Lingmoor Fell, Tilberthwaite and Wetherlam

26/27.03.14
Walking with; Graham

As I continue to work towards my ML I find myself spending a lot of time on lumpy, bumpy fells where micro-navigation can be practiced. Whilst they may not always have the height of some of the more well known Lakeland peaks they often afford great views of their loftier neighbours as well as providing a challengin training ground for me to practice my skills.
Lingmoor Fell is an excellent example of such a hill and sits prettily between Great and Little Langdale. I arrived just before 12 and set off from Elterwater which I think maybe my favourite village in the whole of the lakes, it certainly has one of the best pubs in The Britannia Inn! I followed the rough track that skirts Sawrey's Wood and then climbed gradually up on to Lingmoor admiring the views of Little Langdale Tarn and the snow capped peaks beyond. Little Langdale has a timeless feel, I imagine the basics of it have changed little over the centuries and it has a pleasingly timeless feel. Lingmoor is dotted with the remains of quarries and I picked my way through them to the summit at Brown How. The views over Lingmoor Tarn to the snow capped Langdale Pikes were truly spectacular. I spent an enjoyable afternoon wandering from tarn to abandoned hut, taking in contour features and random rocks and eventually worked my round to the crags above Fell Foot Farm where I practiced my rope work for half an hour or so making the most of the late afternoon sunshine. I dropped on to the path that contours round the bottom of the fell and made my way slowly back to Elterwater.
  Having pitched my tent on the flat, accommodating front lawn of Coniston Holly How YHA,I grabbed a bit of tea and headed off to Tilberthwaite where I was to meet Graham (http://www.beardedmountainman.com/) for another night nav. Navigating in the dark brings a fresh set of challenges, bearings and distance become of great importance and trusting them over instinct can be a struggle but invariably pays dividends. We headed up through the quarry workings and spent three hours navving around the Great Intake area, being hit by the odd snow flurry and admiring the distant lights of Ambleside and the coast. I got back to my tent just after 11pm and crawled into my sleeping bag falling asleep to the gentle patter of rain.
  It had cleared by the morning and I headed back to Tilberthwaite to have a go at Wetherlam. My last time on this hill had been fairly unpleasant http://www.comewalkwithmeuk.co.uk/2013/05/four-seasons-in-one-trip.html and I was hoping for better on this occasion. I climbed away from Tilberthwaite following the steep sided gill and made my way round Birk Fell before hitting the foot of Wetherlam Edge. There was a lot of snow and ice on the ascent and it was slow, careful work but the summit was well worth it. I've never had much of a view from the Coniston Fells before but this time it was breathtaking, snow, rock and sunshine, a perfect combination. I followed the edge South to Hole Rake and from there it was a gentle stroll back down to Tilberthwaite passing some old quarries en route. So,another night in the tent, more time in the hills, more navigation practice, the odd error but plenty of good stuff too! What will next week bring?

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Bremex Mountaineering Nav weekend

15/16.3.14
Walking with; Bremex Mountaineering Club

In 1963 Hugh Freeman set up the Brent Mountain Expedition training scheme with the purpose of providing low cost training for adventurous activities. The club ran continuously educating generations of outdoors folk until 1994 when it became an independent charity and began to run peer-to-peer skills sessions covering a variety of subject areas across a wide range of the mountainous areas of Britain http://www.bremex.org.uk/. Non-members can attend a weekend for a very reasonable £10 taster fee and it was on this basis that I'd decided to join the group for a weekend of navigation practice on and around the Kinder Plateau.
  The activities were all small group based and peer led and tried to cover as many different bases as possible. We used different scales, led legs in pairs and as individuals, worked on relocation strategies, navved "blind" trying to improve our "map memories" and micro-navved from insignificant boulder to barely existent stream junction. The facilitators were excellent and tried to ensure any specific areas of skills we were interested in were covered. As someone who spends much of time walking alone I was unsure how I would adjust to the "club" mentality but it was refreshing and stimulating to meet like minded people and speak to other ML trainees as well as benefiting from the experience of those already qualified or with much greater experience.
  I camped at Coopers campsite at the head of Edale and conveniently close to "Ye Olde Nag's Head". I should have known better, my early season camping expeditions haven't always been the most successful http://www.comewalkwithmeuk.co.uk/2013/04/a-wet-wild-and-windy-lakeland-trip.html and sure enough the wind did it's worst on Saturday night but my Wild Country Hoolie more than stood up to the test. So a weekend of sharing skills, swapping tall tales over pints and meeting like minded people, couldn't have asked for more and I shall be looking into joining the club as an associate member. I would highly recommend the set up and suggest people check out the website and see if the tasters are of interest to them!

