0:00:06 > 0:00:13This is Great Britain. Over a third of our country is made up of mountains.
0:00:13 > 0:00:18And here in the Northwest of England is some of the most important mountain scenery in history.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23I'm taking on some hair-raising challenges...
0:00:23 > 0:00:28...facing crags that will stretch my abilities...
0:00:28 > 0:00:32...and experimenting with energy-boosting sweets.
0:00:34 > 0:00:40But above all I hope to discover how we fell in love with mountain scenery.
0:00:40 > 0:00:47How did this small patch of British upland come to be one of the most inspiring landscapes in the world?
0:00:47 > 0:00:52These are the mountains of the Lake District.
0:01:07 > 0:01:13Of all of Britain's mountain regions, the Lake District has the greatest reputation for staggering beauty.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19It's just a pocket of paradise.
0:01:19 > 0:01:27The national park is no more than 885 square miles of lake, mountain and farmland.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29But it's become the epitome of Britain.
0:01:31 > 0:01:37It's a landscape that stirs the imagination of 12 million visitors a year.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40Who could fail to be inspired by it?
0:01:40 > 0:01:43It's simply divine.
0:01:48 > 0:01:54But astonishingly, only a few hundred years ago, visitors had an entirely different reaction.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59Nowadays we love this scenery, but this was not how one of the earliest tourists saw it at all.
0:01:59 > 0:02:04Celia Fiennes came here in the 1600s.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07She was sort of the original Sunday tripper.
0:02:07 > 0:02:12She undertook a vast tour of England just really for no other reason than to have a look at it.
0:02:12 > 0:02:18And she wrote a book called, "Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary".
0:02:18 > 0:02:22She was obviously a good deal more intrepid than me.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25I don't want to be on a side saddle.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29But Celia was safe enough, and as she travelled she made observations.
0:02:29 > 0:02:39Here in the Lakes she wrote that, "I was walled on both sides by those inaccessible, barren, rocky hills."
0:02:39 > 0:02:45To be honest, I don't think she really thought much of the Lake District.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49Like the good housewife that she was, she noted down various recipes for
0:02:49 > 0:02:53bread and for potted char, which is a fish in Lake Windermere.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57She was very concerned that her horses needed re-shoeing at least twice a week on the hard roads.
0:02:57 > 0:03:03And she did look at the scenery, but more in a state of astonishment than wonder or awe.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08To her it was so wasteful and unproductive.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12That first travel book didn't exactly encourage hordes of tourists.
0:03:12 > 0:03:17But, somehow, over time, our feelings about the Lake District have been transformed.
0:03:17 > 0:03:22I want to find out just how we came to love our mountains.
0:03:22 > 0:03:28For the next hundred years after Celia, more and more people did come to look and tremble.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31They could see that it was extraordinary.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35They thought natural landscape looked almost as good as a picture.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37And they called it "picturesque".
0:03:37 > 0:03:39New words like "terrible"
0:03:39 > 0:03:43and "awesome" were used to describe the fearsome scenery.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48But a new vision was needed to change these puzzled reactions into something like love.
0:03:48 > 0:03:53And this was achieved not by a travel writer, but by a poet.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57This is Grasmere, and...
0:03:57 > 0:04:04in 1799, the man who did more to change the way we thought about nature and mountain scenery came
0:04:04 > 0:04:08to live here with his sister at Dove Cottage.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12His name was William Wordsworth.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16Wordsworth was part of the English Romantic movement,
0:04:16 > 0:04:21a group of nineteenth-century writers and artists who transformed our attitude to nature.
0:04:21 > 0:04:26He was born in Cockermouth, just 28 miles northwest of Grasmere.
0:04:26 > 0:04:32And his greatest achievement was to articulate the glory of Nature in his own back garden.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36For him the landscape was neither terrifying, nor simply rather lovely.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38It was the essence of life.
0:04:38 > 0:04:43He believed that our enjoyment of it brought us closer to the nature of existence.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48In 1810, he wrote lovingly of the mountains: "In the combinations which they make,
0:04:48 > 0:04:54"and in the beauty and variety of their surfaces and colours, they are surpassed by none."
0:04:54 > 0:04:58This eulogy was actually written in his own guidebook to the lakes.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01It was so popular that a visiting clergyman is said have enquired
0:05:01 > 0:05:04whether Mr Wordsworth had ever written anything else.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08But he ended up dismayed by the huge numbers who came,
0:05:08 > 0:05:12and still they come, making pilgrimage to his own home, Dove Cottage.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15Did you know about Wordsworth before you came?
0:05:15 > 0:05:18Yes, I know. I think everyone knows.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21He was inspired by
0:05:21 > 0:05:25beautiful nature here and he respected...
0:05:25 > 0:05:26nature as a god.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28- As a god?- Yes, as a god.
0:05:28 > 0:05:35Sort of sort of like a new idea of man and nature all together and all these
0:05:35 > 0:05:38feelings coming through. Yes.
0:05:41 > 0:05:46Wordsworth lived here for with up to 14 others for eight and a half years.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48It was a crowded little cottage.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52And now it's crowded with tourists, who can, amongst other things,
0:05:52 > 0:05:57still read the newspapers he used to insulate a bedroom.
0:05:58 > 0:06:03Wordsworth himself escaped as often as he could to the hills.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08A friend estimated that over his lifetime Wordsworth walked 200,000 miles.
0:06:10 > 0:06:17He'd set out each day to explore the Cumbrian Fells, returning in the evening to his sister, Dorothy.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22The locals commented on the fact that they saw him wandering around muttering to himself, but in fact
0:06:22 > 0:06:24what he was doing was composing his poetry, and he'd
0:06:24 > 0:06:28carry lines back to Dorothy so that she could write them down.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32"The birds around me hopped and played/Their thoughts I could not measure/
0:06:32 > 0:06:36"But the least movement which they made/It seemed a thrill of pleasure."
0:06:36 > 0:06:38Write that down, darling.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44Wordsworth realised that the mountains provided a sort of holy joy.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48He believed that the hills and valleys, the trees and the birds,
0:06:48 > 0:06:52and all of us, were part of nature and therefore part of God.
0:06:52 > 0:07:00His poetry put man at the centre of the landscape and encouraged him to enjoy it in a new way.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03Thanks to Wordsworth, going for a walk in the country
0:07:03 > 0:07:08was universally acknowledged as being good for the soul.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14And, undoubtedly, there is a special beauty to the Lake District.
0:07:14 > 0:07:19There may be higher ranges, and broader waters, even in our own country.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23So what is it that makes this area particularly unique?
0:07:25 > 0:07:33These mountains started life around 500 million years ago, when rock was pushed up by volcanic activity.
0:07:33 > 0:07:38But, that's true of many British mountains, so it doesn't explain what makes the Lakes unique.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46To find out, I have come to look at the landscape from the perhaps the best vantage point,
0:07:46 > 0:07:50Ullswater near Penrith, in Lakeland's northeast.
