There has been an increasing level of interest in the development of new areas for Greenland crossing routes, especially groups from Great Britain.

The development of new areas by Greenland expedition groups from Great Britain has resulted in much more travel, exploration and ascents in the Kronprins Frederik Bjerge, the Lemon Bjerge, the many peaks round the Kangerdluassuaq Basin, the Watkins Bjerge, and areas behind the Blosseville Coast such as the Rignys Bjerg mountains, Lindbergh Fjelde, the Gronau Nunatakker, the mountains of Knud Rasmussen Land and the remote peaks of the aptly named Camp Icefield. Further north still, within the Greenland National Park area, more British groups have been very active climbing in Goodenough Land, Louise Boyd’s Land, the Martin Knudsens and Niels Holgersens Nunatakker and Dronning Louise Land, A major factor in these recent developments since the early nineties has been the role of Paul Walker and his logistics operation, Tangent Expeditions International, which by co‐ordination of air operations has facilitated access for many expeditions into these more remote areas during the 1990’s and 2000’s.

Further south, the Schweizerland region continues to be a major draw for Greenland expedition groups with continuing development of high standard rock climbing, and increasingly the seeking out of big wall climbing as seen in the Fox Jaw Cirque above Tasiilaq Fjord, and on prominent peaks like Tupilak by the September 16 Glacier. The Staunings alps too, continue to exercise their hold on those seeking demanding alpine climbing. These trends seem likely to persist, alongside a growing interest in ski‐touring and ski‐mountaineering. Many previously unclimbed and unexplored mountain ranges still exist throughout east and northeast Greenland, containing literally thousands of remaining unclimbed summits.

The last few years have also seen the first signs of development of winter Arctic mountaineering expeditions in Greenland, an exciting and challenging prospect. In March 2004 Paul Walker led an international team of climbers who attempted the first ever winter ascent of Gunnbjørnsfjeld, the highest mountain in the Arctic at 3,693m. Forced back by temperatures in the ‐40’s and strong winds and frightening windchill on the summit ridge it will no doubt only be a matter of time before this, and numerous other peaks, begin to attract and receive true winter ascents. Indeed Paul Walker and Team Tangent returned to the mountain in March 2006 to make a successful winter Greenland expedition attempt from the north side of the mountain. Thus, although Greenland’s many and varied mountains lack the altitude of the Himalaya or the Andes, their remoteness and likeness to Antarctica, and the promise of new ascents will go on attracting those who search for the rewards of exploration and attainment of new mountaineering experiences as the 21st Century marches on.

The trout fishing in the Lake District on Esthwaite has been tricky over the last couple of weeks with fish remaining deep between 10 and 20 feet down. This has reflected in the rod average which stands at 2.1 fish per angler. Early mornings and late in the evenings the fish have been abit more forthcoming near the surface. Hatches of buzzers and sedge have been good, but top of the water sport has been restricted to either end of the day! The trout are also feeding hard still on the daphnia and the fry bashing has been frenetic with vast shoals of coarse fish. One things for sure the trout do not go hungry at this time of year, with a myriad of foodstuff available to them.

Someone who has had no problem catching the fish lately is Swedish angler Tomas Spur who boat fished the venue and in 2 consecutive days landed 37 trout on the fly. In complete contrast to the English approach of Di – 7 and lures, Tomas adopted a floating line approach with a 20 foot leader and fished a gold head hares ear nymph on the point with very small nymph patterns on the droppers. Fishing an extremely slow retrieve Tomas took 37 rainbows and browns over a 2 day stint.

Peter Wilde from Kent fished from the boats also and took a cracking rainbow of 3lb+ from around the cages area of the lake on fly!

Worm and spin anglers though have been producing altogether better results. Fishing around the cages Andy Foreacre and Glen Brian from Bolton used worm fished 15 feet down to take 5 rainbows to 3lb+.