Skiddaw : Hey there is a view!

Skiddaw from Keswick Moot Hall

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A bright but hazy morning saw me up early and after a brief rather manic drive along the A69/M6/A66 saw me in Keswick by 8:00.

The weather forecast was a bit dire with rain and showers predicted for the afternoon. So, determined to see if there was a view for the summit of Skiddaw I planned the early start. In all the years I have been walking in the Lakes and the many times I have actually been up Skiddaw I have been surrounded in mist or buried deep in cloud and rain and never seen any kind of view from the top.

The other reason for chosing this particular route was to reconnoitre it in preparation for the Lakeland 3000s later on this year. One of the key things we learned from the Yorkshire 3 Peaks trip was that knowing the route meant that virtually no time at all was spent looking at the map. That saved us a huge amount of time as we were inevitably making good forward progress all day, stopping only for food and drink. This walk from Keswick's Moot Hall to the summit of Skiddaw and back, is the first section of the L3K trip. Making sure we can get out of Keswick at the start and back through the town and on to Borrowdale in the dark will be important.

As it was I got a little lost at the beginning and found the dead end that is the road up to the Keswick Hotel and the Station. A short detour and a stop or two two for photos and to embed the path into the memory meant that it took about half an hour to clear Keswick and get to the start of the Latrigg path at the end of Spooney Green Lane.

Once on this path there is no real possibility of losing your way. This is a main road of a path and it continues around Latrigg, forming part of the Cumbrian Way long distance path.

This early in the morning there were few people about and I made good progress, running some of the time, walking otherwise. The climb from Hawell monument is pretty unremitting calling for some determination, head down, keep going. It's not until the shoulder above Jenkin Hill is reached does it become flat(ish) enough to break into a jog again.

The summit is still some way from here but the views are indeed fantastic despite the haze, and its windy a somewhat refeshing cold Southerly breeze bringing a welcome relief.

A short stop on the summit to pat the ubiqutious dog, say hi to passers by and take the odd photograph, using thenew camera's self timer and the trig point as a tripod. But the breeze is actually quite cold and it's not long before I'm off at a fair pace down.

The path is quite steady from the top and I'm able to crack on passing all those still on their way up. Most of these folk are well overdressed or so it seems. Maybe it's just me being a bit self rightous.

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The way back is obvious, through the plantaion around Latrigg again and Spooley Green Lane but then I missjudge the road and forget the gate and well get a bit lost on the old railway track back down into Keswick. It's not long before I realise and correct my mistake and get back onto the road, coming back into Keswick along the road in from the A66. Back at the Moot Hall in what is now a crowded market place at about 11:00, 3 hrs round trip, 11.1 miles according to the GPS.

 

Ice Cold : On the Edge

The Icy Adventures of Gripp Type-Thinne II

"The best snow and ice conditions in 20 years", that's what the man promised and that's what we got. Well pretty much. It was a little misty and the view was restricted later in the day but the conditions underfoot were solid hard neve and just fantastic walking and climbing.

The path up from Patterdale, very familiar now, takes no time at all and stopping only to take the odd photograph the top of the ridge is reached at the Hole in the Wall within the hour. The hole is nowhere to be seen, it's under about 10ft of had packed snow and only the very top of the ladder stile is to be seen.
We stop to put crampons on, Gripp looking very pleased he'd brought them this time. I swapped windproof fleece for another base layer and windproof jacket expecting the wind on the ridge itself to be bighting.

The conditions were fantastic, firm ice and snow making foot placements solid and confidence building, the wind not distracting at all except in one or two places. I even had time to stop and take photos of the mele along the ridge, for it had become obvious that there was quite a number of folk determined to take advantage of these conditions.

The last step down at the end of the ridge required some care, holds and ledges packed hard with ice and then the final pull up to the summit, seeking out steeper ice along the face to make it more interesting.

After a brief stop at the "shelter" made even more tenuous in that regard since all the snow packed into each and every corner had reduced it's meagre effectiveness even further, we set off over the actual summit of Helvellyn to the cairn above Swirral Edge. The steep ice was firm enough to walk down a seemingly impossible slope to the easier ground along the ridge itself. This is no where near the edge that it's bigger brother demonstrates at the other side of the corrie.

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Windward Ho!

The Coledale Round Extreme

The forecast was for extremely windy weather, 60mph + and was described by the MWIS as

South or south-easterly in the range 35-40mph, but on higher summits 45mph, gusts locally in excess of 60mph Will continue to make for very difficult walking on exposed higher areas - with any mobility difficult on highest summits and ridges. Severe wind chill.

I can vouch for the accuracy of this prediction. At one point in the walk I literally had to crouch down and clamber up the path almost on all fours in order not to get blown over the edge. Most of the time I was leaning with a 30 ~ 40° list into the wind in order to stay upright.

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There was a point when I sat down at the summit of Hobcarton Pike, or Hopegill Head if you prefer, when the coffee flew sideways and not into the mug, when the rucksack moved 3' to the left in an instant, when a fellow walker passing by was blown onto all fours, that I nearly decided to go down via Coledale Hause and back along the valley. However foolishness got the better of me and I continued up Eel Crag and along the ridge, Sail and Causey Pike, stepping back along the ridge a while before dropping down to Barrow Door and along Barrow Gill and back to the car at Braithwaite.

