Final Adjustments : 4 days to go

Training : Final Planning

With only a few days to go it seems like I've a million and one things to think about. The route itself, final adjustments like 'skirt around the top of High Raise save 400ft and so on. With one eye on the weather, op-out clauses, Seathwaite, Wythburn, skip Helvellyn, the potential variations are mind boggling.

Clearly my real mind set is imagining myself on every part of the route, moving strongly and actually completing the trip. I think this approach means half the battle, the mental one, is being started now, before I get on the hill and will give me a much better chance of success. I think the training decision to walk as much of the route as possible over the past few weeks has been really helpful, really positive and one hell of a confidence boost.

Problem is the weather looks shite for Friday night, I don't fancy walking off the edge of Helvellyn into Brown Cove in the middle of the night in thick cloud. Bought a new head torch, Black Diamond H7, bright it is for sure.

9 Days and Counting

Start Time 06:00 12th June 2009

It's less than 10 days to my attempt on the Lakeland 3000. After the warm weekend trip up Scafell Pikes I've been taking it relatively easy. A Hexham run out yesterday evening, the usual 6~7 miles. I don't know exactly how far as I left the GPS at home. Thinking of taking it easy until a final jog on Saturday or Sunday next weekend.

I've carried out some detailed analysis of timings from previously recorded GPS track segments of the routes I've done over the last few months. These have corresponded to the planned and estimated times on my schedule. This is encouraging as it does mean it's possible but on the other had one or two of those tracks were taken at speed. I'm relying on two areas of estimate flexibility. One is many of the recorded tracks include the stops for food or photography and these will largely abandoned. The other is I have conservativly estimated the road sections where I'm really hoping to make up some time. Many of the down hill sections have been estimated as being very similar to the corresponding uphill ones, usually down hill is much quicker than up.

Food and diet will be a feature of the next week or two too, concentrating on packing in the carbohydrates rather than adding protein.

I'll be keeping a close eye on the weather too. I've yet to master the controls on that function!

	Sunrise 4.36	Sunset 21.49		Six AM Start
Location	Light	Leg Distance	Leg Time		Notes
Keswick Moot Hall	daylight	0	0	06:00:00	Start
Skiddaw		5.25	2.5	08:30:00	steep uphill
Keswick		5.7	2.5	11:00:00	down hill
Borrowdale				11:00:00	road
Seathwaite		8.33	3	14:00:00	road
Halt			0.3	14:18:00	20 min stop
Scafell Pike		3.68	2	16:18:00	long uphill
Scafell		1.13	1.2	17:30:00	vertical
Scafell Pike		1.13	1	18:30:00	vertical
Broad Crag		0.5	0.3	18:48:00	uphill
Esk Hause		1.23	0.5	19:18:00	downhill
Angle Tarn		0.75	0.3	19:36:00	down hill
Stake Pass	dusk	1.5	0.75	20:21:00	flat
High Raise	dusk	1.6	1	21:21:00	steep uphill
Wythburn Church	dark	4.3	2.15	23:30:00	long down hill boggy
Halt	dark		0.3	23:48:00	20min stop
Helvellyn	dark	2.3	1.2	01:00:00	steep uphill
The Swirls Car Park	dark	2.5	1.2	02:12:00	down hill
Keswick Moot Hall	dawn	8	3.5	05:42:00	road
		47.89	23.7		finished

Wasdale to the Top of England

Scafell & Pike

View Scafell via Fox's Tarn in a larger map

Another new trip for me, Scafell and from Wasdale. Tim and I were to reccy the link between Scafell Pike and Scafell by driving into Wasdale Head and then taking a route from there to Mickeldore, the col between the two tops.

We set off in foul weather from the head of Wasdale at about 9:00, wet and windy, the forecast looking to be accurate. Climbing steeply, skirting Lingmell Gill the route goes straight towards Mickledore via Brown Tongue, into the thickening cloud and showery rain. It's warm work and there's the usual dilemma of 'overtrousers' or 'no-overtrousers'. I adopted the latter dress code.

