Low down on the high-level route north

Picture this: a private company wants to build a massive new transport route through some of England’s wildest country.Right: on the route, wild Pennine sceneryThousands of foreign workers will be employed during the construction project, and local resources will be plundered to provide stone and other raw materials for building.It will be necessary to build a temporary town to house the workers as well as a factory on an upland moor close to limestone pavement and cave systems.

Russian Nevis woman 'lucky to be alive'

Rescuers say a Russian woman was lucky to survive after spending the night in freezing conditions on Ben Nevis.The woman was reported missing late on Thursday evening and Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team started a search, despite her having phoned her boyfriend earlier to say she was off the hill.She was found at 1.30pm near the Allt Coire Eoghainn with a badly broken leg.

Outdoor labels: grough peers between the hangers

Outdoor gear shops are like a Santa’s grotto of expensive goodies, luring us into the multicoloured wonderland of Gore-Tex and Polartec.Right: outdoor clothing: we go under the labelBut unlike Santa’s grotto, nothing’s for free and it’s easy to come away with a bag full of waterproofs and a severely lightened wallet.

Naked ambition: tackling Munros the exposed way

Extreme sports seem to be cropping up all over the place these days. Right: Karla and Stuart admire the view Meall GhlasGone are the days when it was ...

Flat-pack Snowdon cafe takes shape in warehouse

The edifice which will grace the top of Wales’s highest mountain is being assembled in a Deeside warehouse.In true Ikea fashion, the frame of the new Snowdon visitor centre is a flat-pack design, and engineers are going through a dry run in the Corus factory, presumably to make sure there are no missing nuts and bolts or door hinges.If it’s anything like grough’s attempts at flat-pack assembly, there will be a few choice words being uttered on Deeside and a fair bit of scratching of heads as incomprehensible diagrams are studied.Hafod Eryri, as the new café – sorry, visitor centre – will be known, will be galvanised after disassembly and loaded in neat ten-ton chunks on to the Snowdon Mountain Railway for its journey to the summit.

Cumbrian man dies after Blencathra fall

The winter of 2006-2007 is proving a grim one for fatalities on Britain’s mountains.A 63-year-old Cumbrian walker was the latest to die when he tumbled from Hall’s Fell Ridge on Blencathra.

Walkers celebrate Hebden Bridge's welcome

The West Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge today celebrated gaining walker-friendly status with a day of events in and around the Pennine centre.The Calderdale town is the first in Britain to gain the Walkers Are Welcome designation.

Rally means Grizedale path closures

Grizedale’s forests will again reverberate to the sound of high powered engines next month.All footpaths, bridleways and unsurfaced roads between Coniston Water and the Satterthwaite to Hawkshead road will be closed as contestants in the Malcolm Wilson Rally blast through the area.The rally, on 3 March, will take place through Grizedale, Whinlatter and Wythrop Forests.

Natural England says coastline should be open to all

An official body said today it will tell the Government there should be public access to the entire coastline of England.England's coastline: public should have accessNatural England, the quango set up to advise on and manage the environment and recreation in the great outdoors, will recommend that a continuous corridor of access be set up along the whole of the country’s 4,000km of coast.In a phrase more redolent of a soapbox speech than a sentence from an official report, the organisation says: “Free access to its undeveloped coastline should be the birthright of an island race.” grough says: “Hear, hear!” The commitment to look at introducing legislation to allow coastal access was part of the Labour Government’s commitment following the introduction of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, which gave limited right-to-roam in upland and moorland areas.