0:07:53 > 0:07:59I've arranged to take to the waters with a geologist, Peter Nienow, who's been coming here for 30 years.
0:07:59 > 0:08:06Apparently, the secret of the Lake District happened around 40 million years ago.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09There was a doming-up of the whole of the area,
0:08:09 > 0:08:13so it looked like an upturned bowl or an upturned umbrella.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17And then you've got the drainage system, lots of rainfall,
0:08:17 > 0:08:23led the drainage system to generate valleys going out in a radial pattern.
0:08:24 > 0:08:30Wordsworth described this pattern of valleys as being like the spokes of a wheel.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34And in each one, a lake was formed by Ice Age glaciers.
0:08:35 > 0:08:42So the rivers create the initial valley, but the glaciers are very good at eroding down vertically.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47Right. And in a way it's a sort of scraping effect that the heavy ice
0:08:47 > 0:08:50had at scooping rather than just going straight down like that.
0:08:50 > 0:08:57Ullswater, Wastwater, Coniston Water, all of these lakes have been deepened by the glaciers.
0:08:57 > 0:09:04And then when the glaciers retreat, then you're left with dramatic steep-sided valley walls.
0:09:04 > 0:09:12The result is 16 lakes and countless smaller stretches of water, packed into just 850 square miles.
0:09:12 > 0:09:18Everywhere I look, I can see high bare uplands and soft green valleys.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21Water and mountain in harmony.
0:09:21 > 0:09:28Each corner begs for exploration, and thanks to the lakes, we often see it twice, in exquisite reflection.
0:09:29 > 0:09:35The Lake District's complex geology can also throw up some surprisingly intrepid journeys.
0:09:37 > 0:09:43Hardknott Pass, 17 miles southwest of Ullswater, is the steepest road in England.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46I've been offered a lift.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51Well, I'm going to take a little motorised tour of the fells now.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03Waaahhh! 'Biker Bill Roughton has offered to take me over the pass.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07'He runs pillion tours for intrepid passengers.
0:10:07 > 0:10:14'Hardknott Pass is a succession of frightening hairpin bends and has a mind-boggling one in three gradient.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19'It rises to 1,200 feet in little over a mile.
0:10:19 > 0:10:25'At its top is a Roman fort, barracks for 500 soldiers who came up here almost 2,000 years ago.'
0:10:29 > 0:10:33Nowadays a queue of cyclists, motorcyclists and drivers
0:10:33 > 0:10:37seems compelled to take up the same challenge.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Well, they certainly heard us coming.
0:10:49 > 0:10:54Thanks, Bill. What is that absolute stink that's coming from those cars?
0:10:54 > 0:10:56- It's the brake pads.- Is it?
0:10:56 > 0:10:59When people are braking all the way down, they're frightened.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02Right. It was like San Francisco in the rush hour.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05- But where are all the people going then?- They're coming for the sake of it, I think.
0:11:05 > 0:11:10It doesn't really link two towns. You don't have to go over this pass.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12- They're coming to see if they can get stuck.- They've come and see if they can do it, yeah.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14And you've just done one of the hardest passes in Britain.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17- And it's bloody good fun, isn't it? - I know. Did I scare you?
0:11:17 > 0:11:19Yes.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23'The volcanoes that helped create these gradients, high passes,'
0:11:23 > 0:11:27and a motorbiker's fantasy ride, also left behind them a lot of ash.
0:11:27 > 0:11:32Compressed over millions of years, this ash became slate.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37It's the famous green slate seen in every Lake District town and village.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43Cumbria once boasted 70 slate mines and quarries,
0:11:43 > 0:11:48but cheaper slate from abroad, and modern, artificial materials meant that the industry died.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51Except here.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57Honister Slate Mine near Keswick is very much alive.
0:11:57 > 0:12:04It's England's last working slate mine, and owes its continued existence to one man's vision.
0:12:04 > 0:12:10Mark Weir has single-handedly resurrected this relic of Cumbrian industry.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12In the 1980s, the mine was closed down.
0:12:12 > 0:12:17But Mark's grandfather, who had worked at the mine all his life,
0:12:17 > 0:12:19always dreamed that it would open again.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22After his death, Mark risked everything and bought it.
0:12:22 > 0:12:31The only problem was that Mark, a former helicopter pilot, didn't know the first thing about slate mining.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35I'd never been underground in a mine till I actually walked through here for the first time.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39And I hadn't been underground till I bought it.
0:12:39 > 0:12:40Now isn't that weird?
0:12:40 > 0:12:47But Mark has been transformed into a slate expert like his grandfather, having taught himself the skills.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51- I know this is a good bit of slate because it rings like a bell.- Right.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55All right, so all I would want to do now
0:12:55 > 0:12:58is hit it in the middle of the middle.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00I just tap it,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03and because it's gone thin on me...
0:13:05 > 0:13:11It's amazing how, with just that knock, you've ended up with something
0:13:11 > 0:13:15as finished as that, as beautiful a surface as that.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18It looked easy enough, so I thought I'd have a crack.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21Are you a practical sort of guy?
0:13:21 > 0:13:25- Not really no, but I'll have a go. - Right.- Almost anything, I'll have a go at it.- OK.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27Go into the middle there and just a slight tap.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29- Into the middle? - in the middle there like that.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31How hard am I going to hit this?
0:13:31 > 0:13:35- A nice swift strike.- OK.
0:13:35 > 0:13:36Now I'll probably...
0:13:39 > 0:13:43- And again. You're committed now, Griff.- Am I? Yeah, OK.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46You just nicely tap it through.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50- Gently?- Yeah.- Gently, gently.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58That's gone through. There's definitely something come off.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00Look at that!
0:14:00 > 0:14:02- I mean, it's not perfect. - No, it isn't.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05No, but it's not a tile so much as a sort of erm...
0:14:05 > 0:14:08Well, it is a cheeseboard,
0:14:08 > 0:14:12or possibly it could do in me garden, couldn't it really?
0:14:12 > 0:14:15It didn't take me that long.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20After I'd ruined a perfectly good bit of slate for him, Mark took me up the mountain
0:14:20 > 0:14:24to find the green gold, as slate is called.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28When Mark bought the mine, it was derelict.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32He had 11 miles of tunnels, many of which were blocked or unsafe.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36He had no money to employ anyone to help him.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40In getting it back to a workable state, he was completely on his own.
0:14:42 > 0:14:43Look at this.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46Wow!
0:14:46 > 0:14:49Isn't that fantastic?
0:14:49 > 0:14:55When I first started, for the first three years I used to do seven days
0:14:55 > 0:15:00a week and two 24-hour shifts mixed between that week, every week.
0:15:00 > 0:15:06- You would work here at night on your own?- Yeah.- And what was the feeling like then?
0:15:06 > 0:15:08Awful.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10- Awful?- Awful.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12It was the worst feeling.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15You may as well just dig a hole and put yourself in a coffin.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18- It was awful.- In the dark?
