Fell Top Assessors Ready For Action

Weather data to be collected from Helvellyn's summit

In just over a weeks time, the Lake District National Park's two Fell Top Assessors will begin their daily treks to the 950m summit of Helvellyn. Working through until the beginning of April, the two assessors work alternate weeks to gather weather data and report back to the WeatherLine online and phone service. Once on top they record wind speeds and conditions underfoot so that walkers can have the most upto date information possible. With a cold snap and snow forecasted at the end of this week, Jon Bennet and Jason Taylor are in for a tough start to their 4 month shift.

With last year's Big Freeze, they battled against some of the worst conditions for 25 years including 100cm plus drifts, avalanche risks and temperatures plummeting to -16C. Jason Taylor runs his own mountain guiding company and is adament how important it is for people to check out conditions before heading for their own day on the hills. Jon Bennet has a strong winter mountaineering background and has backpacked in the Swedish Arctic so both are extremely well qualified and up to the task of the daily climb.

Although it may seem a dream job for keen hillwalkers, a seven-day shift is not far from climbing Everest and there's no option for getting back under the duvet if the weather looks a bit iffy.