Friday 2 June 2017

Coniston Old Man

For the final day we had run out of easier peaks in the Langdales, so for a change decided to go up one of our favourite walks.  It was a chance for Evie to catch up with Grace for total number of Wainwrights walked (73) and for Poppy to move further ahead of Isabelle - by the end of this walk she was 61, Isabelle in fourth place: still on 55 after missing out on this week.

Difficulty: 6
Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Grace (12), Evie (9), Poppy (6 1/2)
10:35, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (56)
12:49, 4.7km 2h13 752m, Coniston Old Man (803, Wainwright, Hewitt)
13:24, 5.6km 2h49 775m, Brim Fell (796, Wainwright)
14:21, 7.8km 3h46 902m, Swirl How (802, Wainwright, Hewitt)
15:27, 9.3km 4h52 1018m, Black Sails (745, Hewitt)
15:50, 10.1km 5h14 1076m, Wetherlam (763, Wainwright, Hewitt)
17:51, 15.3km 7h15 1080m, End (56)

After a comparatively lazy start, compared to the two previous days, we drove to Coniston and parked in the village, knowing we had to pick up more milk and bread after the walk, and then walked up straight from there.  We had a vague plan to head left to Dow Crag and home, but decided that the weather was good enough (and we had enough legs left) to make it all the way around to Wetherlam. 

First the climb up through the slate workings, retelling the story of how many times Isabelle asked to turn back the first time she climbed up here.  This has been the benchmark by which her younger sisters judge this climb...

To Low Water, pit stop before the final climb up.  Looking quite cloudy up there... 
 Brief views down to the valley floor, but mainly the 'typical' conditions.

Beyond the Old Man we went over the pimple that is Brim Fell.  Not much view to speak of.

Finally, on the walk to Swirl How the view improves!  

Turns out the view only improved as we had gone down a bit.  I'm sure the peak is up here somewhere...

The extra peak for this walk was Black Sails, a Hewitt but not a Wainwright, we'd omitted this on previous trips.

And finally to Wetherlam.  From here looking around we could see virtually every walk that we'd done that week.

We used the ridge path back down towards Coniston, really wonderful views of the lake and the rest of the hillsides.

Having reach the main path back we crossed over at Miners Bridge and joined out outward track.



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