Rock n’ Col

Any youthful ambitions I had to become a rock star finally bit the dust this weekend.

For most rock stars when faced with a piano which requires trashing would push it out of a window or set about it with a sledgehammer.

I’m instead armed with wire cutters, a tenon saw, crowbar and screwdriver. I have to protect the décor, obviously.

This was Helen’s idea. To dismantle a piano which only cost her £50 12 years ago and which has half the notes missing (the useful ones such as F sharp, for example) seemed such a good idea at the time. It’s better than the other option, which to quote Verdi (and hence a bit of Italian) would have involved taking the piano (the instrument) from the secondo piano (1^st floor) to the primo piano (ground floor) with great piano (care) and very piano (slowly). Glad that’s cleared that up.

Why do I tell you all this? Well it provides three paragraphs of text on a weekend where I did very little training. And it made my arms hurt after taking about four hours to render it to its component pieces (which seems to involve more wood than you would have imagined). This winter we may be burning piano on the open fire – the economy must be looking up.

So to Sunday, where Helen, I and Dawn Gill are at Threlkeld. We look up at Blencathra (it’s raining), we look at the car (it’s warm and dry), we look crestfallen. But there’s no stopping us. We climb the steep lower slopes of Gategill Fell (aka ‘Smithy’s Route’ – copyright to follow), and then up the screes through strong winds, cold and rain onto the col south west of the summit. Doc Martin, Leechy and Ray have come down the ‘parachute route’ to complete Leg 1, but of course we missed them in the mist.

From Blencathra summit we took the Doddick Fell route off and back to the car. Some days it’s just best to cut your losses.

So instead, here’s the support crew so far for my BG attempt:

Leg 1 – Ray Gill, John Hooson (Ambleside)

Leg 2 – Mark Bell, Mike McKenna, Martin Benson, Ben Beachell (Eryri) 

Leg 3 – Baz, Stuart Hurst

Leg 4 – Dave Deason, John Leech, Mick Pearcy

Leg 5 – Helen Smith, Dawn Gill, John Hodgson, Helen Deason and Julie Pearcy, Dawn W (Harrogate)


Click on the painting and then click on it again to full size it.