Well after last weeks errors, I spent a bit of time refreshing my map reading skills and wanted to get out and test myself again. The weather was looking pretty similar to last week, I was hoping for low cloud and hill fog again.
The route. Approx 15km, 6 hours and 30 mins.
Well my wish came true. I arrived at Seathwaite farm about 9am and as predicted the mountain tops were shrouded in cloud. I would get my navigation test on the tops.
I went through the farm and set off up the side of Sourmilk Gill.
Here is a rather distorted image of the waterfall, I need to work on putting composite images like this together!
The next photos are taken just above the water fall looking toward Base Brown and Raven Crag.
As I climbed higher into the cloud the visibility dropped to about 100m so here are the views from Base Brown and Green Gable......not.
From Green Gable I descended to Windy Gap and from there to Styhead Tarn. At the tarn the cloud was still low but not as bad as last week, this time I could actually see it.
After a quick lunch stop at the stretcher box, I headed for the corridor route. The cloud had begun to lift and this had revealed a near constant line of people along the route. This was a bit of a shame, on the first part of my walk I had the hills all to myself, ah well good to see people enjoying the hills, I still like it better when i get them all to myself . At least there would be some views!
About halfway along the corridor route the weather really started to improve. Big gaps in the clouds developed and the sun started to poke through. There would be no chance of repeating the navigation errors of last week.
The following pics were taken from the top of Lingmell looking back the way I came and toward Wasdale.
I reversed my route and headed back along to Styhead Tarn and from there dropped down into the valley and back to the farm.
I took this just as I got back on the corridor route.
I think this was one of the best if not most tiring days I have had in the mountains. I'm a happy chappy!
I went through the farm and set off up the side of Sourmilk Gill.
Here is a rather distorted image of the waterfall, I need to work on putting composite images like this together!
The next photos are taken just above the water fall looking toward Base Brown and Raven Crag.
As I climbed higher into the cloud the visibility dropped to about 100m so here are the views from Base Brown and Green Gable......not.
From Green Gable I descended to Windy Gap and from there to Styhead Tarn. At the tarn the cloud was still low but not as bad as last week, this time I could actually see it.
After a quick lunch stop at the stretcher box, I headed for the corridor route. The cloud had begun to lift and this had revealed a near constant line of people along the route. This was a bit of a shame, on the first part of my walk I had the hills all to myself, ah well good to see people enjoying the hills, I still like it better when i get them all to myself . At least there would be some views!
About halfway along the corridor route the weather really started to improve. Big gaps in the clouds developed and the sun started to poke through. There would be no chance of repeating the navigation errors of last week.
The following pics were taken from the top of Lingmell looking back the way I came and toward Wasdale.
I reversed my route and headed back along to Styhead Tarn and from there dropped down into the valley and back to the farm.
I took this just as I got back on the corridor route.
I think this was one of the best if not most tiring days I have had in the mountains. I'm a happy chappy!
Hills that good have to be enjoyed Ross. I liked the route you did and the photos. Thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteCheers Martin :D
ReplyDeleteStrange route avoiding the usual tops that people would head to, but I love it! :-)
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it Trekking ! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to bag all the Wainwrights at the moment so all my routes try to take in a few new ones each week.
Plus I like to explore and generally poke around. This route gave me some good ideas for some wild camps ;)