The header photo for this entry is taken looking south from the summit of Eel Crag more towards Pillar rather than Scafell group, some of the other shots on Flickr do take in the whole vista.

Bowfell, High Raise and The Langdale Pikes

Bowfell and the Langdale Pikes

22112008, uploaded by rantoutloud.

Saturday 22nd November 2008, 7:30 in the morning, twilight and the weather shaping up for a cold and clear day. The weather was extremely cold and windy, 35~45mph (about -20DegC wind chill) but it was promised to be clear and cloud free.
So a decision was made to at least to take a look at the unfamiliar territory east of Angle Tarn towards High Raise. This section forms part of the Lakes 3000's that we're planning to do next year. Coming after the slog up and down Scafell and Scafell Pike it is likely that will have to be done mid afternoon before we get to Helvellyn. It is a somewhat bleak and rounded group of fell and while we're expecting to do it all in reasonable weather it's obviously advantageous that we're as familiar as possible to make the journey as easy as can be.

In order to make it a bit more of a walk I decided to start from Langdale and ascent up to Esk Hause via the Band, Bowfell and Esk Pike. Esk Hause is the turning point on the route for this section. The track from Esk Hause down to Angle Tarn is very familiar ground and I've covered this at least twice in the last few months. At the point where the path crosses the outflow from the Tarn the path diverges, continuing south west to Rossett Gill and roughly north east to Stake Pass where it crosses the Cumbrian Way.
I followed the Cumbrian Way path for a short while before dropping down into Stake Beck and headed straight up the hill towards the summit of High Raise. The effort to cross the mile or so from the pass to The summit ridge seemed all out of proportion to the 300 or so metres the map suggested it was. The boggy ground, the number of small false summits and what I can only described as heather and moss moguls made the going very tough indeed.

Having got to the top of High Raise, managed to get some food and coffee inside of me the remainder of the walk across Thuncarr Knott, and the Langdale Pikes, (Pavey Ark, Harrison Stickle, Pike O'Stickle and Loft Crag) was done in rapid order. The wind and the cold made it almost impossible to stop without freezing almost immediately. The path down over Raven Crags to the New Dungeon Gill pub is just long and hard on the knees.

In total the day was about 14 Miles, the GPS missed a bit, and about 4900' of ascent in about 7 hours.
The evening was spent winding down at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival, Catherine Destivelle's film was very inspiring. Followed by a excellent meal at Deja-Vu a small French Bistro in Kendal with friends.

Grisdale Pike

grisdale pike, uploaded by rantoutloud.

Cold wind on top, cloud closing in from west, ipod karma shuffle in reflective mood. The weather is fantastic and the clouds hold off all day. Didn't stop anywhere for long and the complete round took just about 4.5 hours.
The route takes the path from the quarry car park at the edge of Braithwaite up on to the ridge to Sleet How and Grisdale Pike itself. After a brief stop for coffee and a banana (?) Hopegill Head or Hobcarton Crag depending on which map you read, down to Coldale Hause and back up to Crag Hill, or Eel Crag again depending on which map you read. From Eel the ridge is followed over Sail and on to Causey Pike. The descent from the col between Scar Crags and Causey Pike leads down to the path which skirts Outerside and Stile End and back down to Braithwaite by the Coldale Pub, about 9.5 miles. This means I still haven't visited the summit of Grasmoor! I was informed by John that it was too boring anyway so I don't feel I missed out.

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Blencathra via Hall's Fell

Gategill by rantoutloud.

Sunday, early start alarm off at 5:00AM hoping to get a weather window before the heavy rain and wind predictied by our chums at the Weather Centre for later on in the day.
Dash over to Threlkeld marred by forgetting the speed camera ot Low Row service station on the A69, think I got snapped! Damn!
Walk up to the summit of Blencathra, technically Hall's Fell Top, is always a challenge. It's steep, lots of pretty orange lines to cross, and the ridge in the wet can be tricky as the rock is slate like and very slippy. The best route to follow is definately to stick to the crest of the ridge, the seemingly attractive path to the left is neither fun or less dangerous.
Very pleased with progress up the hill, no-stop ascent, except to take photos and completed in just over 1.5 hrs. That's not quite good enough yet for 2 miles and about 2,400' of ascent, will need to do better than that. Descended via Doddick Fell running down the easy sections, slipped on aformentioned wet slate and fell on arse. Back down, in the car and home by 12:00. Now looking forward to watching rugby and Ponteland Rugby BBQ later.
The map below is a plot of actual track data from my GPS data logger.

Looking up Hall's Fell at the start of the rocky section

Foule Crag and Sharp Edge from Doddick Fell

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Skiddaw, will I ever see the view?

This Sunday descided to climb Skiddaw. I've been up this tottering pile of slate several times and never seen the view over Keswick and Derwent Water, which I am lead to believe is superb.

The weather was foul above 1800ft with wind and low cloud obscuring the views. Missed the right turn on the way down and ended up almost in Keswick before realising. Even after skirting around Under Skiddaw it meant a much longer walk back to the car.