A week in Farrier Cottage

Roseberry Topping from the bottom.

AS some of you may know, in October TeamFell took a short break and headed up to the North York Moors. Since returning my writing and uploading routine has gone out the window, but take it as a good sign that I am sat here with a pen once again in hand. That’s not a false claim either, I write everything out initially on paper. 

In the three weeks of being back at home, we have a dog, Viggo to be precise, a three-year-old Smooth Collie, on Twitter be sure to follow: @ViggoTheSmooth. Other than that, we have had family and friends coming to stay for the other two weekends so time to get stuck into some writing has been some what hard to come by. 

Great Ayton bathed in autumnal sunshine.

But change settles into routine and all is returning to normal with the addition of a fantastic dog. Back to our break anyway! As some of you may know from a previous post we stayed near a village called Great Ayton, in the tiny village of Ingleby Greenhow.

After setting out on the friday night after work we flew up the A1 and A19 in pitch black conditions. An hour and half after leaving home we were greeted by the warm light glowing out from the glass door of Farrier Cottage.

Part of the family had arrived earlier in the evening and good old mum had got a curry on. The building is a converted farm structure and is renovated beautifully within. The stone flag floor was kept toasty by the brilliant underfloor heating which was powered by the biomass boiler on the farm. 

The exposed stone of the walls and the earthy colours of the wooden trim ooze cozy country cottage but the mezzanine upper floor gave this place a modern edge too. It was kitted out with a kitchen dining room, lounge, level access shower room, two bathrooms and three bedrooms as well as a double sofa bed. This accommodation was perfect for us and ideal for you if you have plenty of family to share this lovely place with.

If you want to have a look at the prices and availability for this place here’s the link for Farrier Cottage via the Sykes website: http://www.sykescottages.co.uk/cottage/North-York-Moors-Coast-Ingleby-Greenhow/Farrier-Cottage-18059.html.

Falling Foss 

Whilst away we visited Whitby on 3 occasions. The first of these was part of a beach walk from Sandsend , just north of Whitby and at this time of year the beach is dog friendly, so Jasper had a great time doing the three mile each way wander. What we enjoyed was a cracking portion of award winning fish and chips from the Magpie Cafe.

We were also lucky enough to catch the seaside town preparing for is infamous halloween weekend, the streets were full of eccentric fancy dress so even a quick look round the shops packed some fantastic atmosphere. 

And the charming Falling Foss tea garden.

There was a nice short walk that we discovered at a spot called Littlebeck where a path followed a woodland stream and eventually ends up at the Falling Foss tea garden and its namesake waterfall.

On a beautiful day we had a pop at the area’s dramatic looking peak Roseberry Topping. The 1,050 foot hill took only thirty five minutes to scale but admittedly we did take the simple route from the main road. Other routes from Great Ayton via Captain Cook’s monument or from Guisborough forest looked to provide a better more fulfilling climb. Nonetheless the view over the surrounding valley was lovely, punctuated with towns, moors and the sea. 

All in all we had a fantastic rest and spent the rest of the time together as a family, so who can complain.

Last thing, if you haven't followed our dog Viggo, do it now! @ViggoTheSmooth

Cheers,

#TeamFell

Roche Moutonée

TO begin, if you have never seen nor heard of a roche moutonée, fear not! You have come to right place, here at Fell within the Fell Words section we look at the meanings behind some of things hillwalkers come across all the time but sometimes go unnoticed or just never get researched. One thing is for certain we guarantee you will have seen one of these!

A roche mountonêe is a glacial trough formation and it’s name originates from the french words for rock sheep, because some look like a sheep in a field from a distance. 

The distinctive feature of a roche moutonée is it’s shape, it has a smooth inclining stoss (up valley) surface and a rough jagged steeper lee (down valley) slope. 

A brilliant example of a roche moutonée in the
Nant Ffrancon glacial valley.

The formation occurs as a glacier advances down valley and it comes into contact with a mass of resistant hard rock. It can't erode the resistant rock so the glacier has to move over it. Due to the increase in pressure some of the ice melts at the glacier bed and causes basal sliding. As the glacier moves up and over the resistant outcrop debris or moraine scratch the surface of the rock and leave striations that are still visible today.

On the downslope of the the roche moutonée the surface changes dramatically, the gradient steepens and the smooth striated facia of the stoss side is all gone. 

Now as the pressure that previously melted the ice at the bed of glacier reduces the water refreezes while in contact with the lee side. Plucking then occurs leaving a jagged, sharp and angular surface to this side of the formation. 

