Recently coming across a list of questions to ask yourself in your blog, one of them was “Has anyone ever threatened to kill you, fully meaning it? If so, did he or she attempt it? Elaborate.”
This reminded me of a trip to the lake district at the age of about 16 with my sister Jess and my best friend at the time, Tom. We planned a week of serious hiking carrying in our back packs seriously outdated and heavy camping equipment, including the steel-poled double-canvas tent I got from my uncle when i was about 6.
To cut a long story short, we had a hard time getting from one hostel or camp site to the next each day because we had planned our route such that there was always a big mountain to cross in the middle.
On the day which we climbed Sca Fell Pike twice because my watch magnetised the compass (both being in my map case to keep somewhat dry), the second ascent was a “short-cut” which I ingeniously suggested to cut down on the height we had to gain on our second ascent. We still ended up climbing almost to the same height as the summit, but took a 70-degree scree slope instead. I was bursting with energy and feeling a bit guilty for my error, so ran up, dumped my bag, went back for jess’s bag, hauled that up and went back down for Tom’s bag. I was somewhat surprised that he did not even thank me for doing so, until I learned later that the only way he had managed to get himself to the top of that ridge, was by promising himself that he would kill me when he got there.