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Night Nav, three Dodds and Britain's lowest Marilyn!

25-27.9.13

Walking with; Nathan

One of the most intimidating aspects of the ML training is the night navigation, it is also one that in order to practice effectively it's good to have more than one of you. However I have found it tricky to find volunteers to clamber up onto a hillside in the dark and spent four hours bashing through wet bracken in the pursuit of ever smaller and more obscure features. Luckily Nathan is also a ML trainee and one who conveniently lives at the foot of High Rigg, a low, but suitably bumpy fell just outside Keswick. After an hour or two padding a canoe around Derwentwater with excellent views of Catbells and a stop on Herbert's Island named for a 7th Century Christian hermit, we donned headtorches and headed out onto the hill. Night nav requires a set of different skills with bearings, timing and pacing being the key and we spent four productive hours refining our techniques with varying degrees of success!
  The next morning with Nathan heading off to work I made my way over to St John's in the Vale and set off along the traverse of Wanthwaite Bank that led me under Threkeld Knotts and out onto the moorland below Clough Head. Apart from a farmer and sheepdog on a Quadbike, it was pretty quiet and I made my way to Calfhow Pike for beautiful views over Thirlmere and stretching across the Western Fells. High Rigg sat below me in the sunshine, looking a very different proposition in daylight! I climbed up to Great Dodd and then continued along the ridge to Watson's Dodd and Stybarrow Dodd with the sky blue above me and the sun on my face. The descent of Sticks Pass is a tough one on the knees but eventually aching and creaking I hit the valley floor and picked up the track that runs through the woodlands that skirt High Rigg before eventually I arrived at the church of St John's itself before making my way back to my car at Hill Top Farm.
  I spent the night at the YHA at Arnside, a magnificent old, rambling building that the YHA has sadly put up for sale. There was a beer festival at The Albion Inn in town and beautiful views across the deadly sands of the Estuary which were peppered with Herons, Curlews, Gulls and other waders. The next day a gentle dander along the promenade towards the woods of Arnside Knott provided more ornithological diversions and the woods themselves served up a couple of Nuthatches and some magnificent fungi. I eventually made it to the top of the Knott for fantastic vistas of the Lakeland peaks and the estuary, truly, truly stunning views! A small sign at the foot of the climb informed that the Knott is Britain's smallest Marilyn at 159m, a tick for a rather obscure box but an enjoyable way to complete a couple of days of varying walking!

Skills in the sunshine above Elterwater

27.6.13
Walking with; Nathan

Ever since I completed my initial Mountain Leader training I have been living in fear! It is one of the most ambitious and intimidating things I have undertaken in my adult life and involved a number of aspects that would lift me well clear of my hill walking comfort zone. However, my jaw is set and my mind is made up and I am determined that this is something I want to do, with that in mind, a few weeks ago I put a post on a walking forum to find people in the same situation as me with whom I might be able to practice a wider range of skills than the standard day on the hill stuff.
So it was that I found myself waiting in the free carpark just outside Elterwater for Nathan, a fellow ML trainee employed for the Summer season at Whinlatter Go Ape, and with a good working knowledge of the knobbly bits of the Lakeland that might prove ideal for some ropework and micro-navigation. We climbed out of the valley bashing our way through the bracken and exchanging tips on the local flora or fauna before finding a suitable crag to practice some rope work. In spite of my recent Indoor climbing course this was the first time since my training I'd used a rope "in situ" as it were and it took a bit of getting used to! An hour or so later and I was feeling much more confident and we coiled the rope away and, enjoying the magnificent views down to Baysbrown campsite and the Langdales continued on our way upwards. After a bit of lunch by a small, cotton grass covered tarn we moved onto some micro-navigation on the numerous lumps and bumps of Silver Howe. It was the kind of terrain and practice that's hard to replicate during a normal hill day and really useful for all that, it gave me some helpful pointers for areas that I still need to work on! We were also treated to some spectacular views out over Grasmere, Rydal Water and Loughrigg, made a welcome change after a couple of hours of nose to compass and nose to map!
We finished with another batch of rope work, hopefully ingraining some of the skills we'd been working on earlier, before descending down through yet more bracken to Elterwater. It was a very different kind of day, but immensely useful and I shall definitely be incorporating plenty more of these into the mix before I take the final, dreaded exam!

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