Trevor Littlewood: Hail Storm Hill had a mention but was not listed when the Hall of Shame was inaugurated in the first edition of Marhofn in 1999. It fully deserves a place there on a number of counts. We approached from the south via a tooth-loosening cobbled road. People were walking but the majority of the vehicles up there seemed to have brought trail bikes with them. The rasp of engines was with us for most of the day. Taking a route east away from a pair of burnt-out cars, we first went up Hunger Hill by a rutted route caused by endless motor-cycle ascents and descents. Heading north on a fine partly-cobbled fell road, we were passed incessantly by more noise-generating bikes. Passing an abandoned and wrecked car, then 20 or so dumped car wheels, we turned off the road to Hail Storm Hill itself. Big boring bog describes it perfectly. We traipsed over endless waterlogged tussocky ground to locate what could reasonably be called the highest point, then turned off south for Knowl Moor. The trail bikers and their noise were everywhere. They seem to use the moorland freely, and some doubtless see it as a duty to churn the peat into a black porridgy morass. On the passage to Knowl Moor - very juicy going at the best of times - there were several places where small elephants could have been lost without trace in the goo generated by bike use, and a section of the final slope was all but scoured free of vegetation by yet more activity. Our next ascent of this hill will be some time off.
On the way to Hail Storm Hill (photo: Trevor Littlewood)