"I'm eighty you know!"

Climbing Sca Fell with Steve Hartley....

30 years before, I climbed this mountain when visiting the Lake District for the first time with friends from Newcastle University.  It was December 1980, 2 months into my course, and the weather was snow, ice and practically a "whiteout".  I had none of the proper gear, and wore army issue boots and clothes, borrowed from the Officer Training Corps, which I had joined (but was soon to leave).  I had borrowed an ice axe as well, at the insistence of a climber at Uni who taught me how to use it.  This was fortunate, as I needed it.  I slipped and fell down an ice and snow covered steep slope, after 200 ft bringing myself to a halt with the ice axe.   It saved my life.  I climbed back up to the path, shaken but alive.  We never made it to the top, as the whiteout was too severe.

30 years on the weather was excellent - I remember the exact spot I nearly died (you tend not to forget such things!).  On the way down we meet an 80 year old man, who kept telling us, and the world, with evident pride, "I'm eighty you know!".

30 years from now I will be eighty.  I hope I can still fell walk then.