The path steepens at the head of the cove and the scree underfoot does nothing to help forward / upward progress. When it's saturated like this it's more like walking in wet cement. Then suddenly we're on the col itself, cloud and wind making this spot feel very isolated and dropping the temperature enough for us to add layers. We're glad the wind is not at the forecast 'gales' 50mph level, that would have been too much.

Now the direction is down, the other side of the col towards the bottom of the East Buttress looking for a short cut through the rock and vegetation to a point 1/3rd the way up Fox's Tarn Gully. We see several possibilities but nothing definite and its very wet and slippery and opt for the safer option of the Gully itself. This is waterfall climbing, but it's steady and absorbing so the loss of height is quickly regained and without too much time lost. Fox's Tarn itself is just a peaty pool of water with a huge boulder sat in it but provides a necessary landmark, we bear right up the steep slopes behind to the summit ridge. The well cairned path bearing back around to the left to the summit of Scafell proper.

Time for a refuel, food and coffee in the cloud and wind a photo or two for posterity. Then suddenly the cloud parts and we catch a glimpse of Wasdale below, only a glimpse mind as the cloud rolls back in. This is no place to linger and with no view to keep us there we head off back down the way we have come. Finding the top of the gully easily we drop down the waterfall just as wet going down as up.

Mickledore

At the foot of the gully we have a steep climb back up to Mickledore, this time we hug the base of the gigantic cliffs in a further attempt to find the elusive shortcut. This time we do indeed see where the faint 'path' seems to go right into the heart of the craggy moss. Note the word 'path' is a very lose term and I am not confident that in a tired state this is the way forward, better the safer option even if we lose that extra 20~30m in height.

From the end of Mickeldore, just below Broad Stand we see our next objective in the clearing cloud and mist, Scafell Pike. The highest point in England is gained in short order, its now familiar bulky cairn covered with people of all shapes and colours. There's obviously an event on as there's a marshall with a radio and fell runners appearing every so often, only to disappear at an alarming speed. Our enquiries establish that the event is "The Three County Tops", Helvellyn, Scafell Pike and Coniston Old Man.

Author, Wastwater

The route down is via Lingmell Col and is fairly straight forward, if long and steep at the end. The weather plays tricks, at one time heavy showers and others bright sunshine. The clear spells allow some good photos of the unusual view of Mickledore and down the Wasdale valley all the way to the West Coast and the Irish Sea.

Tim looking down on Wastwater

Great Gable and Styhead Tarn

Lakeland 3000

All four 3000ft peaks in the Lake District

View 3000 in a larger map

Update Update

We completed the walk at 3:24 on Saturday 13th June 2009. see Lakeland 3000 for details

The Idea

The idea is to set a challenge for yourself, one that is not totally unrealistic but one that you know will stretch your endurance and determination beyond a point where you have been before and a bit more.

Why?

Why not? Well actually for many reasons:

• To have a focus and reason for getting and staying fit.
• To be sociable.
• To have something to do with spare time, other than work.

The Detail

The actual challenge is to walk the four 3000ft tops in the Lake District in one day starting at and returning to The Moot Hall in Keswick, all within 24 hours and unaided.

That's an approximate total of 46 Miles, 11,000ft of ascent.

1. Keswick Moot Hall 06:00 Friday
   
2. Skiddaw Summit
3. Keswick
4. Borrowdale
5. Seathwaite
6. Lingmell Col
   
7. Scafell Pike
8. Scafell
9. Scafell Pike
10. Broad Crag
    
11. Esk Hause
12. Angle Tarn
13. Stake Pass
14. High Raise
15. Steel End
    
16. Wythburn
17. Helvellyn
18. Thirlmere
19. Keswick Moot Hall 06:00 Saturday
    

Skiddaw : Hey there is a view!

Skiddaw from Keswick Moot Hall

View Skiddaw from Keswick in a larger map

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.

View Skiddaw from Keswick in a larger map

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.