Notes from our first Walkshop - Find Your Path - Ambleside

There is a lovely afterglow that you bask in, after a big day out in the mountains, as your body rests and your mid swims with ideas that have been surfaced by your time outdoors, and I sit here writing this, surrounded that warm energy.

I had been feeling a little flat going into the weekend - the last couple of weeks have been a bit of a slog with no outdoor jaunts of note, and far too much time spent at a desk, in front of a screen, trying to make things happen.

A day out yesterday to deliver our first Meet Your Mountain Walkshop was very much needed.

The weather promised much, and it delivered, and after a beautiful drive past Lake Windermere, reflecting the craggy, towering mountains and the morning sun across its serene, shimmering surface, I arrived at the delightful Apple Pie Cafe in Ambleside, ready to meet and greet.

After a lovely catch up and intro chat over coffee, and a walk through what to expect, we headed out into the sunshine, and made our way towards Rydal, where the Fairfield Horseshoe begins.

We chatted about our intentions as we passed by fields and the stunning grounds of Rydal Hall, and set ourselves up for the tough climb up to the top of Nab Scar - probably the most exerting part of the day. We took our time as we climbed, and I reassured that we need not worry or feel we had to keep up - it’s not a race - and instead to go at our own pace, and stop when we needed to. We found that as people rushed past, we soon caught them again, a real-life telling of the Hare and the Tortoise playing out over the zig-zag path up the steep slope.

The route was busy as expected, but a bonus of the horsehoe is that it is very easy to come off the path and set down away from the passers-by, overlooking some stunning views. And stunning they were.

Taking in the beautiful views of Lake Windermere and Ambleside

We settled down and spent some time on a visioning exercise, but with a difference. I love visioning 10 years in the future and dreaming big, then working back, but sometimes it is useful, especially after discussing what’s on our mind and how we are currently feeling, to project forwards a year, and see how we feel about that. We found some interesting insights.

First, was that sometimes it’s good to remind ourselves that things might actually be good right now, and we don’t always need to burn everything down and start again, just tweak a few things along the way.

Second, was a realisation of where certain events in motion may end up, and the consequences of those. An expansive view in front of you can give you a huge dose of perspective,

We got up, and carried on to our first Wainwright of the day, Heron Pke. The views to our west opened wide, with all the fells of the central Lake District now visible. We stopped again on the approach to Great Rigg for a bite to eat and to reflect on the journey so far. After Great Rigg, Helvellyn came into view, and we made our final ascent up to Farifield.

The terrain had suddenly gone from ‘hilly’ to ‘mountainy’, as we headed up onto the usually-bleak boulder field that marks the summit of Fairfield. I remarked that for all the times I had been up here, I hadn’t once had clear views (the last time, the cloud rolled in conspicously about 10 minutes before I reached the top), but today, the weather really showed up, and I appreciated for the first time what a great vantage point the mountain is.

Actual cloud-free summit of Fairfield!

With Scafell, Scafell Pike, The Old Man of Conistion, Bowfell and Great Gable visible to our South West, Skiddaw and Blencathra to the north west, Helvellyn just north of us and St Sunday Crag looming large, adjacent to the east, it was a real ‘who’s who’ of all the giants of the Lake District. I’m always looking for a metaphor, and nothing was more obvious right now than how you need to lift your thinking above what’s going on around you, in order to get a clear picture (and of course we all reflected on this!)

We moved around the horseshoe, and on to Hart Crag. The east side of the horseshoe is a lot more rocky than the western side, and it was a bit of an adjustment for us, and a reminder of how sometimes the path can change during your journey. We nestled into the rocky hillside just beneath the suimmit of Hart Crag to do a second visioning exercise of the day - guiding the group to think of what a perfect life in 10 years time would look like.

It’s quite scary at the age of 43, thinking ahead this far - wondering where you will be, accepting that most of the kids will have moved out and the ‘shape’ of our lives will be very different. But it also puts things in perspective - it tells us as much as what we DON’T want as much as what we do. And there were some big decision made as we perched over 800m high, on a rock in the Lake District which would change the course of our lives.

We continued on to Dove Crag, sharing our visions, reflecting on the questions, and gaining an understanding of how the 10 year vision affected what we would be doing a year from now. And actions became clear as we looked at what we could do today to adjust our paths.

We continued our descent to High Pike and Low Pike - our seventh Wainwright of the day - both far more rocky that I had remebered (!), but we overcame the obstacles with ease. We found the route to be challenging, but not as bad as expected, pleasantly surprised by what we had achieved during the day.

A great time to reflect on the day

As the sun set and we rolled back into Ambleside, we finished off with one of my favourite little activites, as we sought out objects in our surroundings that represented our past, present and future. We shared why they were important, as we returned back to civilisation, having earned a well-deserved rest!

It was a stark reminder for me about just how powerful having these conversations in the mountains can be - I do wonder just how much of what we opened up about may have come out in a conference room, and for me at least, the memories of the walk, intertwines with the breakthroughs we made.

I’m reaffirmed my belief in how much Walkshops in the mountains can help people (I always have a winter-wobble when I’m not out quite so much, and I’m already looking forward to the next on, next month, on Scafell Pike!