What goes up, must come down

The welcome sight of a Cumbrian dry-stone wall on a murky February day offers John Lewis-Stempel solace, as he navigates the spooling, rocky path down from one of the Lake District’s cloud-capped peaks

John Lewis-Stempel

I’LL say it myself. I’d scampered up Harter Fell like a mountain goat, or at least like the Lake District’s local Herdwick sheep. Despite the incessant rain, I’d enjoyed the musicality of the stony Gatescarth Pass under my boots: the susurration on substrate, the decided bass ‘thonk’ on slabs, the lovely ‘tink’ of rolled pebbles. Sole music. There was no view from the top at 2,552ft: Harter Fell was cloud-capped and the view denied to me. There was only the intimation of forbidding mountains all around, of being in Lakeland, England’s own personal Himalayas. I wandered through the mist and thawing snow-sludge on the round crown for a minute or two to confirm my ascent, before heading down. On reaching Little Harter Fell at 2,234ft, everything changed. The afternoon wind…

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Country Life (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 26, 2025

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