0:15:18 > 0:15:22In the dark with no lights, just the one that I had on.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26And it was such a hole...
0:15:26 > 0:15:28it was hell.
0:15:28 > 0:15:29But did you hate the mountain then?
0:15:29 > 0:15:32I did, I hated every bit of it.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35So what drove you on?
0:15:35 > 0:15:40Well, basically I'd bought a mine and it wasn't doing anything, and I was going to lose everything.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44So my great idea of being truly grit and all the rest of it,
0:15:44 > 0:15:47and I lose everything, genuinely was on the horizon.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51I was going to lose the lot. And the only thing that kept us going,
0:15:51 > 0:15:56the only get-out was to
0:15:56 > 0:16:01basically work, and work and work and work until I saw the green gold of Honister.
0:16:03 > 0:16:08But the days and nights of toil paid off, and now Honister Slate Mine employs 40 people
0:16:08 > 0:16:15and produces 10,000 tonnes of slate a year for building companies in Cumbria and beyond.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Mark hasn't just been busy extracting slate.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27He also has a project that he hopes will leave a legacy to this Cumbrian industry.
0:16:30 > 0:16:35Deep in the mountain, we came to an astonishing slate cave.
0:16:35 > 0:16:37What's your plan here?
0:16:37 > 0:16:41I'm creating an amphitheatre, a monument to the old people that lived and died.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43So what,
0:16:43 > 0:16:45you're putting seats and a stage?
0:16:45 > 0:16:48- Yeah, in rock form.- Yeah?
0:16:48 > 0:16:49Yeah.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52Mark, that's a huge amount of work to do.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54It is. This is my home,
0:16:54 > 0:17:02this is my inspiration, this is my piece to carry on after my time.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09If Mark's inspiration becomes a reality, the slate amphitheatre will be a place of congregation.
0:17:09 > 0:17:16Visitors will sit right inside the mountain, and feel its might and beauty.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24These mountains have long had the power to bring people together.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30This is Swinside Stone Circle.
0:17:30 > 0:17:35Ten miles northeast of Honister, it has stood here for 5,000 years.
0:17:35 > 0:17:41The stones themselves are just about the only record these ancient peoples left behind them.
0:17:41 > 0:17:46There are 55 gigantic monoliths. Some of them weigh over five tonnes.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50They were brought here with great difficulty.
0:17:50 > 0:17:52But for what?
0:17:52 > 0:17:54Nobody really knows.
0:17:54 > 0:17:59The one thing that is absolutely certain is that people who put this here
0:17:59 > 0:18:08knew that its effect was going to be hugely enhanced by its setting here in the middle of the Cumbrian hills.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12There has been speculation that these are an astral computer,
0:18:12 > 0:18:16a place of sacrifice or a form of temple.
0:18:16 > 0:18:22In fact, archaeologists cannot even say for certain that this was a holy site.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27But on a cold day under a high sky, this place in these mountains
0:18:27 > 0:18:32would bring anyone closer to the mysteries of the universe.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37I'm making my way east to a peak called Firbank Fell.
0:18:39 > 0:18:46In 1652, a man named George Fox came here to spread a radical religious message.
0:18:46 > 0:18:48He was a seeker -
0:18:48 > 0:18:52someone who saw no necessity for priests and hierarchies, and felt
0:18:52 > 0:18:57that man could and should have a personal relationship with God.
0:19:00 > 0:19:05Fox gathered a thousand people here on Firbank Fell to preach his version of Christianity.
0:19:05 > 0:19:12The rock where he stood is known as Fox's Pulpit.
0:19:12 > 0:19:18'I've come to look at it with Roy Stephenson, a follower of the religious movement Fox founded here,
0:19:18 > 0:19:20'the Quakers.'
0:19:20 > 0:19:23How did they get the name Quakers, then?
0:19:23 > 0:19:26A couple of years before George Fox came up here, he was preaching
0:19:26 > 0:19:33wherever he could, and found himself jailed in Derby for interrupting a church service and causing a riot.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36He was then taken before a judge.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40Fox, rather than saying, "Yes, M'Lud, no, M'Lud, three bags full,"
0:19:40 > 0:19:45said, "You ought to tremble and quake at the name of the Lord."
0:19:45 > 0:19:51And this so incensed the judge that he said, "Get this quaker out of here and take him back to jail."
0:19:51 > 0:19:53And the name Quaker stuck.
0:19:56 > 0:20:03But Roy, you certainly get a sense of this being a natural pulpit up here.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06From this place you could address people.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08Well, yes, you certainly could.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12- Probably more effectively than you could within the church.- Yes.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14But it's a commanding height, isn't it? It's very lovely.
0:20:14 > 0:20:19It certainly is yes. You probably could get 1,000 people in this area.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28For nearly 40 years, the Quakers suffered persecution and discrimination,
0:20:28 > 0:20:32until an act of parliament allowed freedom of conscience.
0:20:32 > 0:20:39Today, there are 350,000 followers worldwide, members of the Religious Society of Friends,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42as Quakerism is officially known.
0:20:42 > 0:20:48The heart of the movement is still here in the Cumbrian mountains.
0:20:48 > 0:20:55Roy invited me down the road to Brigflatts Hall, a traditional Quaker meeting house for over 300 years.
0:20:56 > 0:21:03But, if after visiting Fox's hillside pulpit I was expecting some hell-fire preaching, I was to be disappointed.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18Quaker meetings take place in total silence,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21until someone feels moved to speak.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34We are very lucky to be in such a beautiful
0:21:34 > 0:21:40part of the world, where we can go to the hills and experience
0:21:40 > 0:21:43a peace and a quietness
0:21:43 > 0:21:46that speaks to us of
0:21:46 > 0:21:50a dimension beyond the hills.
0:21:50 > 0:21:57After about an hour of contemplation, the meeting came to a close with a firm handshake and a cup of tea.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04This beautiful Quaker meeting house we're in now
0:22:04 > 0:22:08has an obvious emphasis on simplicity and modesty. Is that something that
0:22:08 > 0:22:10you feel is important now?
0:22:10 > 0:22:20I think it attracts a special sort of person who can tolerate being still and quiet and
0:22:20 > 0:22:23doesn't want ritual and pomp.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28Quakers, and anybody else who wants to come here, come here because of
0:22:28 > 0:22:32the silence and the peace, and that maybe something else that
0:22:32 > 0:22:40helps you be calm and helps you think more straight and just makes you relax more.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43It's as if the simple quiet reflection you
0:22:43 > 0:22:48experience on the mountain top is rediscovered in a Quaker meeting.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52Because nobody speaks doesn't mean to say nothing's happening.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55And the really strange thing that happens, is that...
0:22:55 > 0:23:00often happens, is that people when they do stand up and speak,
0:23:00 > 0:23:04will often speak the words that you have inside you as well, so connect
0:23:04 > 0:23:06with something that's going on in your own thoughts.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11I'm not being flippant here, but you don't sit and think about the shopping?
