Winter walkers on Striding Edge heading for Helvellyn

Walkers and climbers heading for a festive foray on to the Lakeland fells will have to do without a vital service for the first time in 34 years.

Felltop reports have been provided every day through winter by the two Lake District national park assessors who daily make the trip to the top of England’s third highest mountain to provide real-life reports of snow, ice, wind and other weather conditions. But there will be no report on Christmas Day this year because one of the two men who undertake the task has stepped down.

Craig Palmer has given up the felltop assessor's job after climbing almost the height of Everest each week for the last three years

Former Royal Marine commando Craig Palmer decided earlier this year to hang up his ice axe and anemometer after three years in the job, which he shares with former hotel manager Jon Bennett.

As grough reported, the Lake District National Park Authority advertised the job, but the new felltop assessor will not be in the post until January. National park rangers have been helping to provide cover, but there will be no trip to the top of the 950m (3,117ft) Helvellyn on Christmas Day.

The park authority stresses that its Weatherline will still operate and will provide forecasts as normal, but there will be no detail of felltop conditions from Helvellyn on 25 December.

The LDNPA’s countryside team leader Chris Tomlin said: “We know how important Weatherline is and how widely it is used. Our information service records the weather twice daily and it is updated automatically by the Met Office on our website.

“We have changed the phone number this year to keep costs down. Calls to 0844 846 2444 are five pence a minute from landlines and 12p from mobiles. Obviously there is no charge to website visitors.”

As well as being used by walkers, climbers and runners, it is also widely used by farmers, residents and those working outdoors.