In terms of size, the formations vary greatly, some can be one or two metres in length others can be around 100. Keep your eyes peeled when out and about in area of glacial history as once you are familiar with the standout shape you will recognise them frequently.

A diagram showing the formation of a roche moutonée.

A good place to spot loads of these features is in the valley leading up to Easedale Tarn from Grasmere, Cumbria. Littering the valley floor either side of the Easedale Beck you will see an array of examples large and small so be sure to check that out. 

As always thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this, but I need you to do one more thing! Get your email put in the sub box and be notified when any new content goes live. Please hit that +1 button and tell us about any good examples of roche moutonées you can think of in the comments.

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As always, 

Cheers

#TeamFell

Adidas Terrex Fast R Mid Gore-Tex Boot Review

TO begin, these are my everyday boots, they have done plenty of miles so this review is full of real life information.

Just an overview of the Adidas Terrex Fast R's.

These Terrex boots out of the box promise to be waterproof, lightweight, supportive and comfortable. And to give a small preview of what is to come, in my experience they have met all those promises and more.

The most important feature for me in these boots were the waterproof qualities, after my previous boots fell short of this requirement. The Adidas Terrex Fast R’s have a Gore-Tex membrane lining which suggests that it will keep out the water, protect you from the elements and keep you comfortable. I can vouch for the waterproofness of these shoes as I have relied on them in about half a dozen heavy wash out days of varying severity and in every case they stayed fully dry. From straight down saturating deluges to cross wind fuelled fell top cloudburst, I really can’t complain with regards to their weather resistance. 

After previously owning a glorified pair of rubber clogs, I really liked the lightweight attributes of these walking boots, the numbers given for a UK size 8.5 boot weighted in at 405 grams. Adidas achieve this by using innovative materials such as the abrasion-resistant air mesh upper and the lightweight EVA midsole. I have to confess that when trying on these boots in Blacks in Ambleside, I recall telling Claire that is was like having clouds on my feet! These are ace for long days walking as in my experience you don’t find yourself dragging your feet in these.

In the past I have had a few fatigued tumbles due to my ankles involuntarily deciding they had done enough. But since changing into these it hasn't happened. The key features that offer such support are in abundance on this shoe. The nice mid cut comfortably wraps my ankle and the Formotion heel unit inspires confidence at any gradient. Both these features when used in conjunction with the lacing system add up to a fantastic design. The snug fit throughout the heel, fore-foot and ankle mean that you have sterling support across the whole foot. The boots work hard for you and keep the foot in comfortable, healthy shape, overall the cut and heel unit are game changing for my feet.

That tyre rubber showing!

Closely linked to the support offered by these walking boots is the comfort. The moulded Ortholite sock liner welcomes you into the boots and keeps you tucked in all day, the insole does feel moulded to you. The Adiprene+ cushioning adds another degree of comfort to this shoe as on trails your feet feel as though there are no imperfections to the paths you walk.

Now coming onto protection and durability, you would expect a lightweight pair of sport hybrid walking boots to show it’s weakest hand here. Well, so far, there is no sign of damage to the boots as you can see from the photos and video and they have kept me in good nick too! The toe bar is a god send on this product, this area as you know takes the brunt of the hits and the addition of this to the Terrex’s adds years onto their life expectancy. The synthetic overlays on the air mesh upper also adds to the structural rigidity and all round 360 degree protection of the shoe. The solid Formotion heel unit stops any accidental rear knocks from doing yourself a mischief and stands up to really tough tests!

The eye catching modern appearance is a head turner
for sure!

Apart from the previous fairly generic aims of a boot, there are a few features on this shoe that make it stand out from the crowd. The first is the brand, a few people will say: “oh, Adidas they just make sports kit and football boots.” In my experience the Terrex range is really fit for purpose. 

Another thing that stands out is the looks and styling and this was one of the main reasons I went for this boot. Yes your traditional outdoor brands produce boots fit for purpose, of course they do, but the styling of these in relation to the price point made the decision easy. 

The grips show very little sign
of wear.

Other boots that I looked into prior to purchase were colourful examples such as: 

The North Face Verbena II’s at £140

The Salomon Wings Sky GTX 2’s at £139.99

And La Sportiva’s Trango S Evo GTX’s at £200+

All these other modern, fresh boots are a fair bit more and as the Adidas Terrex Fast R Mid’s were just £95 on sale at Blacks, I made the leap so to speak.