0:23:11 > 0:23:12Oh, sometimes.
0:23:20 > 0:23:27The Quakers find a kind of solace in the stillness and beauty of this landscape.
0:23:27 > 0:23:32And yet these mountains can be a spur to more than quiet contemplation.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35They may look eternal and calm from a distance.
0:23:35 > 0:23:42But "God's pyramids", as one Quaker described them, can be dark and exhilarating, close to.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47This is Sca Fell, part of the solid mass that dominates the centre of the Lake District.
0:23:47 > 0:23:55It includes Scafell Pike, England's highest mountain, which rises to over 3,200 feet.
0:23:55 > 0:24:01Nowadays, Sca Fell is popular amongst climbers seeking the thrill of a challenge.
0:24:01 > 0:24:02But this is not a new thing.
0:24:02 > 0:24:09In the mid-1700s, poets and philosophers began to climb into the hills for a similar buzz.
0:24:09 > 0:24:16They were looking to compare their own human frailty with the power and majesty of the natural world.
0:24:16 > 0:24:21And they were joined by one man who believed that to feel a connection to the mountain,
0:24:21 > 0:24:23you had to experience it.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27He was a poet and friend of Wordsworth, but his way of getting a
0:24:27 > 0:24:32spiritual connection to the landscape was a lot more adventurous.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38It's quite spooky, isn't it, with the mist here?
0:24:41 > 0:24:47He wanted to experience the danger the mountain had to offer by taking unacceptable risks.
0:24:47 > 0:24:53In 1802 he set off on alone on a nine-day 100-mile hike over the Cumbrian mountains.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57He was Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
0:24:57 > 0:25:04This was where he came to see what the mountain would do not just to his body, but to his mind.
0:25:04 > 0:25:09What he was looking for was some of the terrific, horrid,
0:25:09 > 0:25:12overpowering qualities of nature.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15He did this trip wearing
0:25:15 > 0:25:24just an ordinary suit and carrying a knapsack with a couple of books in it and a spare collar.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26I'm not sure what he'd make of me, really.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29He'd have though I was dressed like a sort of
0:25:29 > 0:25:32knight in armour with all this gear.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40Coleridge's lack of equipment didn't hold him back.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44He delighted in the mountain experience and he loved what he saw.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48He wrote, "From this sweet place I see the whole of Derwent Water.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52"But for the haziness of the air I could see my own house."
0:25:52 > 0:25:55Lucky old Coleridge!
0:25:55 > 0:25:59But, like me, he hadn't really set out just for the view.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04He wanted to play a game which nowadays would be considered completely suicidal.
0:26:04 > 0:26:10He literally threw himself off a series of cliffs called Broad Stand,
0:26:10 > 0:26:14a combination of vertical drops and narrow ledges.
0:26:14 > 0:26:19It was ludicrous, but he wanted to test his mental strength with a mountaineering Russian roulette,
0:26:19 > 0:26:25as he boasted to his lover - "There is one sort of gambling to which I am much addicted.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28"I am too confident to look till I find a track,
0:26:28 > 0:26:35"but I wander on, and where it is first possible to descend, there I go, relying on fortune."
0:26:37 > 0:26:44What the great Romantic poet did was lower himself down
0:26:44 > 0:26:45the first ledge that he came to.
0:26:45 > 0:26:51It was apparently about seven foot so he got himself to his fingertip ends and dropped.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53Then he came...
0:26:53 > 0:26:56to the next one and he did exactly the same thing.
0:26:56 > 0:27:01And the last ledge that he dropped himself down was much further than that, about twelve feet.
0:27:01 > 0:27:08And he lay in a great heap at the bottom and flattened himself out on the ledge that
0:27:08 > 0:27:15he'd laid on, and lay there trembling and looking up at the sky, as he described it, in a sort of trance.
0:27:15 > 0:27:21He knew that he could use his intelligence to get himself off the mountain.
0:27:21 > 0:27:26He had no fear that anything would go wrong.
0:27:26 > 0:27:34I get the sense, though, that the rocks on that day were a good deal less slippery than they are today.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43'Partly because it's slippery and partly because I'm not as mad as Coleridge,
0:27:43 > 0:27:46'I'm going to tackle Broad Stand with the assistance
0:27:46 > 0:27:51'of local mountain rescue team members Richard Warren and Julian Carradice.
0:27:51 > 0:27:57'After all, the great poet might have survived, but it is a notorious accident black spot.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59'People fall off all the time.'
0:27:59 > 0:28:05I think what happens is that they come all the way down through there, they do all the steps,
0:28:05 > 0:28:10they get worried and they say, "Well, should we go back up or should we go down there?"
0:28:10 > 0:28:14- Yes?- And they think, "Well it's easier to go down there."
0:28:14 > 0:28:16How many people have you had to step in and rescue, then?
0:28:16 > 0:28:19I haven't counted but I think I've been in about
0:28:19 > 0:28:2330 incidents just on here in the years that I've been involved, yes.
0:28:23 > 0:28:25But you're gonna help me down, I hope, using a bit of sort
0:28:25 > 0:28:27of specialist equipment for the last bit.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31Oh, yes, we'll put you in a harness and have ropes and do it much more safely, yes.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35'I think Coleridge would have scoffed at this.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39'He relied on his luck and his brains, not a safety rope and harness.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43'But then, he was the very first adrenaline junkie.'
0:28:43 > 0:28:47It is tied on there, is it?
0:28:47 > 0:28:49Oh, it's tied on.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58As I start going down, following Coleridge's route,
0:28:58 > 0:29:03I can't understand how he managed to get down alive.
0:29:03 > 0:29:10Go nice and slow and start moving your feet quite wide so that you can go into the V groove there. Yeah?
0:29:12 > 0:29:15- OK.- Yeah, lovely.
0:29:15 > 0:29:17Keep that head back cos that'll keep your angle.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20Yeah, perfect. That's it.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22The more you lean on it the better.
0:29:22 > 0:29:29The first bit for Coleridge wasn't too difficult, and the second drop was hairy, but not that big.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33But the last one looked like suicide to me. It's very slippery.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38Very, very slippery.
0:29:43 > 0:29:48I can't get any purchase with my feet, you see.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50I'm stuck now on the...
0:29:50 > 0:29:54safety rope. There we are.
0:29:54 > 0:30:00'Well, I think I can see why tackling Broad Stand was mental and physical stimulation for Coleridge.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04'His final obstacle was a simple test of his body.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09'This narrow gap is known as Fat Man's Agony.'
0:30:15 > 0:30:22Fat Man's Agony, medium sized man's extreme slippery discomfort.
0:30:29 > 0:30:30Look at me!
0:30:30 > 0:30:33I'm covered in green slime
0:30:33 > 0:30:35from top to bottom.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40But the bottom is where I'm at.
0:30:44 > 0:30:50The passion that Coleridge showed for climbing is, of course, shared by millions today.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54Major industries have emerged to cater for this obsession.
