• The open-air opening ceremony of the Kendal Mountain festival on Kendal's main shopping street - Strickland Gate

  • Dozens of glasses of Glenfiddich Whisky ready to be tasted... :yum: :yum:

  • Rebecca and Mathias at Tarn Hows looking towards Wetherlam

  • Scott Titt talks "BMC" with Mina Leslie-Wujastyk, Dave Turnbull, and John Ellison

Kendal Mountain Festival ’14

Last weekend was the Kendal Mountain Festival, the biggest event of its type in the world! Laetitia and I often work as volunteers at the festival, however, this year I asked my boss for the weekend – Andy Perkins – to only give me a small number (1) of presenting jobs as we had our friends, Rebecca and Mathias, visiting. Rebecca and Mathias had finally succumbed to my endless enthusiasm for Kendal and had made the journey all the way from Germany to sample the madness that is the world’s most attended festival of all things mountain…

Open-air opening ceremony of the Kendal Mountain Festival
Andy Perkins presenting the open-air opening ceremony of the Kendal Mountain Festival on Kendal’s main shopping street – Strickland Gate

I always think the KMF Trailer is one of the best bits of film at the festival, it captures the mood, excitement, and of course some of the best moments from a select few of the films…

We had a full house for the festival as we also had Mark Vallance and Anna and Ian staying with us. So this year it was an especially busy and entertaining long weekend for us! 😀

On Thursday Rebecca, Mathias, and I went up to Tarn Hows for a look around and a short walk to appreciate the views across to Langdale and the Coniston fells. It was pretty moody weather as you can see below. Then on Friday the weather was still dry so Mathias and I enjoyed more of the Lakeland landscape by squeezing in a quick scramble up Jack’s Rake on Pavey Ark before nipping over to Harrison Stickle and on down for lunch at the Stickle Barn.

Rebecca and Mathias at Tarn Hows
Rebecca and Mathias enjoying a wine-gum (or two) at Tarn Hows looking towards Wetherlam

Of course the main event is really the craziness of the festival’s main day, Saturday. With over a hundred films in the competition I can only imagine how hard (and at times fatiguing) the judge’s job is to select the winners. But for me the main attraction is the massive gathering of fellow outdoor enthusiasts, the networking opportunities, and the fringe events like the BMC’s lunchtime presentation and Glenfiddich’s whisky tasting…

Scott Titt talks BMC
Scott Titt talks “BMC” with Mina Leslie-Wujastyk, Dave Turnbull, and John Ellison waiting their turn to speak…
Dozens of glasses of Glenfiddich Whisky
Dozens of glasses of Glenfiddich Whisky ready to be tasted… :yum: :yum:

4 thoughts on “Kendal Mountain Festival ’14”

  1. I’d have scored the Whisky pic higher – except that I can’t drink the stuff following an ‘unfortunate’ experience in my 20s. However, I do like the smell – odd!

    1. Hey Paul, I too had a bad experience – but with vodka – however, after some grown up reacclimatisation I have become a fan of vodka (and gin). So maybe whisky is worth another go? Maybe starting off with something easy going like Rosebank…

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