Three of a Kind

Round the Yorkshire 3 Peaks, 9 hours, 25 miles.

The view out of the window at 7:00 in the morning was not at all promising and when combined with the events and advice from the previous evening the prospects for success were not looking good.

The evening we arrived at The Station Inn at Ribblehead there were Cave and Fell Rescue folk all over Whernside and a Sea King helicopter in the field all trying to evacuate a couple of walkers from below the summit. The two of them had fallen over 300ft on the ice and one was quite badly injured but alive.

The initial part of the route takes a path below the famous viaduct, a spectacular sight or so I'm lead to believe but in today's weather it's a mere shadow in the fog and I can't even get a photograph.

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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.

Ingelborough and Pen-Y-Ghent

2/3 of the Three Peaks

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Scafell Pike in the clouds

Scafell Pike, uploaded by rantoutloud.

Scafell Pike in the clouds. Despite the forcast being just about OK the weather last Saturday, (30th Aug 2008), was poor, the cloud base was down at around 2000ft. That's about the height of Esk Hause, and as we climed up through Calf Cove and the boulder field that lies between Great End and Broad Crag we must have veered off too far left and got lost. Actually well and truly lost and even a little concerned after a while of wandering about. Eventually stumbling across Ill Crag, stopping for some lunch and attempting to get bearings and collect thoughts on which way to go. Even going North from Ill Crag we were quite disoriented and started to go down the path towards Gt. End before realising our mistake. There were many other people out there looking similarly lost too.
Eventually as we descended the gap between Broad Crag and Scafell Pike the mist cleared a bit to give us all confidence in our direction. Indeed after stopping for something more to eat and the remains of the coffee at the summit, on the way back down the mist cleared and we decided to take in a visit to Great End and got quite a marvelous view all round. The route back down Rossett Gill and Langdale was uneventful.
The photos here are from an earlier trip I did on a day in June which I think will have to go down as the best day of the summer.