The grip of these boots is certainly noticeable in comparison to my previous shoes and Adidas would say that it is down to the Continental tyre rubber that the soles are formed from that give great grip, especially in wet conditions. 

The lacing system is a nice touch too. The speed lacing works with a connected loop of lacing being tightened by a one directional toggle, with a release catch for loosening. This means no more stopping to tie soggy untied laces, should you need to re-tighten them, it needn’t slow you down, just a quick pull on the toggle and away you go. The system seems successful as my boots hardly ever need tightening even after a full days walk, and the aesthetic of the system adds to the overall modern appearance.

The instep of my UK size 11's.

Finally this product from Adidas is suited for someone who is fairly fast paced. Whether this comes in the form of a fell runner in need of a little more support or just a walker who likes the light minimal feel to these shoes, they still have enough grunt to protect you from the elements and keep you going all day. 

These are boots that can keep up with you!

The Terrex range offers many different cuts of boot and also have a ladies range too. I have been amazingly impressed by mine so I have to recommend them to you! Be sure to check them out!

If you havent watched it already be sure to go watch our video review of the boot, go on, do it now! 

Thank you to all the supporters we have, all the Twitter retweets don't go unnoticed so thank you! As always, get your email in the sub box and follow us on Twitter @TeamFell Check out our Youtube channel and spread shirt shop too!

Cheers

#TeamFell

  

The Great Yorkshire Brewery Yorkshire Blackout

TO begin, this beer was kindly given to me by a colleague after a discussion regarding dark beers, bitters, stouts and porters. So thank you to them for introducing this to me.

Before I go into detail about the taste and texture of this ale, we’ll look into its origins. Hailing from the Great Yorkshire Brewery (TGYB) this beverage was created in the North York Moors village of Cropton, two miles from Pickering. 

The Yorkshire Blackout showing its true colour.

At 5.0% volume this is similar in strength to the Oat Stout we reviewed previously and like The Nook Brewhouse, The Great Yorkshire Brewery have other beers on offer that follow a similar formula to The Nook. For example The Nook produce Yorks while TGYB produce Yorkshire Classic. 

The intriguing Yorkshire Lager gained my attention as I would like to see if there is any difference in the depth of taste and quality between the commercial and corporate giants and something like the Yorkshire Lager. There is an idea for an interesting video and review. 

Curiosity is also burning away at me to get hold of some of the Yorkshire Cider! Cider is Claire’s go to drink and it would be another interesting concept to get Claire to taste TGYB’s cider against some of her favourites too!

I received some advice from my colleague to make sure the bottle of Yorkshire Blackout was served well chilled, this helps to bring out the flavours of chocolate and vanilla that are heralded on the bottle. 

True to form, the aroma is of chocolate and vanilla, and it really does pack a punch in terms of the smell. As it was chilled the porter was smooth and refreshing. Refreshment I think is the key word in this review as it was simply refreshing. 

TGYB has hit the right balance with the chocolate flavour, because as mentioned in the video if there was too much in the way of sweetness the porter would be too heavy and sickly. Yet in this smooth and light beer, the chocolate taste is a note among others that make this a really pleasant ale!

I definitely recommend getting a bottle of this, just give it a go, I think you will be equally as surprised as I was. 

Be sure to head over to the brewers website at: http://www.thegreatyorkshirebrewery.co.uk/ to have a browse through there range of beers and ales, and head to their online shop to pocket yourself a bottle of this great porter!

Finally you can follow the brewer on Twitter - @yorkshirebeer and Fell at - @TeamFell . 

Give us a +1 and put your email in the sub box in the top right and check out our online shop for lovely Fell merchandise, our YouTube video is embedded  so give it a watch and a like, favourite and subscribe if you enjoy what we do, we have loads more cracking content in the pipeline so be sure to stick around!

Cheers 

#TeamFell

A Month In

SO here we are a month down the line.

I think the site is looking good, there is something in every category at least. The YouTube channel is active and Twitter is ticking over nicely. Now it is time to start promoting the site through Twitter and try and get some visitors to come from the YouTube channel once we get some reviews uploaded. 

We received our first shirts from SpreadShirt this week and they look fantastic, I couldn’t be happier with the design. Claire is going to look at expanding the range to tailor for a more feminine palette while I am going to spend a little time expanding the Summits Tackled range.

Now, in the coming weeks you can expect a few gear reviews from us with some embedded video from youtube and some across the board content as well. 

I don’t know what else to say, I just wanted to give you a quick update so you know what we’re up to.

Cheers 

#TeamFell