Selman, temporary instructor, royal marine, brilliant bloke and outstanding pianist. On the fell race an older instructor we nicknamed "oberhaven bahanna,"� why, I never knew, showed us how not to run and on the steep bits passed most of us.
Lovely Christmas dinner one evening in the mansion with oak panelled walls and log fire. I was shipyard, one was a fireman, one a bank clerk, others were police cadets as well as others from other occupations. Last part of journey to and from the school was on Ravenglas to Eskdale railway, not as enjoyable in winter as it might be in the summer.
Voluntary abstinence from smoking and alcohol was rewarded with a badge at the end of the course that says "To serve, to strive and not to yield."� Brilliant experience that has helped me ever since to walk regularly in the lakes, and prepared me to learn skills that allow me to walk in the night to be on a summit for sunrise, the very best time of day to be on the fells, and in mid summer, having watched it to do four or five hours walking and be back down before most have started to walk. If you've never done it before, try parking at Gutherscale (Newlands), and walking even half way up Catbells, you'll never forget it and I would be surprised if it didn't become a habit.