Keswick mayor Steve Harwood has broken his wrist descending Latrigg on his challenge to climb the fell by a different route every day during his year in office.
Steve had decided to descend the 368-metre high hill down the main tourist path after summiting for the 209th time but was sent flying after standing on a patch of snow covered ice on a relatively flat section of the route.
The fall resulted in his left hand wrist being broken and he has been in a lot of pain since.
“I got caught out on the main path on a fairly flat section,” said Steve. “It had a bit of a snow covering on it and I could not see the ice and I went flying.
“I laid down for 10 minutes because I could not move. I forced myself up and made my way back down slowly.”
It means that Steve will have to double up on his climbs up the fell when he recovers meaning that he will climb it once in the early morning and then later in the afternoon to get his 365 summits in before mid-May.
It is not the first time he has been injured while attempting to complete the challenge as he broke his ribs following a fall not long after he started.
Steve is climbing to the top of Latrigg by a different route every day and has a large Ordnance Survey map with all the path junctions marked and uses different combinations to attain the top and admits to doing “quite a lot of zig-zagging” to achieve his goal.
“I am quite surprised that I don’t bump into the same people,” said Steve, who is a former chairman and secretary of Keswick AC. “I see somebody new every day when I go up there.”
He has come across a colony of five to six red squirrels and has bumped into antlered stags feeding in a trough off Gale Road between Applethwaite and the car park at the base of Latrigg.
Steve’s set himself a target of raising £10,000 to make up a shortfall to create a woodland walkway on land at the back of the BMX track. That walkway is now in place so Steve is looking for a new project for funds that he raises.
“I have raised around £2,500 so far but I recognise it’s a really difficult time with all the cost of living issues, so I’ve not been pushing it. I had in mind £10,000 but I realise that might now be a bit ambitious.”
He added: “I have really enjoyed doing it. It’s doing it in different ways that makes it interesting and it’s such a glorious view when you get up there.”
