A fell that can feel like Everest
The northern outlier of Carrock, 2,168ft (661m), is a craggy dumpling, like its old Cumbrian and Norse name "Rock Fell" suggests. En route to visit Doug Scott I drive past Carrock fell boulders jumbled by the Mungrisdale to Hesket Newmarket road. As abrasive as an angle-grinder, these big gabbro rocks, more akin to the Cuillin of Skye than Lakeland, become as frosted in winter as glacier mints. It is apt then that Scott, 74, has such an electrifying mountain so nearby.
Barrel-chested and busy - one minute telephoning Kathmandu where his charity Community Action Nepal (CAN) raises money for Sherpa families, the next forking his garden - he tells me over instant coffee how Carrock gives cliffhanging winter ice climbing. I heft one of the two short ice axes he wields on steep ice. Perfectly balanced, it swings like a tennis racket, arcing overhead. Next I feel the front points of his crampons. Sharp! Clipped under his plastic winter boots - rigid like ski boots - crampons and boots are clamped together by a toe bar and heel clip.
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