0:30:54 > 0:31:00In the towns of the Lake District, the shops overflow with outdoor accessories.
0:31:00 > 0:31:04Everybody seems to be sporting a hi-tech anorak, even if they're
0:31:04 > 0:31:10just nipping down to the High Street to look out for another one.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14I sometimes get the impression that the great outdoors is really
0:31:14 > 0:31:19one huge marketing opportunity.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23But there is one essential bit of kit that every climber has to have.
0:31:28 > 0:31:29Here we are!
0:31:34 > 0:31:37Yes, Kendal mint cake.
0:31:37 > 0:31:44After all, climbers use every bit of their body except, as far as I know, their teeth -
0:31:44 > 0:31:48so obviously they're prepared to sacrifice them to any amount of sugar.
0:31:48 > 0:31:55Mint cake fingers variety packs, assorted mint cake pieces, mint cake discs, chocolate covered.
0:31:55 > 0:32:00They've probably done for more molars than any other sweet in the mountains.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04I'm getting quite a hit just off the fumes!
0:32:04 > 0:32:10Kendal Mint Cake is the soft and sugary underbelly of Cumbria.
0:32:10 > 0:32:15Quiggins has been supplying the north-western sweet tooth since 1880.
0:32:17 > 0:32:22Well, there's a very strong smell of peppermint, so unless this is the Kendal toothpaste manufacturer,
0:32:22 > 0:32:24I think this is probably the place.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36Kendal mint cake has been associated with climbing
0:32:36 > 0:32:41ever since Edmund Hillary took some up Everest for its energy-releasing powers.
0:32:41 > 0:32:48David Goodyear has been making the stuff for nearly 40 years, and today I'm the sorcerer's apprentice.
0:32:48 > 0:32:54- How much water and glucose have you got in there?- Five litres of water, roughly five litres of glucose.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57- Roughly five litres?- Yeah. Well, it's not an exact science.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00- Is it not?- No, no. - I would rather hope it was.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03- It's a little bit of a secret recipe, is it?- I wouldn't go that far.
0:33:03 > 0:33:04- All right...- We'll turn the gas off.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06Oooh!
0:33:07 > 0:33:11Apparently, Kendal mint cake was banned in New York
0:33:11 > 0:33:15in the 1950s for being called a cake while not containing any flour.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18It's no longer banned, but they haven't changed the recipe.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22My fillings are aching just watching this!
0:33:22 > 0:33:26- And how much... How much sugar have you put in there now?- 30 pounds.
0:33:26 > 0:33:2730 pounds of sugar.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30- Or 15 kilos. - It's largely sugar, is it?
0:33:30 > 0:33:32Yes, yes. 90%.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34- 90% sugar?- Yeah, yeah.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37You don't make a diabetic Kendal mint cake, then?
0:33:37 > 0:33:38We don't, no.
0:33:40 > 0:33:48'Other ingredients are glucose - which is, well, sugar - and fondant, which is sugar.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51'Fondant gives Kendal mint cake its opaque appearance, in case you
0:33:51 > 0:33:54'thought it had something to do with making it sweeter.'
0:33:54 > 0:33:55I'll put some mint in now.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03- That's the mint?- That's the mint.
0:34:03 > 0:34:05That's the secret taste ingredient?
0:34:05 > 0:34:08- That's the thing that makes all the difference?- That's all.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11Now you'll get a... This is where you want smellavision.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14Unbelievably powerful.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16Poof!
0:34:16 > 0:34:18This is potent, this stuff.
0:34:18 > 0:34:20- Oh, it's strong stuff.- Foof! Blimey!
0:34:20 > 0:34:22It's very highly concentrated.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24Phew! Oh!
0:34:24 > 0:34:28I'm going to just attend a little bit to the...
0:34:28 > 0:34:31- To the physical effects. - It's a good cold relief.
0:34:31 > 0:34:33It is, it's just extraordinary.
0:34:33 > 0:34:39I haven't felt this way since I saw The Champ, with Mickey Rooney in it.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42It's time to make some cakes.
0:34:42 > 0:34:46Kendal mint cake has been around since 1869.
0:34:46 > 0:34:48A confectioner trying to make some glacier mints
0:34:48 > 0:34:52took his eye off the stove and found that his mixture had gone cloudy.
0:34:52 > 0:34:58Being a Cumbrian entrepreneur, he decided it was a new invention - mint cake.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02If you're going to buy a Kendal mint cake I'd go and buy one
0:35:02 > 0:35:05from this particular batch because I'm slightly overfilling the mould.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08No, I'm slopping it everywhere.
0:35:08 > 0:35:10Oh! Disaster!
0:35:13 > 0:35:16And how many batches do you do in a day?
0:35:16 > 0:35:19Usually about ten panfuls.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22We've made 192 bars this morning,
0:35:22 > 0:35:25so you've ten times 192.
0:35:25 > 0:35:27That's what you would make in a day.
0:35:27 > 0:35:33'500 tonnes of Kendal mint cake come out of this factory alone every year -
0:35:33 > 0:35:35'enough to keep even Coleridge going.'
0:35:39 > 0:35:45So, anorak, sweeties - what else what do I need to prepare for a bracing walk?
0:35:48 > 0:35:50Guidebooks.
0:35:51 > 0:35:57Every single section of the Lake District, somebody...
0:35:57 > 0:36:03has categorised, mapped, laid out and given you instructions
0:36:03 > 0:36:06on what you ought to look out for, but there is...
0:36:06 > 0:36:12There's one name that today stands out, and that's Wainwright.
0:36:19 > 0:36:25Alfred Wainwright's guides are probably amongst the most beautiful guidebooks ever produced.
0:36:25 > 0:36:31Every page is lovingly handwritten and illustrated in miraculous detail.
0:36:31 > 0:36:35Wainwright was born in Lancashire but fell in love with the Cumbrian mountains
0:36:35 > 0:36:38when he came here on holiday at the age of 23.
0:36:38 > 0:36:42He worked as a bookkeeper in an accountant's office, and it
0:36:42 > 0:36:47was his gift for detail and neatness that distinguishes his guidebooks.
0:36:47 > 0:36:51As you go through them you think, "Well I'd love to have this because it looks like a handmade book,"
0:36:51 > 0:36:54as opposed to a sort of manufactured book.
0:36:54 > 0:36:59Every single aspect of it is sort of hand-drawn but very beautifully done like a sort of...
0:36:59 > 0:37:01Like a school geography project, only...
0:37:01 > 0:37:05- Yes. It's really careful, everything is so carefully done.- Yeah.
0:37:05 > 0:37:11- He must have had a very specific mind, mustn't he, to sort of do all this?- Yeah. So you still sell them?
0:37:11 > 0:37:14Oh, yes. In great numbers.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16Do you?
0:37:16 > 0:37:21Wainwright spent 13 years exploring Cumbria and wrote seven guidebooks to the Lakes,
0:37:21 > 0:37:24which became best-selling back-packers' bibles.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28In all, he wrote over 50 books, but he shied away from fame.
