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Date & start time: Wednesday 25th March 2009. 10.30 am start.

Location of Start : George Fisher's Shop, Borrowdale Road, Keswick, Cumbria, Uk ( NY 266 232)

Places visited : Castlerigg, Great Wood, down to Calfclose Bay, The Ings, Theatre by the Lake, Hope Park and back to the shop.

Walk details : 4.25 ml, 625 ft of ascent, 2 hours 10 mins.

Highest point : Castlerigg path 632 ft ( 194m)

Walked with : Graham from Suunto plus colleagues from George Fishers.

Weather : A poor forecast but it turned out nicely . . . sunshine and high clouds.

George Fishers shop in Keswick . . . all work and no play ?

A staff training day in the shop today and Graham, the trade rep from Suunto was in to introduce new people,

and refresh us oldies, in the finer points of the Suunto Wrist Computer range.

The best way to test them is to take them out for a walk !

Graham (dark Icebreaker jumper with arm stripes) introduces us to the range and offers us each a Suunto Watch for our walk.

We need to make our way out of town so we start by walking up St Johns Street past the Alhambra Cinema.

For those who can make it to Keswick, the Alhambra is a classic Art Deco Cinema

but shows all the latest films to a modern standard. It is also home to the Keswick Film Festival.

We arrived at work having seen a poor weather forecast

but it has cleared to a really nice morning.

First view of the fells from Springs Road is of Maiden Moor and Catbells.

Causey Pike makes an appearance round the side of Castle Head.

There's still a few patches of snow on Crag Hill behind.

Leaving the road, we strike up through the woods.

The increase in the slope and the consequent increase in effort

could be noted by those using the Suunto Heart Rate monitors.

[ They'll be good for training aids for those a little more energetic than I ]

Woodland daffodils in full bloom.

[ Stop taking pictures of flowers . . . you're supposed to be working ]

Great End and Scafell Pike seen over Castle Crag and a particularly scenic old farm trailer.



We climb up towards the TV mast at NY 279 224	A quick check of the watch confirms where we are !

Did I mention this was a working day ?

The wrist watch is the Suunto X10 with Compass, altimeter, barometer with built in Gps.

Top of this section of the Suunto range, it is most accurate when sampling position every second but for extended walking or trekking it is probably best used by pressing "find position" as and when required.

[ details:- locked on to 5 out of six satellite signals received, estimated position error 1m. Grid reference as shown ]

We stop above the tower in order to check the readings on our other Suunto watches.

Having set the altitude at the start of the walk

we checked our current height and the amount of climb needed to get here.

When walking a mountain path or ridge, a known altitude will indicate to you where you are on that path.

Accuracy depends on whether you are on or between contour lines of course.

We also brought a Garmin Gps to check the efficiency of the X10.

Both are in full agreement as to where we are.

The Etrex is a better bet if you want positive forward navigation including planning a route in advance,seeing a map on screen and playing back the route later on a program like Memory Map.

If you have Memory Map on your computer click here to see the Etrex tracklog.

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The X10 though is a very interesting bit if kit !

It will give position in O.S and other grid references, plot distance, time, tracklog your walk, will follow a route, plot waypoints and perform trackback in addition to all the normal Suunto outdoor watch features. It will even talk to Memory Map and Google Earth though we didn't try these aspects in the short time we had available.

Having stopped for a while discussing the products we took the path down through Great Wood rather than extend the walk onto Walla Crag.

Ahead of us was a fine panorama of Derwent Water and the North Western Fells.

Click here or on the photo above for a wider annotated picture of this fine view.



Down through the woods, with Blea Crag and High Spy ahead.	Time to be getting back . . . so we walk down towards the lake.

Calfclose Bay . . . we're making our way over to the large boulder on the shoreline ahead.

It has been cut open to reveal an unusual central core.

We've stop again to check the altimeters . . .

One of the Suunto range is known as a Core . . . it's an updated Vector watch.

Time functions, Barometer, altimeter and compass are it's four main features.

There followed a few minutes of discussion as to it's purpose and meaning.

You may select from the following or even see new meaning yourself :-

A Weather Reporting Device

If it's wet it's raining - if it's dry it's fine

If it's underwater it's been raining for a long time !

The Celtic appearance of the design

reflects the Eternity of Life

viewing the design as a never ending thread.

Scientists discover a new

and totally unexpected proof

of the existence of "stone eating" woodworms.

The stone actually commemorates the relatively recent Centenary of the National Trust.

Its 100 segments representing the 100 years that the Trust had been in existence.

I like to think of it as human interaction with nature.

Sensitive, man made yet interesting art in a natural setting . . . relying on that very nature to draw out it's true meaning.

At the head of the lake the storm clouds are brewing above Castle Crag and the central fells.

Will this afternoon's crew get a soaking when they are out on their training course with Graham ?

For us a walk back now close to the lakeside, here crossing Brockle Beck.

Winter erosion is evident by the amount of stone and other debris in this part of the woodland.

Tricky navigation here . . . the altimeter isn't much help at the moment !

Next to the Lakeside car park is the Keswick Mountain Rescue base.

[ Supported entirely by voluntary contributions ]

There is currently an open petition to Downing Street which you may wish to read about and sign.

This petition is aimed at ensuring the mountain rescue service is exempt from VAT on all of their equipment and spending as they provide a service that would otherwise be very costly to the Government. This service should be able to mirror the Lifeboat and other voluntary services.

Click here or on the pictures above to sign the petition against VAT on our Mountain Rescue Services. ( Closing date is 6/5/09 )

[ Press your backspace key afterwards to return to this spot ]

Hope Park on the way back to town.

A new pavilion is being built to replace the old green golf kiosk and plant stall.

Further landscaping here and on the foreshore will be ready for the summer season.

A real tidy up and boost for this popular area of town.

Back to base, time to maybe discuss the Suunto range over lunch

and then it's back to work while the others receive their training this afternoon.

Cheers Graham ( and George Fishers of course )

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Technical note: Pictures taken with with my Cannon G7 Digital camera.

Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.

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Previous walk - 22nd March 2009 I am Sale-Ling with James H

A previous time up here - 2nd May 2006 Walla Crag with Ken Ledward of KLETS

Route plan and tourism details of this and other Keswick walks courtesy of Keswick.org