Steel Fell from Grasmere

After missing out on Gibson Knott with the girls, this seemed like a good walk to do, and not just as it would annoy them!  However, it was also quite a bit shorter than the previous day, which was good as we were suffering the after effects slightly, but also didn't go up spectacularly high on a day with lots of cloud cover promised.

Difficulty: 5

Walkers: Tim, Caroline

10:04, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (68)

11:10, 3.5km 1h05 345m, Helm Crag (405)

11:48, 4.9km 1h44 425m, Gibson Knott (420)

12:37, 6.9km 2h33 567m, Calf Crag (537)

13:20, 9.4km 3h16 661m, Steel Fell (553)

14:45, 14.5km 4h41 686m, End (68)

We started the same way - parking in the large car park at the bottom of Grasmere, walking through the village, then up over Goody Bridge then the bridge over Easedale Beck.  We climbed the route up to Helm Crag, all the time comparing it to the fun we'd had encouraging Evie up there.  This photo is from just below the top of Helm Crag, looking back over Grasmere to the south.

Caroline, resting at the top of Helm Crag, with Easedale Tarn hidden to the left.

We finally made it far enough to get to Gibson Knott, with the number of lumps and bumps along the ridge it wasn't that surprising that we'd missed it the time before.  It wasn't quite as dark and brooding as this photo indicates...

My lovely wife, onwards and upwards (with the walk, rather than the wife).

Calf Crag, looking north, with the ridge of High Raise and Ullscarf behind.

Same location, looking south.

Going further along towards Steel Fell, looking at the ridge we had come along - with Helm Crag at the left hand edge, and Gibson Knott one of the rocky lumps towards the right.

Steel Fell, looking north towards Thirlmere.

We came down out the end of the ridge, I have a vague memory of feeling the need to go quite fast at this point. Quite possibly because this was a 1.45pm, and we had another 4km to go and then a half hour back to the Duck - I'm betting I was trying to make it back in time for afternoon tea...

We never meant to go to Helvellyn

The plan for this walk to do the ridge north of Helvellyn. We parked at the car park at the north end of Thirlmere, after driving up from the Drunken Duck following a hearty breakfast.  I love breakfast at the Duck!

Difficulty: 9
Walkers: Tim, Caroline
10:03, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (172)
13:03, 10.6km 2h59 669m, Clough Head (726)
13:58, 13.6km 3h55 904m, Great Dodd (857)
14:21, 15.0km 4h17 908m, Watson's Dodd (789)
14:39, 16.1km 4h36 969m, Stybarrow Dodd (843)
15:15, 17.9km 5h11 1099m, Raise (883)
15:31, 18.9km 5h27 1138m, White Side (863)
16:09, 20.9km 6h05 1296m, Helvellyn (950)
18:50, 27.6km 8h46 1377m, End (173)

We started with a longish walk north, along the valley, a great way to get some miles down on the flat for a change.

 After around the head of the ridge, we found the fairly obvious path going up, which brought us up to Clough Head.  This photo is looking north, towards Kewsick with Derwent Water on the left and Bassenthwaite in the center.

My lovely wife at the top of Clough Head.

Moving south down the ridge it took less than an hour to make the 3km to Great Dodd, where we met a group of people obviously doing some kind of extended expedition or orienteering - still, they took a rare picture of both of us.

Following the path south we got to Watson's Dodd.

The next was Stybarrow Dodd.   Just beyond this was the first point (Sticks Pass) that we could sensibly turn back home, but the weather (after a very promising early morning) hadn't deteriorated that badly, so we were keen to complete the walk and turn back after getting to White Side.

Going further down the ridge, and quite a bit higher, is Raise.  This picture is looking east towards Ullswater,

This is another picture from Raise, but looking at the path up the ridge towards Lower Man, with Helvellyn to the center and Catstye Cam sticking up to the left - White Side is just out of shot to the right.

And finally we reached our destination, the top of White Side.  For a while I had been thinking that we could always carry on to Hellvelyn, after not having made it to the top on our honeymoon, and I suspect Caroline may have been thinking the same thing, since it seemed an obvious choice at this point!

And so begun the walk up to Lower Man.  After reaching this point you really start to dislike the drop down before going back up to Helvellyn!

The weather closed in at this point, but approaching Lower Man we got great views looking along Swirral Edge going up to Catstye Cam to the left of this picture, Ullswater in the distance.

So after hours of walking, much serious climbing, finding that the sheep just are up here all the time does make you feel a little envious for the sheep...

Occasionally the cloud cleared a little, giving glimpses of the Edges and the tarn below.

Caroline, on the other hand, was very glad to have made it this far!

And so the long trek down began.  We lost the path at a couple of spots, including once at the top of a steep slope going down to the valley floor, which wasn't great.  It was also raining quite a bit by this point, enough that we got completely soaking and waterproofs became less so.

Still, the odd view was worth capturing.  I think that descent, especially after the length of the walk, broke both of us a little - legs and knees were quite sore.  Caroline also got a huge blister from her old boots - I'm pretty sure this was the last chance and they were binned fairly quickly afterwards.

Elsa Birthday Cake

I made this cake for Poppy's 5th birthday.  I think we'd done a similar doll cake before, but no photos exist to convict the guilty.

First make the cakes and cut the tops and sides off.  Bottom two are 7" round, with 3 egg/190g, top was a 2l bowl, 4 egg/250g.

Cut down to size, lots of cake to keep the troops marching.

