THE colder and darker mornings make getting up for work a harsh shock to the system even to the hardiest of folk. However few jobs are as tough as Jon Bennett’s.

HAVE you ever been slumped in an office chair wrapped in a shell of self-pity complaining that your job is too hard? Or that too much is asked of you? Or even that it doesn't challenge you enough?

If job satisfaction surveys are to be believed, pretty much everyone has at some point. Few of us are lucky enough to be in our dream jobs.

However, when you're next caught up in a depressed frame of mind, remind yourself that, despite your cranky boss, your cheap office coffee or that colleague no-one likes, at least you don’t have to climb one of Britain’s tallest mountains every day.

Jon Bennett, the Lake Dist-rict National Park Author-ity’s fell top assessor, has to do just that in order to collate vital information for Weatherline – a telephone service providing life-saving information to half a million people every year.

Working on a seven days on, seven days off basis, he shares the role of climbing Helvellyn, Cumbria’s third highest peak, with colleague Jason Taylor, from December through to March. But Jon regards his unusual role as a dream job that provides job satisfaction found nowhere else.

“Before getting this job, I used Weatherline on a regular basis as a vital source of information. I feel that I have taken from the mountains and it's a great feeling to think that I am now putting something back,” said Jon.

A resident of Ambleside, Jon used to work in the hospitality trade but his romance with the fells proved too powerful to ignore as he was drawn to the job.

“The moral of the story is to always apply for a job if you want it! My professional experience had been in hotels for years, whereas my free time was spent in the mountains for 20-odd years. I knew that I could do the job, but presumed that they would want someone with leadership qualifications. Anyway, I applied, was pleased to be offered an interview and then delighted to be given the job!”

Weatherline is this year celebrating its 35th an-niversary. It’s more than just a weather service, however. The information collected is credited with saving an unknown number of lives on the mountains by alerting walkers to potential dangers.

“We go up the hill mentally noting the conditions as we climb. At the top, we take a few minutes to measure the wind speed, wind chill and average wind speed. Then we enter this information on the website, which includes downloading the daily picture and when the updated weather forecast comes through from the Met Office, we update the Weatherline phone, inclu-ding our report on the day's conditions.”

Depending on conditions, the trek up 950 metre-high Helvellyn takes Jon around two hours and the trek down around 90 minutes. A seven-day shift is the equivalent of almost reaching Mount Everest’s summit.

Jon said conditions on the mountain can change almost instantly and urged walkers to be properly prepared before setting off to explore one of the most spectacular places on earth.

“Conditions vary, which is what makes the job so varied. For example today, there has been glorious sunshine and hardly any wind on the summit – but sometimes the cloud is so thick that you can hardly see.”

It can get so cold high up, that, occasionally, walkers may not realise they are standing on nothing more than ice.

“One time, there was a cornice (an overhanging edge of snow) over the headwall of the mountain. With poor visibility, by the time you could have seen the edge you would, in effect, have been over it!” said Jon.

There are occasions when the harshness and danger of the mountain is even too much for the experts.

“Whenever I have felt that it is dangerous to continue, I have turned back,” said Jon. “Last year on Striding Edge there was a day of especially thick mist combined with a recent heavy snowfall, so everything was white. The combination of not being able to see together with unstable snow on a steep surface was a recipe for turning back and leaving the summit for the next day.”

And he advised walkers to do the same.

Jon said: “People often say to us that they had no idea that it would be like up there. You should always be prepared to turn back if the conditions worsen, either in terms of the weather or the conditions underfoot. The hills will always be there for another day.”

So when you next feel like your boss is making you climb an unreasonable mountain, remember: some people really do have a mountain to climb.

“People I meet on the hill often ask if I get bored going up every day,” added Jon. “I think that if you are bored with this scenery, then you are bored with life.”

l The Weatherline number is 0844 846 2444.