RUNNERS, poets and renowned adventurers descended on Kendal over the weekend to enjoy a packed programme of films, art and workshops.

From Thursday night Kendal Mountain Festival (KMF) was in full swing, as hundreds marched from the Rifleman's Arms to the centre of town.

Signalling the official start of the festival, the Gaita Band and head torch wearing revellers attracted the attention of onlookers and gave the festival a strong visible presence.

Clive Allen, one of the directors of KMF, said that it set the tone for the rest of weekend, which had been just what he had wanted.

"It was brilliant - it was just brilliant," he said. "It just swelled and swelled. The thing that really worked was having the band there and the flags and the bells."

When it came to film, productions such as 49 Fingers, a short that showed off Kendal's skateboarding scene sat comfortably alongside the bigger budget offerings like Staveley adventurer Leo Houlding's Mirror Wall.

For filmmakers, the awards ceremony on Saturday was one of the key events with director Alastair Lee's film, Blocheads, completing a KMF double by winning both the People's Choice Award alongside Best Climbing Film.

In literature, it was British Alpinist Simon McCartney who took home the top prize. His book The Bond won the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature.

Henry Iddon, culture officer at KMF, said that the Boardman had become one of the 'central pillars of British mountain culture'.

"There's a huge history of mountain writing," said Mr Iddon. "I think people are still in awe and the whole connection to nature is more because everyone is in offices. So when we do spend time in nature you value it more."

Solidifying his point and combining the mediums of both literature and film was Geoff Cox, whose short film A Shepherd's Hand celebrated his passion for fell running through poetry and moving image.

Mr Cox, who is 61-years-old and from Lupton, near Kirkby Lonsdale, had never written poetry before but was moved to do so after completing the Joss Naylor Lakeland Challenge in celebration of his 60th birthday.

"Long runs like that, they're the culmination of a lot of preparation and a lot of intense thinking," he said. "That leaves a lot of mental detritus and to try to clear that from my head I decided to try to write this down and found that prose just didn't work.

"The prose was at a different rhythm to the run so it didn't carry it. I started shortening the lines and all of a sudden I was writing poetry."

Featuring legendary fell runner Joss Naylor himself, and produced by the team at Kendal's No Routes Found, Mr Cox said that he had been overwhelmed by the reaction it had received, particularly from women.

"It's interesting the gender difference in the way people have responded," he said. "Yes there's a lot of guys who said: 'Yeah really loved your poem' but there's so many women who seem to say it was just the right way of capturing that kind of journey."

Despite there being plenty of heated discussion in the adventure world about gender parity, strong female voices were found at every turn during the festival.

Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita, the first female mountaineering instructor from Nepal, spoke at the event and explained how important it was for young girls to follow their dreams. She was named National Geographic's 2016 People's Choice Adventurer of the Year.

"In Nepal there's lot of boundaries and limitations for a woman and women should do this and shouldn't do this," she said. "There's so many wonderful women who inspire you every day not only for the climbing.

"You have to try. If you don't try you will never know. So I want to say to everyone, especially the young girls, just trust yourself and follow your dream."

And although not everybody who visited the festival will be summiting K2 next year or following Leo Houlding's ascent up Greenland's Mirror Wall, the treasurer of the The Fell and Rock Climbing Club hopes that the festival has inspired a few more people to enjoy the outdoors, come rain or shine.

"It depends how you define adventure really," said treasurer John Pulford. "You could say that any walking up some of the low hills could be having an adventure - especially in this weather!"

The 10km trail run on the Saturday morning was won by Bowland's Chris Arthur (37-58) with Pudesy & Bramley's Joe Baxter (39-37) second and Helm Hill's Adam Perry (40-46) in third while his team mate Kieran Hodgson (42-00) was first V40.

The first woman was Howgill's Heidi Dent (44-23) with the first V40 being Ambleside AC's Lou Roberts (46-31). Kendal's Evelyn Dugdale (53-19) was first V50 while Milnthorpe's Wendy Dodds (1-01-28), who runs for Clayton-le-Moors, was first V60.