Langdales in the rain

So the forecast was some rain in the afternoon, but I was hoping that by the time we got to the group of peaks it would have cleared.  Best laid plans...  Still, it was another walk from the house, going up the path onto the fell side.

Difficulty: 6

Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Grace (12), Evie (9), Poppy (6 1/2)

9:49, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (96)

11:23, 3.0km 1h34 474m, Blea Rigg (541, Wainwright)

12:23, 5.3km 2h33 660m, Sergeant Man (736, Wainwright)

12:42, 6.3km 2h53 705m, High Raise (High White Stones) (762, Wainwright, Hewitt)

13:37, 8.1km 3h48 750m, Thunacar Knott (723, Wainwright)

13:56, 8.6km 4h07 752m, Pavey Ark (700, Wainwright)

14:41, 9.7km 4h52 826m, Harrison Stickle (736, Hewitt, Wainwright)

15:31, 10.7km 5h42 879m, Pike of Stickle (709, Wainwright, Hewitt)

16:08, 11.5km 6h19 926m, Loft Crag (680, Wainwright)

18:42, 16.5km 8h53 991m, End (98)

So first up Blea Rigg, conquered the day before, but en-route to Sergeant Man.

The morning was nice, warm and sunny.

Now at the top of Sergeant Man, the last steep climb up on this walk.

And now all the way to High Raise.  A little wet underfoot, but much less soggy than when Caroline and I had walked up here before.  With the wind direction most of the walk up the gradual slope was in shelter, but once at the top there was a very strong wind.  We took cover in the walled shelter at the top and had lunch.

Now along to Thunacar Knott, and it was starting to rain.  

Across to Pavey Arc, and the rain was only getting worse, with only occasional glimpses down the valley.

 A fairly easy climb up to Harrison Stickle, and it was really raining hard.

Quite a hard walk down to the bottom of the bowl and up again to Pike of Stickle - at this point Evie was really not having fun, and Poppy was soaked through as well.  Evie had not wanted her waterproof trousers on when it started to rain, and Poppy's weren't actually that waterproof, so it wasn't too surprising.  A pity, since scrambling up Pike of Stickle was something I hoped both of them would have enjoyed.  Caroline at least was having fun.

Getting down was a team exercise.

Finally onto the final peak of the day, Loft Crag.  

The view across to Pike of Stickle.  The weather was improving a little by now.

By the time we were down it had brightened up quite a bit.  We took the opportunity to start to dry out...

And finally the walk back to the house was lovely - the Langdale valley bathed in beautiful low sunshine.

Tarn Crag: finding the path

First walk of the week staying at Pye Howe, right next to the path we had failed to find previously. Given the footpath was marked from the road, we took this opportunity to start from the house and to discover where the footpath went.  We were without Isabelle, since her DoE practice expedition was scheduled for this week, her help with Poppy up and down will be sorely be missed.

Difficulty: 6
Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Grace (12), Evie (9), Poppy (6 1/2)
9:44, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (97)
11:16, 3.0km 1h32 348m, Silver How (395)
14:46, 9.2km 5h02 803m, Tarn Crag (Easedale) (550)
16:14, 12.5km 6h30 947m, Blea Rigg (541)
17:45, 15.5km 8h01 986m, End (98)

Out of the house, and almost straight up the hillside.  With little difficulty we found the stile over the wall that we had missed 2 years before.  It was pretty hot work climbing up, despite the partial cloud cover and the occasional wind.  After getting to the ridge, we walked along to get to Silver How.  Here we were able to see lots of walks we'd done in years before.

Now the sun had come out more, so out came the sunscreen.  Evie decided to focus protecting her best bits.

We walked back along the ridge, starting climb up to Blea Rigg, but turning off to the left before reaching it, to walk down to Easedale Tarn for lunch.

It was the start of the bank holiday weekend and there were quite a few people, but still room to find our own rocks to sit on.  Most of the walk was fairly empty of people, as we'd deliberately picked less travelled paths.

After lunch we climbed up to Tarn Crag.  This was the hottest part of the walk - full sunlight, very little wind, and relentless climb up for a couple of hundred meters.  Evie especially was quite hard to motivate, we had to time the sugar rushes causes by the sweets we'd brought for best effect.  Still, we made it to the top of Tarn Crag.

We went back via Codale Tarn, a little less descent before climbing back up to Blea Rigg, but also a slight circular walk.  After passing the tarn, we then climbed back up to the ridge on the other side.

Back up to Blea Rigg, after missing it on the way out. 

We returned, not quite the same route back down, but close enough to find the stile back over the wall, I think give it another couple of goes and we'll find it with no problems!  This was the view looking up the Langdale valley, with the Crinkle Crags just visible at the end.

Blea Rigg & The Dark Descent

We'd actually not gone for a walk the previous day, the weather wasn't very inviting and I was still having back problems.  Caroline did get out in the afternoon and ended up almost getting all the way up to the top of the Old Man, but was advised by people returning that the top was really miserable - very windy, raining, no visibility, so she wisely came back to the house where we were all sheltering in the warm and dry.

