Old Man Of Coniston Wild Camp

The Plan was simple. A big circular route taking in the Old Man of Coniston and several other Wainwrights, with a wild camp in the middle. This was to be my first wild camp since my days at Howtown outdoors centre when I was in school more than 15years ago. I had packed and repacked my bag trying to get weight and bulk down to a minimum. In the end my bag weighed about 9.8kg.....it felt heavier !

Well I thought my rucksack was big, but compared to Rick's it looked pretty normal.

On the way to the Old Man, Rick carrying what soon became known as his turtle shell.

Looking up at Wetherlam as we climbed up from the car park.

 Looking back the way we came.

Lots of cool old mine workings on the way to the Top of the Old Man.

Lots of people on the Old Man and at Low Water tarn. This spot was our lunch pit stop.

Looking at Low Water from the top of the Old Man.

Dow Crag from near the top of the Old Man.

 Near the top of Dow Crag looking toward Swirl How

Descending toward our campsite near some crags called The Prison.

This was to be our campsite. Rick and I hung around for a couple of hours drinking brews etc before we put up the tents as there were still quite a few walkers in the area and we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves.

The tents were a little tooo green, hardly camo :P

Our kitchen!

When your wild camping there isn't much to do. So we had a few coffees, sent up the tents, ate some food and as it began to get colder we headed for our respective sleeping bags. In bed at 21:30.

Early start! This was the view from my tent at 6am. Awesome! Still very cold, frost on the tents but we had survived the night.

Looking back towards the Old Man on route to Wetherlam

Looking toward the Langdale Pikes from Wetherlam, nice and sunny but the cold north wind was still blowing strong.

Looking back at Wetherlam on the way back to the car. It was a great little adventure and I am sure there will be more wild camps to come.