Day and night navigation on Loughrigg and a wander up Caudale Moor

21.5.14
Walking with; Graham

  I've mentioned before that Loughrigg Fell is particularly well suited to practicing navigation on. It attains no great height, but it is easily accessible and covered in lumps, bumps, gullies, tarns, streams and wiggly contours of the most perplexing type. So ideal really as I make my last push towards ML readiness! The sun had bought out the masses and Ambleside (where I stayed at the excellent YHA) was heaving with people, but once I got out of the car and wandered down the back road to Under Loughrigg it wasn't long before the masses melted away and I found myself climbing up onto the fell in contemplative silence. I spent a couple of hours around Lanty Scar and Fox Hill. I was using the 1:50000 scale which I still find tricker for fine nav, but it was a reasonably successful outing enhanced by the bluebells, which I think have been better this year than in a long while. There were views to Grasmere, Rydal Water and Windermere and the cotton wool Cumulus drifted by as I sat drinking it all in. After a pleasant evening sitting in the sun outside the hostel, I wandered down to Rothay Park to meet Graham http://www.beardedmountainman.com/ who despite a full schedule of D of E work had been kind enough to spend a good few nights wandering round the fells with me in order to try and prepare me for assessment. It was a beautiful, clear night and another couple of hours passed as we navigated our way around the fell under a spectacularly starry sky.
   The next morning that spectacular sky had been buried under heavy, bruised clouds and as I chugged up "The Struggle"(which I still think is one of the best named roads in the world...."Where do you live?", "No 4 The Struggle....") the rain began to fall. Mine was the only car in the carpark opposite "The Kirkstone Pass Inn" and the inn itself soon disappeared in the clag below me as I ascended to Raven Crag. In the poor visibility I worked my way from point to point before reaching the Mark Atkinson monument. The monument remembers a landlord of the inn who died in 1930 and wished to be remembered in site of his life's work. His son is also remembered on a plaque. From there I attained the two tops named as Caudale Moor and Stony Cove Pike and then made my way down in deteriorating conditions back to the car. This was my last outing before my final ML assessment and the conditions were ideal for practicing navigation, now it is crunch time, but I feel as well prepared as I can be!

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A long walk, a short walk and a night walk in the Lakes

5/6.3.14
Walking with; Graham

I have a tee shirt somewhere that bears the motto "Better a rainy day on the hill than a sunny one in the office" and it is a philosophy that I have strongly adhered to over the last few years, taking everything Mother Nature can throw at me and still smiling! However, there are the odd few occasions when it can be a bit of a struggle to feel the love, even with the alternative being the suit and tie 9-5.....
Day one got off to a niggly start when United Utilities had the temerity to charge me £7 to park on the muddied patch of waste ground at Steel End, to be frank, it's a bloody cheek. None-the-less it was a decent day and as I followed the path along Wyth Burn away from the road I eased into the walk enjoying the steady climb toward the snow capped Greenup Edge. I was using a 1:50000 scale map as I am trying out the different scales as part of my ML training and the lack of fine detail was noticeable as I followed a deep ghyll up towards Ullscarf. On the map there were only two streams shown whereas on the ground it was more than twice that.....still I made the summit of Ullscarf and crunched through the untrodden snow along the ridge line. I descended across more untouched snow fields to Standing Crag and then followed the seemingly unending fence line that whilst not appearing on my map appeared to run parallel to the marked right of way. The path junction I'd identified as a tick feature never appeared and pretty soon I was scanning the featureless, bleak, boggy marsh for a fix on where I was, eventually I decided that rise ahead of me was High Tove and that the fence line had effectively become a path in it's own right, albeit one unmarked on the larger scale map. It was unpleasant underfoot, each step sinking deep into the mire and sapping the energy and as soon as I made the trig at High Seat I decided I had had enough. I headed off the top and across more unforgiving marsh before making the knee crunching descent down Middlesteads Gill to the Thirlmere shore path from where it was a good 40min stroll back to the car and then onto the Windermere YHA, confusingly not in Windermere, but warm, friendly and serving Jenning's ale.....
"Put Wednesday behind you and move on I told myself....." Thursday was grim, proper low cloud, relentless drizzle that soaked through everything and negligible visibility. I made my way up Wansfell Pike, played around with my rope, bit of abseiling, belaying my rucksack etc, before the greyness became too oppressive and I made my way back down to Ambleside for coffee and warmth. It wasn't over yet.......I'd arranged via Facebook to meet Graham ( who goes by the web name Bearded Mountain. Man http://www.beardedmountainman.com/) for a night nav. If I wasn't an aspiring ML there'd be no way on earth you'd have dragged me out of The Golden Rule or The Mortal Man on a night like this with little to see and clothes starting to smell like a damp Retriever....but there you are, Loughrigg it was. Three hours of splashing through bogs seeking out ring contours, stream junctions and tiny tarns and sharing experiences of ML training and assessment meant the drizzle and gusty winds went almost unnoticed. Social media has been a very useful tool as I pursue my goal of becoming an ML and generous people like Graham who are willing to share their time and experience represent all of what is good about the outdoors community!