Still, our last full day was brighter and drier, so it was time to really stretch our legs and pick up something a little more challenging.  We decided to start from the car park at the bottom of Dungeon Ghyll (I seem to remember the parking meter was broken so we didn't even have to pay, forgetting that the next car park along is National Trust), walking up to Stickle Tarn before making a right hand turn.

Difficulty: 4
Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (12), Grace (10), Evie (7), Poppy (4)
11:15, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (91)
14:16, 3.7km 3h01 482m, Blea Rigg (541)
17:46, 10.0km 6h30 622m, End (91)

We set off, and made good progress in the morning, up the obvious path.

Or taking the slightly less obvious route after fording the stream.

After reaching Stickle Tarn, we didn't stop straight away since it was pretty windy, so we turned right and found an place that was more sheltered.  Well, it really wasn't that much more sheltered, so lunch was fairly quick...

Poppy looking less than impressed.  Perhaps she missed out on eating all her crisps.  She does eat the slowest out of all of us, so when we don't have long she does tend to be unlucky and just miss out on some of the food.

Reaching our target, Blea Rigg.

Now to find the way back home.  I'd planned this walk out, and had seen a very convenient path down the hillside, leaving us time to get back to the car.  There was a longer variant, staying up high and walking around to Silver How, but that looked too long to get back before it got dark.

Last shot of the family before we really descended, with the sun starting to go down over the far hills.  Never mind, still lots of time to get back...

Or maybe not.  Turned out that the path was marked on the map but less so on the ground, with a farmers wall blocking the way.  We took quite a long diversion trying to find the path, before turning back and then just trying to go down hill, assuming that the path had been diverted through the neighbouring field.  Turns out not, so we ended up having to climb back up, as the light rapidly was failing.  The need to find a sensible path was so great that we ended up scaling a wall, thinking carefully about the order we should go over and how to help everyone get over.  It really was a great team building exercise, although slightly stressful for me looking at the map and the clock and trying to find a path off the fell side.

We finally reached a better route down and just about made it down to the road before the light completely went, very useful since trying to walk on uneven ground when you can't see the ground is quite hard.   The path we had to take was quite a detour, following the edge of the farms down to the south east until the farms ran out and led to a path.  It was slightly ironic since that was the path we would have been on had we taken the longer route to Silver How, but I bet that we wouldn't have been there any earlier had we taken that route.

The only good part about this route is that once down to the valley floor we knew there was a very easy flat straight path back to the car park - there was a short road section, where we got to use our torches (carried on all walks, and virtually always unused) to warn cars that we were on the road, but after that it was all offroad.

Still there were puddles to avoid, but the really great thing was that the moon was out, and actually giving enough light to see the puddles and each other by.

So all in all not the best walk, but a real lesson in checking the route (on multiple maps) before setting off, being very aware of any alternative routes back and carrying enough things like torches.

High Raise via a bog in the rain

This was definitely one of my planned walks where I had mapped out all the Wainwrights and split them up into walks that I felt were achievable.  Achievable it was, although I had some doubts as to my sanity when walking through miles in a bog - be careful what you wish for...

Difficulty: 6
Walkers: Tim, Caroline
10:19, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (68)
12:44, 6.3km 2h24 565m, Tarn Crag (Easedale) (550)
13:56, 9.2km 3h36 794m, High Raise (High White Stones) (762)
14:16, 10.2km 3h57 796m, Sergeant Man (736)
15:14, 12.7km 4h54 811m, Blea Rigg (541)
16:23, 16.1km 6h03 866m, Silver How (395)
17:11, 18.7km 6h51 872m, End (68)

The route was fairly straight forward - park in the main public car park in Grasmere, head up to Easedale, and continue going in that direction for quite a while...

So it was raining, and was forecast to rain most of the day.

This was looking up Easedale, towards the waterfall.  The path went right next to the waterfall in places.

Finally above Easedale and looking back down.  I was hoping to cut the corner off the path, so not going all the way to the tarn and back again, but it was far too wet to consider going cross country.

And finally to the first Wainwright of the day, Tarn Crag - here Caroline beating me to the top.

Me finding my way to the top, looking slightly bedraggled.  Oh well, only another 4 1/2 hours in the rain to go...

This is High Raise, finally. The walk to get here was pretty flat along a wet bog, in the rain.  I'm really grateful for waterproof boots.

And now to Sergeant Man, where we were treated to this awesome view across to the Langdales.

Finally we made our way to Blea Rigg.  I was so grateful to have gps confirming our path and our destinations at this point.  I'm happy that we would have made it down safely without, but it does make life easier.

And finally to Silver How, here looking back the way we had come.

Same point, looking forward towards Grasmere and Rydal Water.  It was starting to get a little gloomy by this point, so we were glad to descend and get inside in the dry for a change.