0:37:28 > 0:37:34When stopped in the hills and asked if he was the famous Alfred Wainwright, he always denied it.
0:37:34 > 0:37:39He only agreed to being filmed late in the 1980s, a few years before his death.
0:37:39 > 0:37:44The last of the guides was published in 1966.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48Over the years, new paths and roads have been built and the guides
0:37:48 > 0:37:52were in danger of becoming unreliable and going out of print.
0:37:52 > 0:37:58But 63-year-old former taxi driver Chris Jesty, a Wainwright enthusiast,
0:37:58 > 0:38:01was determined that the guides should live on.
0:38:01 > 0:38:06After ten years of trying, he persuaded the publishers to update them.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10Is this path here, is this actually in the original, in his original?
0:38:10 > 0:38:13- No. No, that's a new one.- Yeah? - And the one we're on is new.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16Yeah, so this is the sort of thing you're looking out for.
0:38:16 > 0:38:18- Exactly. - You're looking out to say...
0:38:18 > 0:38:24'Now he is faithfully retracing every Wainwright route, adding new details as he goes.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27'Chris and I are tackling Catbells,
0:38:27 > 0:38:31'a modest, rolling mountain which rises gently from the western shore
0:38:31 > 0:38:35'of the Derwent Water, just south of Keswick.
0:38:35 > 0:38:40'According to Wainwright, it's one to climb after a good dinner -
0:38:40 > 0:38:46'not a great challenge, but with a rewarding view of the best of the Lakes.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49'And on the way up, Chris has a keen eye for any detail that needs
0:38:49 > 0:38:54'updating, using the very latest in global positioning systems.'
0:38:54 > 0:38:56Chris why do you have two GPS?
0:38:56 > 0:39:02Well, I don't know if you'll have noticed it, but mechanical things tend to play up.
0:39:02 > 0:39:04And the way these things play up is they
0:39:04 > 0:39:07like to tell you you're somewhere when you're actually somewhere else.
0:39:07 > 0:39:12But if I have two of these and they both tell me I'm in the same place...
0:39:12 > 0:39:14- Yeah?- Then I know that they're telling the truth.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17- Right.- If one of them tells you you're somewhere and the other tells you you're somewhere else...
0:39:17 > 0:39:20- Yeah?- Then you know that one of them is lying.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23So when that happens, I get a third one out of my rucksack.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25- Oh, you've got three?- I have.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29And then that'll tell me which one's telling me the truth and which one's lying.
0:39:30 > 0:39:35'Chris learned his map drawing skills during a stint with the Ordnance Survey.
0:39:35 > 0:39:40'I get the feeling that his attention to detail is a source of pride to him.'
0:39:40 > 0:39:43Chris when did you... When did you start on this?
0:39:43 > 0:39:45I can tell you to the day.
0:39:45 > 0:39:54It was 2nd June 2003, and the reason I remember that is that it was exactly 50 years
0:39:54 > 0:39:57from the announcement of the first ascent of Everest.
0:39:57 > 0:39:59How long is it going to take you, do you think?
0:39:59 > 0:40:03Well, I finished three volumes in three years, so that's
0:40:03 > 0:40:10seven volumes for the pictorial guides and then plus the outlying fells, which I'm committed to doing.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13If I do all that, that should probably take about ten years.
0:40:13 > 0:40:18Ah, now that's what I was looking for. That path.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21- I'll just go and have a quick look at that.- OK.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27Chris has only taken one day off since he began the project.
0:40:27 > 0:40:34He starts walking every day at 5am, taking advantage of every hour of daylight.
0:40:34 > 0:40:41Making slow but methodical progress, we finally reach the summit of Catbells.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45From there, we could see just how accurate Wainwright's detailed
0:40:45 > 0:40:48illustrations and directions really were.
0:40:48 > 0:40:53So there's Hindscarth and Robinson and Catbells, there they are.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00Yes, I have so much confidence in these panoramas I never check those.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05See, you can put everything in place because there's Robinson
0:41:05 > 0:41:08and Hindscarth up that way.
0:41:10 > 0:41:15It had been, just as Wainwright promised, a gentle walk with a beautiful panorama.
0:41:19 > 0:41:28What I... What I really like about Wainwright is that his emphasis is not at all on the challenge.
0:41:28 > 0:41:33He's always showing the easy route, in fact, and how friendly the fells are.
0:41:33 > 0:41:40"Words cannot adequately describe the rare charm of Catbells, nor its ravishing view.
0:41:40 > 0:41:42"But no publicity is necessary.
0:41:42 > 0:41:51"It has a bold come-hither look that compels one's steps, and no suitor ever returns disappointed."
0:41:53 > 0:41:57His emphasis is on the beauty,
0:41:57 > 0:42:00and he seeks to inspire people to come.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05And when people do come, they can revel
0:42:05 > 0:42:11in the extraordinary scenery that Wainwright - and Wordsworth - enthused about.
0:42:11 > 0:42:17This breathtaking landscape has become precious to us, so much so that the National Trust,
0:42:17 > 0:42:20set up by disciples of Wordsworth in 1895,
0:42:20 > 0:42:26has bought just over 200 square miles of the Lake District in order to conserve it.
0:42:26 > 0:42:33Their land includes over 90 farms, like this one - Black Hall, twelve miles south of Catbells.
0:42:33 > 0:42:40Owning farms is the National Trust's way of making sure that the scenery of the Lake District is protected.
0:42:40 > 0:42:46'But it is a complicated relationship between tradition and the landscape.'
0:42:46 > 0:42:47Hello.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50Come on, back! Come on! Come on!
0:42:50 > 0:42:52Come on! Come on, in!
0:42:53 > 0:42:55Come on, in here. Come on in.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59Tony Temple leases Black Hall from the National Trust.
0:42:59 > 0:43:03He's taking me to see a particularly important breed of sheep.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05- These are Herdwick sheep, are they? - These are Herdwick sheep.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08And what's the particular quality that relates to them?
0:43:08 > 0:43:11The hardiness is the main quality.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14They're the only breed of sheep that can survive and do well on these mountains.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17And that's an old breed. Some people say it's a Viking breed.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19That's what I've been led to believe.
0:43:19 > 0:43:24Herdwicks are unique to these mountains, but they're almost worthless.
0:43:24 > 0:43:30Their fleece will sell for just ten pence, but it costs seven times that to shear it.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34So, to prevent the breed from disappearing altogether, and to maintain the centuries-old
0:43:34 > 0:43:41appearance of these bare uplands, the National Trust gives money to Tony to keep Herdwicks.
0:43:41 > 0:43:46We get paid to look after the sheep, to keep them on the mountain, to
0:43:46 > 0:43:51maintain the walls and just keep it looking like it is, really.
0:43:51 > 0:43:55So we're paid to keep the mountains how you want to see them.
0:43:57 > 0:44:05All this is only possible because the Herdwick sheep have a unique relationship with the mountains.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08They have a natural instinct that keeps them connected to these hills.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13Come on!
