In the British Isles 1 These are the official languages of the eight jurisdictions within the British Isles. Other languages are spoken, including several other native languages and dialects that have regional or special status, the terms hillwalking or fellwalking are commonly used to describe the recreational outdoor activity Outdoor activities usually mean activities done in nature away from civilization, such as hill walking, hiking, Hunting, backpacking, canoeing, running, kayaking, rafting, climbing, caving, canyoning, and arguably broader groups such as water sports and snow sports. Other similar activities include photography, cycling, kayaking of walking on hills A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills often have a distinct summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to a particular section of flat terrain without a massive summit and mountains A mountain is a large landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is generally steeper than a hill. The adjective montane is used to describe mountainous areas and things associated with them. The study of mountains is called Orography, often with the intention of visiting their summits In topography, a summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a local maximum in elevation. The topographic terms "acme", "apex", "peak", and "zenith" are synonyms. This can include activities which might be referred to as hiking Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking have been confirmed in studies. The word hiking is understood in all English-speaking countries, but there, backpacking Backpacking combines hiking and camping in a single trip. A backpacker hikes into the backcountry to spend one or more nights there, and carries supplies and equipment to satisfy sleeping and eating needs or mountaineering Mountaineering or mountain climbing is the sport, hobby or profession of walking, hiking, skiing, backpacking and climbing mountains. In Europe it is also referred to as alpinism, while in the Americas the latter term refers to a particular style of mountain climbing, that involves a mixture of ice climbing, rock climbing, mixed climbing, and elsewhere, covering terrain which can include terrain such as mountains, high moorland, remote passes and coastal walks.[1][2]

Fellwalking is specifically used to refer to hill or mountain walks in the Lake District The Lake District, also known as, The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes and its mountains , and its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth and the Lake Poets and Yorkshire Dales The area lies within the historic county boundaries of Yorkshire, though it spans the ceremonial counties of North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Cumbria. Most of the area falls within the Yorkshire Dales National Park, created in 1954, and now one of the fifteen National parks of Britain in Northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, or as the North, is a cultural region of England. It is not a government administrative region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the north is bordered by Scotland. At times in history the Isle of Man, today a as fell A fell is a word used to refer to mountains, or certain types of mountainous landscape, in Scandinavia, the Isle of Man, and parts of England is the preferred term for both features in those parts of England.

Contents

Participation

The panorama across Eskdale from Ill Crag. Harter Fell and Hard Knott can be seen, also a small tarn.

Britain The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[note 7] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land offers a wide variety of ascents, from gentle rolling lowland hills to some very exposed routes in the moorlands Moorland or moor is a type of habitat found in upland areas, characterised by low growing vegetation on acidic soils. Moorland nowadays generally means uncultivated hill land , but the Old English mōr also refers to low-lying wetlands (such as Sedgemoor, also SW England). It is closely related to heath although experts disagree on precisely what and mountains. The term climbing Climbing is the activity of using one's hands and feet to ascend a steep object. It is done both for recreation (to reach an inaccessible place, or for its own enjoyment) and professionally, as part of activities such as maintenance of a structure, or military operations is used for the activity of tackling the more technically difficult ways of getting up hills involving rock climbing Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route. Rock climbing competitions have objectives of completing the route in the quickest possible time or the furthest along an ever increasingly harder while "hillwalking" refers to the easier routes.

