Cumbria’s iron man
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Version 0 of 1. The fell runner Joss Naylor was in the process of packing to leave for Spain, where he now spends winter on account of his health. Readers familiar with his name may be surprised to learn that such a great athlete suffers from the blood in his toes coagulating as the days become colder. “The greatest of them all” was how Olympic gold medallist and London marathon man Chris Brasher described this hard-as-iron Cumbrian. Didn’t he run over 72 Lakeland peaks and nearly 100 miles inside 24 hours in 1975? Or stride around the 105-mile circuit of the lakes, meres and waters of Lakeland in less than 20 hours in 1983? His ascent and descent of Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England, was another triumph – he doubts his record of 47 minutes will “ever be beat”. Born in Middle Row Farm, Wasdale Head, in 1936, he was cradled by the country’s tallest mountains, with the inverted boat of Kirkfell behind the back door and the Scafells heaped high at the front. And in between? The Great Pyramid of Wasdale, Great Gable itself, offering sparrowhawk views of drystone walls far down below, fortified as thick as castle fortifications – thanks to the preponderance of stones at the dale head. This is especially so of the Screes that flank the southern shore of Wastwater, a panorama of crags and stones that plunge straight on down into the depths. Joss recalls travelling in the school taxi along the far side of Wastwater, in his shorts, looking out on a gale that blew in so strongly from the coast that it sent a succession of tornadoes spiralling one after the other up the length of England’s deepest lake. “Aye, we wore shorts in winter and nivver ailed out,” he confirmed. “And clogs too, with iron strips nailed under them called caulkers that sadly picked up thick platforms of snow so it was like walking on mini stilts. “Who’d have thought one day the cold would affect my lower limbs so? Things happen.” |