0:44:13 > 0:44:15Come on, up a bit. Come on!
0:44:17 > 0:44:21Tony is skilfully shepherding his ewes to the mountain gate, but
0:44:21 > 0:44:25once they're there - amazingly - they won't need any more looking after.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30Herdwick sheep are what's known here as "heathed".
0:44:30 > 0:44:34It means they have a built-in homing device.
0:44:34 > 0:44:39Like salmon swimming up the river of their birth, they know exactly where they're going.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44- Now this is the fell gate? - This is the fell gate.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48We're going to open this and then they'll just go off.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52- Yeah, they'll just spread out over this mountain here.- But they go off and they find their own place?
0:44:52 > 0:44:54They'll head back to, yeah, where they were born
0:44:54 > 0:44:57and raised as lambs and they should go back to that area.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00They don't all, but most of them should go back to that area.
0:45:00 > 0:45:04Marvellous thing, isn't it? It's a marvellous thing, how it all fits together.
0:45:04 > 0:45:05Yeah, yeah.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08It isn't just something that happens overnight.
0:45:08 > 0:45:14While we'd been chatting, the flock had waited patiently by the gate, ready to go to their hillside home.
0:45:17 > 0:45:23I think, I think what makes them feel so well-behaved is the fact that they do it all so quietly.
0:45:23 > 0:45:25The silence of the lambs.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32The sheep keep the hills looking the way that people want them to be.
0:45:32 > 0:45:37In fact, it's the way that Wordsworth wanted them to be.
0:45:37 > 0:45:43It's as if we've fallen in love with a particular image of the Lake District, an antique landscape.
0:45:43 > 0:45:47We can't bear to think of it any other way.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52Thanks to farms like Tony's, the mountains have barely changed in 300 years.
0:45:52 > 0:45:58We seem to want to preserve a region in a moment in time.
0:45:58 > 0:46:05This is the landscape that Turner, Constable and Gainsborough painted in the 1800s.
0:46:05 > 0:46:10They wanted to capture the soul or the essence of the place.
0:46:10 > 0:46:18In the same tradition, people continue to seek to record the elusive quality of mountain scenery.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25Gordon Stainforth is a renowned landscape photographer.
0:46:25 > 0:46:27For him, the spirit of the Lake District
0:46:27 > 0:46:33is a particularly compelling one, and he believes dramatic weather can be the key to it.
0:46:33 > 0:46:39He doesn't mind that it's blowing a gale on Hardknott Hill today - he spends his life waiting for the
0:46:39 > 0:46:47perfect moment, after having climbed for hours and sometimes days in search of the ideal location.
0:46:47 > 0:46:49- What are we looking for here? - We're looking for a superb viewpoint
0:46:49 > 0:46:56up Esk, up Eskdale here, and in fact Scafell is under that cloud there.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59- OK.- And I think if we go about 50 yards onto that grass,
0:46:59 > 0:47:03we'll be able to see into Eskdale and into the valley bottom.
0:47:05 > 0:47:11We battled on against the wind to find the vantage point Gordon was seeking.
0:47:14 > 0:47:16Wow, that's pretty good.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19That's the very spot.
0:47:19 > 0:47:25So this is part of your job? To just find the ideal place and sit there until you get that
0:47:25 > 0:47:29break, or the conditions you're looking for, where the light suddenly shines down?
0:47:29 > 0:47:31Yeah, it's horribly like waiting for a kettle to boil.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34You know, when you're in the right place but you've got all the camera gear,
0:47:34 > 0:47:38it often doesn't behave and the cloud moves in.
0:47:42 > 0:47:48Gordon has perfected his art form over 20 years of photography and a lifetime of climbing.
0:47:53 > 0:47:54What camera do you use?
0:47:54 > 0:47:59This is a Hasselblad, a good old trusty workhorse.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01It's not a digital then?
0:48:01 > 0:48:04No, it's the very opposite. Manual.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06The whole body is made from one piece of metal...
0:48:06 > 0:48:08- Right.- Built like a tank.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12So Gordon, why did you start photographing mountains?
0:48:12 > 0:48:16You know, it might sound pretentious but I'm much more interested in the
0:48:16 > 0:48:19place and nature on a grand scale than I am in photography, in a way.
0:48:19 > 0:48:25It's the place I'm interested in and on a really grand scale - it's like Coleridge -
0:48:25 > 0:48:33I'm more interested in how we relate really to the cosmos and the whole natural landscape.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37Too many photographers think that photography is just about photography.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41It sounds ridiculous, but what I mean is, it's about the place and
0:48:41 > 0:48:45one's feelings for the place and how it touches the imagination.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48And it's not just a thing of getting a nice visual image.
0:48:48 > 0:48:52It's to try and give something of the huge landscape, really,
0:48:52 > 0:48:59and something of one's feelings of the place, rather than just a pretty calendar-type image.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01Gordon aims to make more than a picture.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04He wants to reveal the character of the Lake District and its effect on us,
0:49:04 > 0:49:09just like the Romantic poets and painters of 200 years ago.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13It's a test of his eye and his patience.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16This is so typical of the Lakes, what we're seeing now.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19In fact, I think it's lifting slightly towards Scafell.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22- Yeah.- Um, and this is just the kind of day when it looks very,
0:49:22 > 0:49:26very unlikely, but you sometimes get something extraordinary happening.
0:49:26 > 0:49:30And you don't get anything extraordinary happening when it's all hot and sunny and hazy.
0:49:33 > 0:49:39But after hours of sitting patiently in the wet, Gordon called it a day.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43For us, the clouds refused to budge.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47The next morning, the wind had died down, the clouds had finally lifted,
0:49:47 > 0:49:52and Gordon had come up with a much more ambitious idea.
0:49:52 > 0:49:58Ominously, we were joined by a rock-climbing instructor, Phil Poole.
0:49:58 > 0:50:04We were heading up to Napes Needle, a dramatic pinnacle which clings to the flank of Great Gable.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07It's a towering, pyramid-shaped mountain,
0:50:07 > 0:50:12a mile and a half north of Scafell in the heart of the Lake District.
0:50:12 > 0:50:20Gordon had decided he wanted to take a photograph of me on top of the Needle, and naively, I agreed.
0:50:20 > 0:50:26Gordon's plan was to recreate one of the earliest examples of mountain photography,
0:50:26 > 0:50:29a 1901 picture of some climbers on the Needle.
0:50:29 > 0:50:36It was taken by the Abraham brothers, who were pioneers of mountain photography in the 1890s.
0:50:36 > 0:50:42George and Ashley Abraham were besotted with rock-climbing, and they filmed their own exploits.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48Even though the camera equipment of that time was heavy and cumbersome,
0:50:48 > 0:50:52they hauled it up into the hills and were amongst the first to do so.
0:50:56 > 0:51:02Today, Gordon needs little more than a Hasselblad, a tripod and a willing accomplice.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06And perhaps a bit more visibility than yesterday.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09Here we are. What a view that is.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12That's, that's Wastwater, is it?