Some summits require climbing skills, and many hillwalkers will become proficient in scrambling Scrambling is a method of ascending rocky faces and ridges. It is an ambiguous term that lies somewhere between hillwalking and rock climbing. It is often distinguished from hillwalking by defining a scramble as a route where hands must be used in the ascent. There is less to distinguish it from climbing, with many easy climbs sometimes referred. In Britain, the term "mountaineering" tends to be reserved for expeditions abroad to ranges such as the Alps The Alps are one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west, or for serious domestic hillwalking, typically in winter, with additional equipment such as ice axe An ice axe is a multi-purpose ice and snow tool used by mountaineers both in the ascent and descent of routes which involve frozen conditions. It can be held and employed in a number of different ways, depending on the terrain encountered. In its simplest role, the ice axe is used like a walking stick in the uphill hand, the mountaineer holding and crampons Crampons can be made of hardened steel, or light weight aluminum. Lighter weight aluminum crampons are popular for alpine ski touring where the need to wear them is less frequent & counterbalanced by the need for a light pack yielding fast, efficient travel over long distances, or for routes requiring rock climbing skills such as the traverse of the Cuillin The Cuillin are a range of rocky mountains located on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The true Cuillin are also known as the Black Cuillin to distinguish them from the Red Hills across Glen Sligachan. The Red Hills are lower and, being less rocky, have fewer scrambles or climbs ridge. The British Mountaineering Council The British Mountaineering Council is the national representative body for England and Wales that exists to protect the freedoms and promote the interests of climbers, hill walkers and mountaineers, including ski-mountaineers. Its headquarters are on Burton Road in West Didsbury, an area of Manchester, England provides more information on this topic.[1]

In Britain, popular locations for hillwalking include the Lake District The Lake District, also known as, The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes and its mountains , and its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth and the Lake Poets, the Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in central and northern England, lying mainly in northern Derbyshire, but also covering parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, and South and West Yorkshire, the Yorkshire Dales The area lies within the historic county boundaries of Yorkshire, though it spans the ceremonial counties of North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Cumbria. Most of the area falls within the Yorkshire Dales National Park, created in 1954, and now one of the fifteen National parks of Britain, Snowdonia Snowdonia is a region in north Wales and a national park of 838 square miles (2,170 km2) in area. It was the first to be designated of the three National Parks in Wales, in 1951, the Quantock Hills & Exmoor Exmoor is a National Park situated on the Bristol Channel coast of South West England. The park straddles two counties with 71% of the park located in Somerset and 29% located in Devon. The total area of the park, which includes the Brendon Hills and the Vale of Porlock, covers 692.8 square kilometres of hilly open moorland and includes 55, the Brecon Beacons The Brecon Beacons is a mountain range in South Wales. It forms the central section of the Brecon Beacons National Park (Parc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog), one of Wales's three National Parks & Black Mountains, Dartmoor Dartmoor is an area of moorland in the centre of Devon, England. Protected by National Park status, it covers 954 square kilometres and the Scottish Highlands The Scottish Highlands include the rugged and mountainous regions of Scotland north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of A' Ghàidhealtachd, including the Cairngorms The Cairngorms are a mountain range in the eastern Highlands of Scotland closely associated with the mountain of the same name - Cairn Gorm, the largest National Park A national park is a reserve of natural or semi-natural land, declared or owned by a government, set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, animal and environmental protection and restricted from most development. While ideas for national parks had been suggested previously, what is held to be the first one established was the United States'. The mountains in Britain are modest in height, with Ben Nevis Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in the British Isles. It is located at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Lochaber area of the Scottish Highlands, close to the town of Fort William at 4409 feet (1344 metres) forming the highest peak, but the unpredictably wide range of weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere as measured on a scale of hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or storm, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate is the term for the average atmospheric conditions conditions and often difficult terrain can make walking in many areas challenging.

Peak bagging Peak bagging is an activity in which hillwalkers and mountaineers attempt to reach the summit of some collection of peaks, usually those above some height in a particular region, or having a particular feature provides a focus for the activities of many hillwalkers. Among the many lists compiled for this purpose, with the Munros A Munro is a mountain in Scotland with a height over 3,000 ft . They are named after Sir Hugh Munro (1856–1919), who produced the first list of such hills, known as Munro's Tables, in 1891. A Munro top is a summit over 3,000 ft which is not regarded as a separate mountain. As of the 2009 revision of the tables, published by the Scottish – mountains in Scotland over 3,000 feet (914.4 m) – particularly popular, and Corbetts and Marilyns gaining in popularity.[3]

The Ramblers Association, the British Mountaineering Council The British Mountaineering Council is the national representative body for England and Wales that exists to protect the freedoms and promote the interests of climbers, hill walkers and mountaineers, including ski-mountaineers. Its headquarters are on Burton Road in West Didsbury, an area of Manchester, England and the Mountaineering Council of Scotland promote the interests of hillwalkers in the UK and provide information for their members and others.

Microsites which champion the cause of hillwalking or fellwalking include The Online Fellwalking Club.

Considerations

Llyn y Fan Fawr in the Black Mountain, one of the less frequented parts of the National Park

In England The area now called England has been settled by people of various cultures for about 35,000 years, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant and Wales Wales ( /ˈweɪlz/ Welsh: Cymru; pronounced [ˈkəmrɨ] (help·info)) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. Wales has a population estimated at three million and is officially bilingual; Welsh and English have equal status, and bilingual signs are the, access has in the past been confined to public rights of way In England and Wales, public rights of way are paths on which the public have a legally protected right to pass and re-pass. The law in England and Wales differs from that in Scotland in that rights of way only exist where they are so designated whereas in Scotland any route that meets certain conditions is defined as a right of way, and in, but currently wider areas have been opened up to public access by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. In Scotland Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland the traditional presumption is of a right of access to the countryside - provided no damage is done to crops, livestock and hunting activities including deer stalking Deer hunting is the activity or sport of pursuing deer which began as early as 7,000 BC.[citation needed] There are numerous types of deer throughout the world that are hunted.[citation needed]. These rights and obligations are now codified in the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. In Ireland Ireland (pronounced [ˈaɾlənd],; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen); Ulster Scots: Airlann) is the third largest island in Europe and the twentieth largest island in the world. It lies to the northwest of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland is Great Britain, separated from the issue of access has become increasingly contentious in recent years due to a reluctance to introduce effective legislation. Many landowners in the west of Ireland are openly hostile to walkers.

Liathach Liathach is one of the most famous of the Torridon Hills. It lies to the north of the A896 road, in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland, and has two peaks of Munro status: Spidean a' Choire Leith at the east of the main ridge, and Mullach an Rathain at the western end of the mountain. The name Liathach is pronounced [ˈʎiə.əx] in Scottish seen from Beinn Eighe. With the Munro A Munro is a mountain in Scotland with a height over 3,000 ft . They are named after Sir Hugh Munro (1856–1919), who produced the first list of such hills, known as Munro's Tables, in 1891. A Munro top is a summit over 3,000 ft which is not regarded as a separate mountain. As of the 2009 revision of the tables, published by the Scottish “Top“ of Stuc a' Choire Dhuibh Bhig (915 metres) in the foreground and the two Munro summits in the background.

Navigation Navigation is the process of reading, and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks. The word navigate is derived from the Latin "navigate", which is the command "sail". More literally and map-reading skills are essential, as conditions of poor visibility can arise unexpectedly at any time due to the variability of British weather The United Kingdom straddles the geographic mid-latitudes between 50-60 N from the equator. It is also positioned on the western seaboard of Eurasia, the world's largest land mass. These boundary conditions allow convergence between moist maritime air and dry continental air. In this area, the large temperature variation creates instability and and the risk of rain, low cloud, fog or the onset of darkness. In some areas it is common for there to be no waymarked path to follow. It is unwise to venture out into the hills without navigation skills, an Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey is an executive agency of the United Kingdom government. It is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, and one of the world's largest producers of maps. The name reflects the original military purpose of the organisation in mapping Britain during the Napoleonic Wars when there was a threat of invasion from France, and its map or walk guidebook, and a compass A compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the Earth's magnetic poles. It consists of a magnetized pointer free to align itself with Earth's magnetic field. The compass greatly improved the safety and efficiency of travel, especially ocean travel. A compass can be used to calculate heading, used with a sextant to. In most areas proper walking-boots are essential, and hillwalkers should always have good weatherproof clothing, including spare warm clothes and in mountainous areas a survival bag in case an accident forces a prolonged, and possibly overnight, halt. Food and water should also be carried, along with an emergency whistle A whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a large multi-piped church organ, torch/flashlight (and spare batteries) and first aid kit. A fully charged mobile phone is useful (where reception permits) and walkers should let someone know their route and estimated time of return or arrival ("ETA").

