After a fantastic day on the fells, there’s nothing better than returning to an iconic Lakeland pub like the Kirkstile for a meal, a few pints of local Mellbreak golden ale and the conversation turned to the days exploits. I think that’s what most people long for! Watching Lakeland travel videos while exercising on the treadmill, I often glance aside at the "Tubular Fells" map on the wall to keep myself oriented. Sometimes I can even do this without falling off.

The map will also be on sale at points throughout the Lake District including YHA hostels and the new National Trust shop in Grasmere. It will also be available at Stanfords in Longacre, London. I think it’s a bit of a cheat to just walk from one cairn to the next and say you’ve bagged another mountain. Mountains are massive structures and they have many facets and interesting features that often grace their flanks. This is one reason I started scrambling as I wanted to know the mountains as a whole and not as just a summit top cairn,” he added. I feel fine. The hills and mountains will be there long after I’ve gone. As long as I know they’re there then I am happy until my next visit. I survive by holding onto my last outing or ascent mixed with walks in the more pastoral south. In any case, the Downs and Chilterns aren’t far away! I get the impression you particularly love the Lake District. Is it fair to say that’s your favourite hiking location? What is so special about it? At some point, as already stated, I need to present money to the Fix the Fells project and with the John Muir Trust opening a new shop in Pitlochry, I will be giving the Trust as well as Scottish MRT some cash as 75 pence goes to each charity from the sale of every MunrOverground. If I get to Lakeland I will undoubtedly go scrambling and walking on the fells and a visit to Pitlochry gives me a fabulous chance to get on the hills above Blair Atholl.

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How do you travel? When in the week do you go, what time of day? How long does it take, and what’s the usual cost? I already managed a New Year’s Day ascent of Helvellyn, but I plan to visit Snowdonia, Lakeland and Scotland this year. At the start of April I anticipate launching the map somewhere in Snowdonia and so I’m sure there’ll be a few ascents there. I’ve done quite a bit of walking but never been on the likes of Cadair Idris which of course features on my new map. I started walking from an early age. My first visit to Lakeland was at eight weeks old, not that I can remember, but my first real Lakeland summit had to be Loughrigg on a trip from primary school at about eight years of age.

I came down to London to teach for 5 years and ended up staying. I live in East Ham in the London and Olympic Borough of Newham. After nearly 20 years of teaching I now run my own fledgling business designing, publishing and selling my quirky and urban looking topological maps of the mountains. I also carry out freelance assessments in schools. My series of topological maps started two years ago with Tubular Fells which has been a great success. I also sell a Scottish version called MunrOverground. Other maps are in the pipeline (or should that be tube line) with the release of my Snowdonia version this spring. The latest map is titled Snowmotion! The Tubular Fells map is not meant to be used to navigate the fells – it’s not to scale and some of the features are out of their actual alignment to fit the design of the map, but for anyone familiar with the Lakeland fells it provides a fascinating view of their relationship to each other. Volume four of seven, which cover all 214 fells described in the Wainwright Pictorial Guides, which make them the perfect companion to the books.

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I have always walked in the outdoors for as long as I can remember. I lived in a village as a child and we used to walk a lot in the local area. The greatest memories from childhood are the snowy days when I would go sledging. It would be 1978 and 1982 when I remember walking over 10 foot high snow drifts and I thought it was magic. I always preferred to go out in the snow than in the hot sun. How I hated the summer of 1976! The Lake District is my favourite location. I think it’s because of my own broad ranging knowledge that endears me to the place so much. It is such a diverse and contrary to belief a massively human landscape. I love how the human interactions with the landscape has woven an amazing fabric of landscape across the fells. From the geological history, which is almost second to none in terms of its variety, to the human history dotted across the area, it’s a really amazing area. As became evident on my own map, the Lake District is roughly the same size as Greater London but within that small area are 17 major valley lakes, iconic properties, mountains greater than 3000′, but with geological characteristics that make them as varied as the Badlands of Dakota to the Alps of Europe. I have travelled quite a lot and from my own knowledge of the planet, I doubt there is as varied an area of ground on earth with as much interest and shear diversity of beauty. It’s not the greatest landscape in terms of scale, but it’s certainly one of the most intimately beautiful.