I use Black Diamond Explorer flicklock poles and the hardened tips are now non existent.
Needle Sports at Keswick are retailers for Black Diamond - they have an excellent website and tend to stock bits and pieces as well as providing their own opinions on much of the gear. I have often bought from them over the years. I rate NS as an excellent outdoor shop with experienced outdoor enthusiast staff with good product knowledge and reliable advice.
Wednesday saw us off to Keswick where I learned the only solution was to replace the whole bottom section of the pole at £25 each, so I decided to carry on until disintegration forces pole replacement. The new and improved equivalent Black Diamonds are approximately £70 per pair. I would not have any other poles - they are sturdier than their competitors having been designed to double up as a ski pole, and the flicklock system has never collapsed on me. In my opinion the Leki type twistlock system is a design disaster. If the pole sticks in soft ground behind you the natural action is to twist as you pull to retrieve, thereby untwisting the locking mechanism. I fell onto a Leki pole in the snow descending Creag Meagaidh several years ago, and the one thing I can tell you is, that even allowing for the annoyance, they do make a very satisfying cracking sound when they break.
After our trip through The Lakes and back Winster valley walking was reduced to only a couple of miles, but we continued again on Thursday and Friday reaching Winster village before returning to the car.
For anybody with ambitions to live the quiet country life on the edges of The Lake District the Winster valley would be well worth considering.
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| A good bit of Lake District slate walling |
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| Whitbarrow ridge - a special location I have enthused about before |
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| The unpleasantly named Cowmire Hall - home of Damson Gin. Unusual three storey house for this region |
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| Bowland Bridge... |
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| ...and our River Winster looking upstream from the bridge |
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| Unusual gate hinge through a hole in the stone |
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| Fortunately there was a footbridge to the left. There is an interesting Geocache here which can involve getting the feet wet |
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| We followed the instructions and it didn't work... |
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| ...then we found there were two levers and we had used the wrong one. I don't cease to wonder at the ever increasing complexity of gate catches. This must have cost a lot to produce and it wasn't by any means easy to use. |
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| Winster House with additions for holiday renting |
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| Birket Houses - very secluded. I could not find much about it on the Internet, except that it is a listed building. I think it is split into several residences. |
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| "No public right of way" I don't think they need to worry about anybody trespassing into this gloomy brambly jungle |
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| Grand Designs? |
