It was afternoon in the Lake District National Park. With short cropped hair and bright eyes, Zack Polton climbed to the top of the mountain with the skill of a mountain goat.
Speaking athletically and courageously, he told me that he has the largest collection of gloves in England.
At least that's what they think.
"I have gloves of all types, all textures and all sizes," he tells me, making his way through the smooth glass.
One of the difficulties of my job, besides dealing with snow, strong winds and the most terrifying natural disasters, is dealing with lost things.
This work, called the Fail Top Assessor, is very popular in the Lake District National Park, but is considered very rare throughout the UK.
Over the past four winters, Zack Polant has climbed Halloween, the third highest but most dangerous peak in England, more than 200 times and prepares a weather report that provides a full description of the conditions up to the summit for people to read and understand. and climb safely to the top.
Polton is not alone in this extraordinary work. He has two colleagues, John Bennett, who has climbed Halloween more than 600 times, and a newcomer, Wes Hunter, who started his career in October 2019.
In this work, from the beginning of December to the end of April, every day at least one of the best failed assistants has to climb this 950-meter-high peak.
This has been the case since construction began in 1987 and this year the team has climbed the mountain every day for 126 consecutive days in all seasons.
Imagine for a second that the temperature was minus seven degrees Fahrenheit [-7 C] and that winds could be as cold as minus 23 degrees Celsius.
But Polton makes it clear that "some days are better than others".
People go to Halloween most of the summer, but the mountain is at its peak in the winter. Seen from the village of Glenreding, it looks exactly like a beautiful statue that should be on a mountain.
There are three deep galactic valleys, two very pointed mountainous shores, deep bowl-shaped sections to the east where mountain plants grow that are not seen anywhere else in England.
The word Phil is used in the Old Norse language for the mountains of Cumbria and northern England. Climbing an elephant can be a very different challenge than climbing a peak in the Alps, the Andes or the Himalayas.
Zack Polton is an experienced mountain instructor and expedition guide to the poles who, with 18 people, has climbed the mountain from the north face of Everest and skied to the South Pole. It is also an adventure.
"You can face the hardships you might encounter in the dangerous mountains of the world," says Polton. People get lost, bones break, avalanches hit. You will not slip here and descend to Everest, but you will keep hitting many rocks and the result will be the same. I know many people who have clear intentions but who often don't understand the danger.
The rater or analyst's report is as detailed as a meteorologist can prepare and is posted daily on the Lake District Weatherline website and 19,000 social media followers.
But there is also the element of coaching. In addition to information on wind speed, gusts, temperature and wind direction, it is important for analysts to include information about their mountaineering experience in their reports, letting people know how to climb and climb this mountain and what type. expensive.
For example, a large avalanche on the north side of the Swirling Edge took a few roads along with many rocks. In the words of the English mountaineer Edward Whamper, "you have to take care of every step".
When the first analyst, Alastair Boston, took a school trip on Halloween in 1987, he had a penny in his pocket to call from the nearest phone booth on the mountain. During the call, you would provide complete weather information that would be recorded on an answering machine and people could hear you calling a special number.
As we approached the summit, Polton said: "You can't tell from the weather station forecast what the experience will be like for a climber." No fully automated system can add a human perspective, and the tweets, photos and details provided tell us about this place from every angle. We tell the whole story of this mountain ".
Most importantly, as faulty access devices rise to the top every day, they are often present when things go wrong. "We've saved hundreds of lives so far," says Polton.
And that story accurately reflects the post-epidemic situation in the national park. More than 2.5 million people attempt to climb the mountain every year, but around two-thirds of those who have come here since the first closure ended in 2020 had never been to the area before, thus facing a lack of information. .
Richard Leif, executive director of the Lake District National Parks Authority, says, "We know how important the Lake District will be in the coming months in helping people stay healthy. Our message is that you are coming here for the first time or for the 50th time. , come up with a plan in advance Try to enjoy your time by discovering something new, but don't leave junk behind.
There is a real awareness that this mountain will be particularly crowded this year, not least because 2021 is the 70th anniversary of this largest national park in England. There is talk of extending this unique job in the UK to a full year.
But Polton says the point is that mountain conditions don't change much every day during the summer. "It's winter and we have to be careful."
For those who have never climbed a mountain before, Halloween is a magnet for its rich history.
This is the peak that Roman Walter Scott, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth have raised in their poetry. Both Coleridge and Wordsworth lived near the mountain.
This mountain range is where elements of the Lake District's natural heritage can be seen alive.
The grasses in the shade of Halloween appear to be surrounded by certain types of rocks. There are horse bridges, sheep shelters and white huts.
When we reached the top, there were several hikers, young couples holding hands and some children grilling sausages while drinking beer.
In addition to the people who came to spend the day here, there were many stones placed one above the other and a stone monument made in memory of Charles Goh. Charles Goh was a 21-year-old romantic artist who disappeared in 1805 and was never seen again.
While looking at the cup shaped lake called Red Tarn, we saw many swimmers swinging their axes to break the ice and come and enjoy the lake. Most of them may not know that the remains of a twin-engine bomber that crashed here in 1945 have never been recovered.
In addition to swimmers and hikers, Fail Top testers also monitor cyclists, runners, paragliders, skiers and cyclists.
Polton once saw an experimental radio fanatic talking to another man in the Caribbean, taking advantage of the height of the mountain.
Before finally getting off, we stopped at Brown Cove, the last remaining patch of snow in England every summer. It was the perfect end to our little adventure on the highest mountain in the country.
While the light was still on, the best failed testers sat down to write their latest report.
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