I was relying on the buttercream to get enough height, cutting each layer in half to be able to add more icing between each layer.

Made up 1kg buttercream, some left over.

Made a stand out of the roll out icing at the bottom of the hole, her feet stuck into that to get the height right, and more stability - the icing padding didn't quite add enough height to the cake. Rolled out 1kg pre-coloured icing, ended up discarding a third, but wouldn't really want to place it on with less. The 'ribbon belt' covered up the top which wasn't so neat.  This was made with an off-cut of the blue icing.

Grace did all the decorating, full credit to her for taking the time and creativity. All the skirt is decorated, with different designs on the sides and back.

Lesson 7: Pâte à Linzer / Mon Linzer

We had guests for this dinner, and like a fool I tried something new.  I can't now remember who it was, so apologies if it was you...

The pastry was fine, although I think I ran out before having excess to put a lattice over the top.

Now with the jam inside.  I thought I'd followed the guidelines, but I don't think the jams were boiled hot enough to be able to set properly.

As a result, it looked basically fine, but cutting into it made the jam just leak everywhere rather than actually going with the portion.  Tasted okay, if you could use a spoon...

Notes for next time

• Treat the jam like jam and use a jam thermometer to make sure it's cooked hot enough to set.  I've no idea whether this will be sufficient, but it stands a better chance...
• Make sure the pastry has enough left over for the topping.

Lesson 3: Pâte Brisée Fondante / Tarte aux Fruits Rouges-Pistache

Cooked for the Brookings who came round for dinner last night.  Very straight forward.

Pastry made and pricked

Filled almost to the brim

After cooking, around 45min @180

Cooled and served

Notes for next time

• Warming the milk before adding to the pastry is very useful
• Mixing the pastry in the kitchenaid worked well, all stuck to the beater when combined
• Chilled the pastry overnight in the fridge, took out of the fridge and left at room temperature an hour or two before using, and it was no problem to roll out
• Pistachios left whole, assumed this was correct and seemed to give the right effect - variety of taste, rather than just flavouring
• Added slightly more fruit than stated, but with the filling it was very full!
• The mixture rose, but settled when cooling to match the height of the pastry
• Fruit rose to the top when cooking, leaving a layer of filling below

Green Crag

We were leaving this day, and had a shorter walk planned which had the excuse of driving over Hardknott Pass.  However, on getting to the start of the pass we discovered that some bright spark had parked on one of the hairpin bends and left their car leaving around a foot too narrow a gap for cars to get past.  By the time we got there a police car was there as well, parked more considerately, but people were having to turn around.  Given that trying to get past would mean putting a wheel over the edge onto a narrow strip of mud, and that beyond this mud was a very steep drop, we agreed that this was the best course of action.

So we came back along the valley and turned south but I knew there was a possible, if slightly easy, walk that we could do.  I'd also scouted out potential parking places by the side of the road the week before - google streetview is great - so knew there was a place to stop.  So we parked, and set out sights on the distant pile of rocks.

Difficulty: 2

Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (12), Grace (10), Evie (7), Poppy (4 1/2)

12:08, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (260)

13:33, 3.3km 1h24 259m, Green Crag (489)

15:14, 6.8km 3h06 312m, End (261)

What I hadn't foreseen was that between us and the rocks was around 2 miles of bog.  Yes there were parts that were actual streams, and there were some parts that were a bit drier, but the direct route we took got a little damp at times.  Nothing disastrous, but I look at the map now and wonder if the path marks to the south east would have been a better choice.

Still, nice weather, not much wind, and a complete absence of snow.  And a bit of potential rock climbing, depending on which route you chose to the top.  Here Grace and Evie are looking for their best options upwards.

Grace makes it to the top for a well earned lunch,

For most of this walk Caroline was on Poppy duty, so the rest of us got nice breaks while we waited for then to catch up.  After spending the previous day not letting anyone get more than a few meters away for fear we'd lose them, this was quite a welcome relief.  After all, we were going to close enough to each other on the drive back to Birmingham later on.

Lingmell (not Scafell)

So we set off with high hopes of a high walk - know that Scafell Pike was reachable from the house was too good an opportunity to miss.  We were even keen enough to walk from the house, this time knowing there was going to be enough uphill to actually quite looking forward to the flat start and end to mix it up.  In the end it wasn't to be, much to our disappointment. 

Difficulty: 5

Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (12), Grace (10), Evie (7), Poppy (4 1/2)

11:14, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (110)

15:20, 7.1km 4h05 782m, Lingmell (807)

18:19, 13.9km 7h05 891m, End (117)

Despite some high cloud and the remains of the snow fall from yesterday, it was quite a pleasant day.  Quite a straightforward climb but fairly hard work up Lingmell Gill.

We stopped for lunch in Hollow Stones, really quite a weird place with huge boulders strewn about everywhere.

As we climbed up further the weather got predictably worse, and visibility of the path was pretty bad.  It was one of those walks where I was glad to have a satnav as well as paper maps.  Getting to Lingmell Col I made the call that we weren't going up to Scafell Pike that day, but we'd settle for Lingmell instead - saving 180m of climbing in pretty horrible conditions.  Perhaps we should have pushed on, but I guess I was trying to save the occasion of getting to the highest mountain to conditions where we could properly enjoy being at the top.

Still, making the top of Lingmell wasn't trivial, but we made it.

Not much view to speak of though, at the top or on the way down.