Eskdale Backpack

Went for a 2 night backpack , starting Friday night . Zoomed home from work , got ready, no time for tea so I stopped at Whitehaven Morrisons for chicken tikka and naan. Consequently I was quite late parking at the cattle grid lay-by above the road end for Brotherikeld. Always slightly worrying leaving car for 2 nights, especially when its the only one there. Walk went via Tow House and Scale gill to a shelf above High Scarth Crag. A longish walk in the dark to find water that looked drinkable was needed as I forgot to fill the Platypus earlier. I awoke the next morning to a grey start.
A breakfast of crushed oatybix and dried milk saw me away and over the col to the Great Moss. The weather started to clear so I decided on Scafell Pike via Cam Spout.

Instead of heading for Mickledore I went right to look for a previously unvisited tarn. Broadcrag Tarn seems to be just a puddle, but is named on the OS map.



A quick zoom across the tops and I was filling the platypus in the stream in Calf Cove above Esk Hause. A dinner of rice , oatybix and chocolate was had on Pike de Bield after dropping down from Esk Pike.

After dinner I dropped down to Lingcove Beck below Bowfell. I just got the tent up at 4pm when the wind and rain arrived . So instead of a balmy evening looking at the view I was confined to the Hillleberg for 14 hours. I spent the first few hours making tea and cooking stew.





Sunday was a better day and I walked out over the beautiful ridge of Hard Knott and Border End.

This must be the most beautiful place in England...... The car was still there and knowing that the Laal Ratty station cafe opened at 10 o 'clock I was in the door at 10 seconds past ordering the best bacon sandwich this side of Pluto.

Eskdale

Much colder today, glad I did not get around to retiring the Paramos. Went to Eskdale and a short walk to Stony Tarn. Just getting over a cold so it was far enough.
After an ice cream that must of had gold in it at Boot we headed for a look at Ravenglass.

Scoat Tarn and Red Pike

Went for a walk last weekend. The first time in a while as we went to Cornwall at Easter in the camper van. I never want to see another cream tea or pasty again. Despite climbing Red Pike at least 4 times and visiting Scoat Tarn at least twice I had never walked up Nether Beck. So last weekend I parked on the shores of Wastwater and followed the dale up.

It was warmer than I'd probably been since last year. I had to unzip the vents on the Paramo trousers. Luckily I'd put suntan cream on as I burn easily. Scoat Tarn was better than I remembered it. It was raining on previous occasions.

After eating a few sandwiches I headed up through the crags directly to the summit of Red Pike.


From the summit I headed down the unnamed comb to Low Tarn. I could not resist walking through the odd snow patch.


I wandered down past Low Tarn and photographed the south summit of red Pike from the pools before descending Black Beck and the walk back to the car.


Well if it continues this warm I will have to retire my Paramo trousers until Autumn and dig out the Tilley hat and Innov8 Terrocs.

November Floods

Saturday started off wet and I had work to do on the camper van in the afternoon. So I decided to have a look at the bridge situation in Workington. Both road bridges acroos the Derwent are out of action. There is a temporary foot bridge and coming shortly a temporary road bridge.

To get from the houses on the other side to the town at this side is about 16 miles.

The next bridge up was the cycle and footpath route across to town.

And finally the road bridge that did not collapse but has a serious sag and big chunk missing.

The following pictures show the bright side, the new foot crossing and the almost complete road crossing.

Helvellyn

It has taken a while to post this as I have had an upset stomach this week and not much interest. It looks like this could be the last of the deep snow as it has turned very mild this week and there has been considerable rain. So last weekend we parked at Dunmail Raise and accended Raise Beck. As we got higher the beck disappeared under the snow drifts.



Although milder than of late it felt very cold in a biting wind. We paused at the hause on 574m to photograph Grisedale Tarn before ascending straight up to the post on the end of Dollywaggon Pike.


The snow was deeper up here so we paused to don crampons and swap the trekkjng poles for ice axes. At one stage we were 'checked' by 2 mountain rescuers who were similarly attired. They mentioned seeing people sliding down hill on all fours wearing trainers.



We only stayed briefly at the summit as it was difficult to get out of the wind as the shelter was snowed over. The top had some cornices and the trig point was three quarters burried.



On the way back we had a closer look at the plateau edge and the views across to Fairfield.



We descended down the shallow gill on the south west of Dollywaggon, across Willie Wife Moor and down Reggle Knott. I have always found this a much easier descent than the zig zags down to Grizedale Tarn and the erroded path down Raise Beck.

One Week Later

A lot more snow had fallen on Friday and it seemed to be a nice day as I headed for the car park. A lower snow level meant I would not have as far to walk back to the car at the end of the day.

I put the skins on straight away and headed up the fell.




Unfortunately the snow was totally different. The week before it was dry and frosty but today it was deep, soft and wet. The weather closed in. At first it was possible to orient yourself as there were features above the snow.


Later after skiing on bearings I could not tell if I was skiing up or down. There were no features just white. Somewhere near the top of Stybarrow Dodd I decided to quit and just follow my ski tracks back down. Eventually I emerged from the clouds and sat on a rock to eat my sandwiches.


With a thin covering of snow and slush on the path it was possible to ski back to the Old Coach Road. It was just a short walk back to the car park and off to Keswick for coffee.

Ski Tour

When an uncle died in the early 80s I was asked if I wanted a gold watch to remember him by. I opted for cross country skis. These were bought as a package from a shop in Newcastle and had a fish scale bottom. The theory was you could glide forwards but not back. I remember doing the Dodds a number of times and they worked well on relatively flat terrain. These skiis were about 7 feet long and stopping and turning were almost impossible ( for me). I decided to learn to ski properly as soon as I could afford it and to get proper touring skis.

Stybarrow Dodd and Great Dodd


So eventually I got some ordinary skis and used to go camping at Aviemore during Feb half term. This lead to Snowcoach holidays at Brides le Bain in the French Alps. The dream of ski touring was still in my mind. Two things seemed against me, the incredible cost of the boots , skis and bindings and the fact that I was never going to be a good skier. I could do a red run on a good day and that was about it. 3 years ago I bought some cheapish touring skis off ebay and some touring bindings. For 2 seasons I just used them as downhill skis. Then in January there were some second hand Scarpa touring boots on ebay and last week I got the skins . Ready to rock 25 yrs later!


Lake District Ski Club run on Raise from White Stones.


0830 Im tramping acroos the moor from Red Moss. The snow looks good high up but as can be seen above the level is quite high. Put the skins on at about 5oom and ascend Hart Side. Skins were brilliant, you can go up quite steep hills. They dont glide on the front stroke as cross x country skis do, at least mine don't. So I accended Stybarrow Dodd. Took off the skins and skied down to the tow on Raise.



No tripod so best I could manage.

Top of ski tow , Raise.

A 10 minute walk from the top of the tow takes you to the summit . The views were superb. The photo below shows someone using a kite to snowboard.


The top of the west face of Raise had superb snow and I managed some good turns. I did this run 3 times, using the lift to take me back up, before the long slog over Stybarrow Dodd.

Looking back towards Watson's Dodd.

When I got to the top of Great Dodd I finished off the tea in the flask and took off the skins for the final run down to Matterdale Common.


Shelter on Great Dodd

It was along walk back to the car with the heavy skis. It was a great day out, the only down side is that the day after I can hardly move as I'm so stiff.