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Grasmere to Langdale in the snow!

31.1.14/1.2.14
Walking with; Gareth and Lawrence

Gareth and Lawrence had travelled up from the balmy South to see what Winter weather the Lakes could throw at them and, luckily, the weekend didn't disappoint. We rolled into Grasmere about 7pm and headed out straightaway  on a night nav. In spite of the cloud cover the snow was reflecting the ambient light which made things a bit easier as we picked our way around Wray Gill and the edge of Brigstone Moss. Even with the snow it was warm work and by the time we headed back to the YHA Lawrence was stripped down to his t-shirt!
YHA Grasmere has the best staff in the Lakes and buoyed by a good night's kip and a solid breakfast we kitted up and headed down Easedale taking in the snowy views that had been denied us the night before. It was slippery underfoot but we followed Blindtarn Gill up towards Swinescar Pike and skirted Lang How to the three tarns area where the snow really hit. We were looking down into Langdale but the snow was blowing upwards and we were being blown about pretty severely as we traversed across the slopes before slip-sliding our way down to the valley floor. In Langdale the snow turned to a steady drizzle and the Pikes themselves winked in and out of the clouds as we followed the Cumbria Way through Baysbrown. Once "The Wainwrights Inn" http://www.langdale.co.uk/dine/wainwrights/ loomed into view it was a no brainer and we took shelter, dried out a bit of kit in front of the fire and made the most of a restorative pint!
Fortified by this we carried on along Great Langdale Beck before cutting across Walthwaite Bottom and skirting Huntingstile Crag on our way to Loughrigg Terrace. As we started the ascent of Loughrigg we met a couple of walkers who'd decided the wind was too strong and had turned back but undeterred we pressed onwards. When the wind did hit it hit hard, given we were at little more than 300 metres at that stage I can't imagine what it must have been like on the tops....we took the buffeting for a little while before dropping down towards Rydal Water and Grasmere and meandering back along the shoreline with great views of Goosander and Tufted Ducks. A night in "Tweedie's bar" http://www.langdale.co.uk/dine/wainwrights/ consisted of great food, a log fire, live music and plenty of good beer, just what the Doctor ordered after a Wintery day on the hill!

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More walks in and around Grasmere

4/5.12.13
Walking with; Nobody

I'd only been in Grasmere a couple of weeks earlier, but the great deals the YHA are currently offering on accommodation meant I could get a room to myself for roughly the price of a dorm bed. Butharlyp House (Butterlip is the pronunciation apparently) is an excellent hostel, well appointed, attractive and staffed by cheerful and helpful team members, an ideal location for a couple of nights. Since I'd read Hunter Davies's excellent "A walk around the Lakes" I felt better educated about the life of Wordsworth and, even in early December, there were still tour buses disgorging Japanese tourists outside the "Sarah Nelson Gingerbread shop" and "Dove Cottage". "Tweedies" is far and away the best option for a post walk pint by the fire, a choice of eight real ales and plenty of other options and some impressive looking food, I stuck to the beer on this occasion!
Anyway, enough of the tourist information. Loughrigg is exactly the kind of lumpy, bumpy, path criss-crossed, tarn dotted fell that I imagine has ML assessors salivating. I decided to head up mid-afternoon and play around for a bit before making my way back via the light of my head torch. I scrambled up stream beds, located tarns and trickles, watched Jackdaws playing on the thermals and listened to the insistent "cronk" of the Ravens. I found my way to Scartufts and as I ploughed through the boggy mire the light dropped and the headlights of the cars below skirted Rydal Water. In the darkness I located Lanty Scar, dropped down into Loughrigg Holme and ended up handrailing the wall above the slightly smutty sounding Rough Intake until I found myself back safe and sound in Rydal. I find Night Nav on my own can still be a bit intimidating but as my confidence and ability slowly increases I feel the immense satisfaction that comes from a skill being honed.
The forecast for the next day was apocalyptic and I as readied myself I could feel the glances upon me and the implicit, "You're going out in this.....?" Twenty minutes into my ascent to Alcock Tarn I wondered why I hadn't listened. The rain was torrential and unrelenting, trees bucked and bent in the wind and even the hardy Herdwicks huddled in the lee of stone walls and chewed the grass in miserable silence. A couple of gusts nearly had me off my feet but I continued to climb bent into the wind until I reached the beautifully appointed tarn on the lower slopes of Heron Pike with views of Grasmere and beyond. Rain turned to stinging sleet, the wind continued to blow and I trudged towards the village, then the wind continued to blow, the clouds scudded by and I ascended smiling to Stone Arthur under blue skies! I had a sandwich sheltering between two rocks out of the teeth of the gale and then contoured round below Great Rigg to reach Grizedale Tarn, one of Lakeland's best. Last time I'd been here was on my C2C route and the false summit as you climb up Great Tongue had crushed me, this time I at least knew what to expect.....I saw the only two other walkers of the day at the Tarn and then slipped and clambered up the screey slope of Seat Sandal affording spectacular views down Patterdale to Ullswater. The unusual name is, apparently, a derivation of the old Norse for "Sandulf's Hill Pasture", but it's a rare, old spot with views to match. Leaving the summit it was a knee crunching descent down the Southern slopes before following Great Tongue back down to "Tweedies" and a welcome pint by the fire! Sometimes the inclemency of the weather is the only way to get some of the more popular fells to yourself!