Scrambling

Scrambling is a method of ascending rocky faces and ridges. It is an ambiguous term that lies somewhere between hillwalking and rock climbing. It is often distinguished from hillwalking by defining a scramble as a route where hands must be used in the ascent. There is less to distinguish it from climbing, with many easy climbs sometimes referred to as difficult scrambles. A distinction can be made in defining any ascent where hands are used to hold body weight, rather than just for balance, as a climb. While much of the enjoyment of scrambling depends on the freedom from technical apparatus, unroped scrambling in exposed situations is potentially one of the most dangerous of mountaineering activities. For this reason most guidebooks advise carrying a rope, especially on harder scrambles, which may be used for security on exposed sections, to assist less confident members of the party, or to facilitate retreat in case of difficulty. Above all, scramblers are advised to know their limits and to turn back before they get into difficulties.

Striding Edge from Helvellyn

Many of the world's mountaintops may be reached by walking or scrambling up their least-steep side. These routes are not always obvious, but mountaineering books generally mention them; they are often used as the safe and easy way to descend from a more difficult route. A more extreme version of scrambling is rock hopping which entails jumping from one rock to another, often without the protection of a rope.

Sharp Edge

Ridge routes are especially popular in Great Britain, including Crib Goch leading to Snowdon mountain top, the north ridge of Tryfan or the nearby Bristly Ridge on Glyder Fach, Striding Edge on Helvellyn and Sharp Edge on Blencathra in the Lake District as well as numerous routes in Scotland such as the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glencoe. Many such routes include a "bad step" where the scrambling suddenly becomes much more serious. The bad step on Crib Goch for example, involves only 20 feet or so of climbing, but the position is exposed and the faint-hearted might retreat at this point. The rock face here is well polished by countless boots, and might seem dangerous, but there are many "jugholds" which offer firm support. The way beyond to the ridge proper is then easy scrambling, and the ridge itself offers interesting diversions either onto a safer path below or via crags with a very high level of exposure. By contrast, the traverse of the Cuillin Ridge on Skye demands use of a rope at one point at least, and is not for the inexperienced scrambler. The ridge routes of Liathach and Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross are easier to traverse but are extremely exposed. Descent from such ridges is very limited, so once committed, the scrambler must continue to the end.

It is however, important to appreciate that many easy scrambles in good weather become serious climbs if the weather deteriorates. Black ice or verglas is a particular problem in cold weather, and mist or fog can disorientate scramblers very quickly. The problem of hypothermia occurs in rain as well as mist owing to the cooling effect of precipitation. Since good weather is the exception rather than the rule in the British mountains, scramblers normally go equipped with a cagoule or anorak and other protective clothing as well as emergency supplies of food and hot drinks. A high resolution map is also an essential accompaniment so that the route can be followed with accuracy, and escape envisioned via recognised paths in the case of bad weather or injury.

See also

External links

Notes

  1. ^ a b Alex Messenger (4 April 1999). "BMC - Safety & Skills". British Mountaineering Council. http://www.thebmc.co.uk/Feature.aspx?id=1568. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
  2. ^ "Mountaineering Ireland (Previously MCI)". Mountain Leader Training Northern Ireland. Mountaineering Ireland. 2009. http://www.mountaineering.ie/aboutthemci/tier1viewdetials.asp?ID=8&Tier1ID=8. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
  3. ^ "Munros and Corbetts". Mountaineering Council of Scotland. http://www.mcofs.org.uk/munro-corbett.asp. Retrieved 2010-06-17.

Categories: Mountaineering | Hiking | Mountains and hills of the United Kingdom

 

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