0:51:12 > 0:51:14- Wastwater, yes.- And Wasdale.
0:51:16 > 0:51:22As we get closer, Great Gable gets steeper, and we find ourselves right underneath the needle.
0:51:22 > 0:51:24There it is, Griff.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28Yes, now I've got my hat on I can't see it!
0:51:28 > 0:51:30Ooh!
0:51:30 > 0:51:33Yes. It's got a real Easter Island quality, hasn't it?
0:51:33 > 0:51:38The point about this piece of rock is it was the first
0:51:38 > 0:51:43real rock climb of any seriousness done in 1886,
0:51:43 > 0:51:49and people like the Abraham brothers were the first photographers to take dramatic climbing pictures and, um,
0:51:49 > 0:51:52so that's what we're going to try to do today is
0:51:52 > 0:51:54get a picture of you
0:51:54 > 0:51:56on Napes Needle.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59Nape's Needle is a frankly terrifying column of rock, towering
0:51:59 > 0:52:0460 feet into the air with a drop of 400 feet on the other side of it.
0:52:04 > 0:52:09Gordon will have to position himself on a ledge opposite, just as George Abraham did in 1901.
0:52:09 > 0:52:11- Look straight across. - So we divide up now?
0:52:11 > 0:52:16- I think so, yes. - Phil and I go on and you go off...
0:52:16 > 0:52:18- I trundle into position. - OK, right.
0:52:20 > 0:52:28As Phil got me roped up, the reality of what we were doing began to dawn on me.
0:52:28 > 0:52:32I'm hanging on for dear life and I'm sitting on a great big chair up here. OK.
0:52:34 > 0:52:36I'm a virgin rock climber.
0:52:36 > 0:52:42I've got to try to get myself up a vertical rock face in the name of photography.
0:52:42 > 0:52:48And if that wasn't bad enough, I had to watch Phil treat it as if it were a giant stepladder.
0:52:53 > 0:52:54Ooh, that's a tricky one.
0:52:54 > 0:52:56- It's not too bad.- Isn't it?
0:52:56 > 0:52:58OK, I'll take your word for it.
0:53:04 > 0:53:06Are you still there?
0:53:06 > 0:53:07Nearly there.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16I feel so happy here,
0:53:16 > 0:53:20just sat on this large ledge of rock looking around.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26Do you mind if I stay here for another hour or two?
0:53:26 > 0:53:29'I'm afraid not. With Gordon in position and Phil
0:53:29 > 0:53:34'secured on the Needle, there was no putting it off any longer.'
0:53:34 > 0:53:36Right, climb when you're ready now. I've got you.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41- OK, I'm coming up now. - Right, up you come then.
0:53:41 > 0:53:43Just take your time.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45I've got to try and even work this out now.
0:53:47 > 0:53:50'Oh dear. It all comes flooding back.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53'I'm in the school gym. "Come on boy, you can do it.
0:53:53 > 0:53:55' "Use those shoulders."
0:53:55 > 0:53:58'Well, I didn't have any shoulders when I was ten.
0:53:58 > 0:54:02'And I don't think I've grown any in the intervening 43 years.'
0:54:02 > 0:54:07Hang on, I'm a wee bit stuck as to where to go next.
0:54:09 > 0:54:10Hang on.
0:54:10 > 0:54:12Just keeping the rope tight on you.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18I feel...
0:54:23 > 0:54:26- Wait a minute.- You're doing fine.
0:54:26 > 0:54:27That's it, yeah.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30'Yeah, Phil was doing his bit to calm me down.
0:54:30 > 0:54:36'I had all my weight on my fingertips and my heart in my mouth, and although I was tied on,
0:54:36 > 0:54:40'I didn't really want to go banging about like a soap on a rope.'
0:54:40 > 0:54:41It's a bit touchy, this crack.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46It looks like the side of a house!
0:54:46 > 0:54:48That's because it is.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52As you get higher, the footholds get better.
0:54:52 > 0:54:54- Do they?- Yeah, honest.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57'Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, it got worse.
0:54:57 > 0:55:01'It felt like someone had been polishing the side of the Needle.'
0:55:01 > 0:55:03All right?
0:55:03 > 0:55:07Well, done, excellent. Yes, that's it, yes.
0:55:14 > 0:55:15Well done, yes.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23Out to your left there's some good handholds now.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26Look out to your left.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29Way up to the left. There you go, excellent, yeah, good!
0:55:29 > 0:55:31It's hard work, isn't it?
0:55:31 > 0:55:34It's more than hard for me, mate. I feel it.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38I just don't have the physical strength.
0:55:38 > 0:55:44You're doing great. A couple more moves and you're on easier ground then.
0:55:44 > 0:55:46Well done.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52'Some six days later -
0:55:52 > 0:55:54'or so it seemed - I reached Phil's vantage point.'
0:55:54 > 0:55:58- Come up just to the right. - All right.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01Just step over that, sit down there.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05Well done, Griff.
0:56:05 > 0:56:07Congratulations, mate.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10You did fantastic. Well done.
0:56:10 > 0:56:12I couldn't do that at all.
0:56:12 > 0:56:16I think you did well. I mean you must've done it, cos I can't pull you up.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19I mean, you climbed it, it was really good.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22'Yeah, well, thanks, Phil.
0:56:22 > 0:56:26'I felt flabby and clumsy.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30'I had to scrape my way up using every bit of energy I had.
0:56:30 > 0:56:35'Gordon got his photograph - a near-replica of the Abraham picture
0:56:35 > 0:56:39'with a terrified novice hanging on for dear life.
0:56:43 > 0:56:47'Napes Needle had certainly been an experience for me.
0:56:47 > 0:56:52'And climbing it had been a bit more of a challenge than I expected.'
0:56:52 > 0:56:54When you get up there there's a sort of crack.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59And there's nothing as far as I could tell to put your feet on.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11Hmm, is rock-climbing for me?
0:57:13 > 0:57:15I think I know the answer to that.
0:57:15 > 0:57:19Perhaps there are some aspects of nature that are best appreciated from a distance.
0:57:27 > 0:57:33But nothing detracts from the wonderful revelation that the Lakes have been.
0:57:33 > 0:57:39They are as inspiring today as they were over 300 years ago, when people first began to visit these mountains
0:57:39 > 0:57:43and wondered at their beauty, and experienced their power.
0:57:43 > 0:57:47This is mountain country that can be appreciated by anyone,
0:57:47 > 0:57:52as Wordsworth wrote, "who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy".
0:57:59 > 0:58:03Next time on Mountain I'll be visiting the Central Highlands of Scotland.
0:58:03 > 0:58:07I'll explore the vast Cairngorm range, attempt to reach Britain's highest summit, Ben Nevis,
0:58:07 > 0:58:13and find out how we tamed this wild landscape.
0:58:13 > 0:58:15Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:15 > 0:58:17E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk