On
12th June we joined hundreds of other teams to light lamps on mountains
all over the Lake District, in honour of police officers who have died
in the line of duty.
The
event raised money for COPS, a UK registered charity dedicated to
helping surviving families rebuild their lives after the death of a
Police Officer in the line of duty. It is independent of the police
service and is operated entirely by survivors caring for other
survivors.
Our
chosen peak, Esk Pike, is one of the highest in the Lake District
(885m) and is a long way from any road, so we had over three hours walk
in pitch darkness to get to the summit. The dark, combined with low
cloud and driving rain made this quite a challenge! And we did indeed
encounter quite a few bemused looking sheep on route…
Somehow
the fact that the weather prevented us from seeing lights on the
surrounding mountains didn't matter - the adventure and sense of
achievement afterwards were far more important. It is quite frankly
bizarre, eerie and somewhat insane to climb a mountain in the dark...
but is also something we will never ever forget - the excitement of
seeing distant lines of head torches making their way up mountains
nearby, bumping into another team in the mist high up in the mountains
at 1.30am and the buzz between everyone involved afterwards made it all
worthwhile.
No comments:
Post a Comment