Pildacre Hill

‘The world’s first net zero coal mine’ is the new corporate branding trick of West Cumbria Mining (WCM) for its proposed mine near Whitehaven. Launched on the first day of the public inquiry into the mine earlier this week, it attempts to align the investment with Government policy. But in attempting to reposition itself WCM has hastened the end of ...
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Introduction We head into a second lockdown in a few days. Somehow it feels less scary and more comforting than the first. I reach this conclusion after re-reading a diary I decided to write during the first lockdown. It was not intended for publication, but its actually worth publishing, at least as a memory of how much the world has ...
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José Lopez, who died recently, had a fantastic capacity for turning conventional wisdom on its head. He had the knack for inverting phrases in a way that shone a blinding light on the reality, provided a simplicity of vision, and pointed us all in the right direction. Once asked what was the factory of the future, as quick as a ...
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This year I finally got round to reading Mountains of the Mind: a History of Fascination by Robert MacFarlane. This book starts to explain the fascination, inspiration, and passion that mountains engender in some. My last hike of 2019 had all of these. There is not much of a path, but the ridge between Mont Noble and La Maya in the ...
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The Tour des Muverans is a fantastic circular walk in the Valais, with many different options on how to tackle it. . There are three main places to begin the hike (Pont de Nant, Derborance or Ovrennaz); it can be done clockwise or anti clockwise; and it can be completed in three, four, or potentially five days. I took the ...
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