Greetings

[NealRussell]

Hello, I am the newest member of the forum i Believe. I am Neal.
I would like to commence my stay with a quick question.

The coming weekend I am coming to the Lake District for the first time, for the soul purpose of getting out on the Hill and Running. I cant wait and have been looking forward to it for a fair while now. I was just wondering if one of you guys can direct me to an online source on which i can get my hands on some routes because as things stand at the minute, i haven't the foggiest!

Sorry if this is a repost and there is something on routes some where on here... If that is the case i failed to find it, Searched FAQs and everything.
Many Thanks.

Neal

[Tahr]

Hi Neal Welcome to the site.

It might be a good idea to meet up with some of the lads off here to guide you round, if you go to the Bob Graham round threads there are lads meeting up to do a few of the BG legs. The conditions are pretty difficult in the lakes at the minute; I would say micro spikes and possibly an ice axe will be needed on a lot of the routes. Having experienced people with you would be very advisable in my opinion.

I was thinking of a trip to the Lakes myself this weekend but now are having second thoughts as I can run on snow and ice local to me.

ATB

Tahr

[NealRussell]

Thanks for getting back to me so swiftly. Meeting up with some guys sound a good idea. Always safe to be with others! The man who owns the place where I'm staying says a lot of the hills are passable now as the snow has melt away, but other reports on the web say there's still quite a bit of snow...
Like yourself, if by Thursday it still looking the same I may have to re consider an re schedule. I don't really want to be carrying an ice axe about.
I'm pretty experienced in the mountains so not to bothered about being alone, but I'm not going up onto the hill risking my life for the sake of it! Just want to get onto some good routes that don't require a nav check every few minutes and run about!

[DrPatrickBarry]

For a person new to running a running route would be no different to a walking route. So a good walking route book would be enough to give you ideas. As you get more experienced you will start to go off piste a lot more. The Bob Graham was mentioned earlier. There are some interesting discussions on those threads about route choice as very often the well established foot paths would not be the fastest route between two points. For instance going down hill soft grass is much nicer/faster than a rocky footpath.
That is the freedom of fell running where you just head off where you want!