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A Grasmere overnighter

14/15.2.13
Walking with; Nobody

Last time I stopped in Grasmere was a couple of years ago on my Coast to Coast walk and my impression of the village was of a shrine to Wordsworth that lacked a decent Lakeland pub. I'd stayed in the Thorney How Hostel which at that time was owned by the YHA but is now operating on an independent basis. I stayed on this visit at the Butharlyp Howe hostel (pronounced Butterlip) and have nothing but praise for it, a beautiful building in an excellent location with Goldcrests in the garden. I arrived later than intended after too much wine the night before and fish and chips in Ambleside, so decided on something gentle to stretch the legs and stimulate the mind with thoughts of "lonesome wandering".
Leaving Grasmere I headed out past Dove Cottage (Wordsworth's home from 1799-1808 when he sold it to Thomas de Quincy) and started ascending on the old coffin route across to Rydal and Rydal Mount where Wordsworth lived later in his life. The coffin route is so named as before Rydal and Ambleside had churches of their own, bodies used to be carried (in coffins) to St Oswald's church in Grasmere for burial. As I climbed out of the village I passed one of the coffin stones that was used to  rest coffins on in order to provide the bearers with a break. The path was very slushy underfoot, the dump of snow on Wednesday was already thawing and there was water everywhere, but the views across to Rydal Water were beautiful with the water reflecting Loughrigg Terrace. Passing Rydal Mount I continued through the village and after crossing the River Rothay meandered out onto the slopes of Loughrigg and the impressive caves caused by quarrying on the fell.  The walk along Loughrigg Terrace back towards Redbank Wood was breathtaking with views across Grasmere, Helm Crag and back to Nab Scar. Bags dropped off at the YHA I decided to try "Tweedies" bar and am very glad I did, there's not much better after an afternoon on the fells than a log fire, some locally brewed real ale and a steak and kidney pudding!
Day two, I headed off from the hostel and took the path away from the village and onto the lower slopes of Helm Crag. Whilst I couldn't really see any sign of the lion or the lamb, it's a handsome hill and from the summit there was some fantastic views back to the lakes I'd trawled round the previous day. Wainwright wrote of it, ""The virtues of Helm Crag have not been lauded enough. It gives an exhilarating little climb, a brief essay in real mountaineering, and, in a region where all is beautiful, it makes a notable contribution to the natural charms and attractions of Grasmere" and I'd be hard pressed to disagree. Leaving the summit, I followed the ridge along to Gibson Knott and continued over the Pike of Carr and Calf Crag. It was warm work even with the snow still lying thick on some parts of the path. Reaching the head of Far Easdale I began the descent into the valley stopping for a beautiful sunlit lunch at the foot of one of the many waterfalls where the sun shining through the spray created some beautiful rainbows. Following Far Easdale Gill back towards the village I took the permissive path through the grounds of the Lancrigg where I was lucky enough to come face to face with a beautiful Roe Deer standing in the woodland at the hotel entrance......a perfect end to a very good day of walking.

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