Back in the Hills again!

I've been emailing a few friends recently, hoping for a bit of company in them hills. One mail popped up from Martin R, an old master baggerteer. He's now got a nice mobile home and is spending more weekends away. So, we arranged a weekend walking in the Lake District bagging the few remaining "obscure" hills he hasn't already bagged.

This also co-incided with visiting my sister in her new house in Carlisle after she moved from Cockermouth without telling anyone! So the plan was to meet Martin on Saturday morning, climb some hills, he to sleep in his mobile home somewhere and I was to drive to Carlisle on Saturday night and drive back down to the Northern fells on Sunday for more bagging.

Saturday 19th March 2011:

I got up an extra hour early to bag a lonely Dewey on the way, Brownley Hill just south of Allendale. This was a very easy bag and only took 20 minutes in total!

Dewey hill definition: A Dewey is "a mountain or hill in England, Wales or the Isle of Man, that exceeds 500 metres in height, but is below 610 metres (2000ft) in altitude; it must be separated from adjacent tops by a height difference of at least 30 metres on all sides".

I was to meet Martin at 09:00am in Croglin, a small village between the Pennines and the Northern Lake District. Once parked we set off on what was going to be a hard and slightly complicated route. WRONG!  It turned out a piece of cake. There was new grouse shooters roads leading all the way to the half way point, thereby missing out on the very large section of peat bog at the end of the valley. Even the final sections that looked complicated on the map because of walls and farm land, turned out to be easy. Mind you we did have to trespass through a farm!

Sunday 20th March 2011:

After spending a night at my sister's house, who was horrified I was getting up at 07:30am for an early start. As way has it, I didn't get out until 08:45am and tried to take a short cut through farm lanes, to meet Martin at Skiddaw at 09:30am as arranged. I arrived bang on and he had the tea kettle boiling.

This plan was to bag 5 Birketts (don't ask what a Birkett is as they're crap anyhow) and 1 Nuttall. The weather was drizzle and wind. The route included: Hare Crag, frozen Fell, Burn Tod, White Hause and Orthwaite Bank. It became increasingly apparent that the Nuttall, Sale How, was out of our reach, so that was abandoned that early on (thank goodness).

No photos were taken as the cloud came in, and relying only on GPS waypoints for most of the route, we struggled on for almost 6 hours in cold, wind and wet conditions.

Another cup of tea in Martin's camper soon warmed us up. Looks like he wants to bag some Cheviots hills, so we've arranged to do them soon.

The story doesn't end there...........!

The most basic of beginners error!

After leaving Martin, the drive home passed near a simple Birkett called, Green How, just outside of Uldale village. This was going to be an easy bag I thought. When I arrived it was thick cloud, but the top was only 400 metres from the road. I decided to put on trainers and jog to the top with just my GPS as company. It probably took about 5 minutes or more to get find the top.

Now the problem started on the return. I decided on a shortcut back. For some reason, I got lost. And I hadn't carried a compass! The gps breadcrumb trail didn't tally with my sense of direction. In reality, I was totally disorientated in the thick cloud...ie, lost with no sense of direction.  

I cursed myself and set the gps to the road. Then I began to worry if 2 days of use would drain the batteries at that minute, so I started to jog fast through the heather until I finally intersected the road and then back at the car. Phew. Lesson learnt - take a compass and don't rely on GPS.

Looking at the gpx file, it looked like I was about to go in an anti-clockwise circle, really strange as I felt I was going fairly straight towards the road.

I need more practice.

Margaret Traill 1925-2011

My mother and best friend, Margaret (also known as "Peggy" by her friends) died peacefully in hospital at 04:45 am this morning of 16th February 2011. She had suffered a short illness.

I'm adding this blog hoping that somewhere in the future this information may be useful to a relative who would like to know more about her.

Possibly in 1933, Stothard Street, Jarrow, with her sisters and brothers.

August 2008, just before the onset of a more advanced form of Dementia.

If all people were like my mother, they'd be no wars and no hunger. 

RIP Mam. I will always think about you and love you.

Margaret Traill (nee Charlton) 

--

East Howgills for 2011

OK, so it was the start of a new year, abate 1 day late, this being the 2nd of January 2011. The weather forecast said it was going to be sunny. So I had 4 choices of routes. A Scotland trip to bag 3 Marilyns, a 3 cycled Marilyn bagging trip, Lake District to bag a few Nuttalls or a quad of Deweys in the Howgills. As I didn't fancy long drives in the dark nights, only the eastern Howgills ticked all the right boxes. 

The roads were quiet at 07:30am as I drove to Cross keys, just north of Sedbergh town in the Howgills. Once parked and booted up I immediately changed my mind in the direction of the route. Instead of anti-clockwise, I went clock-wise. Why can't I stick to a plan?

I therefore started the hard slog up Yarlside, which I've previously climbed in 2005. Halfway up, a significant path skirted Yarlside to it's saddle with Kensgriff my premier objective. It was here that I realised the anti-clockwise direction would have been far easier and faster. You could almost see the whole route from this standpoint. Why can't I stick to a plan? (whoops I've already said that!)

I missed out Yarlside as the extra climbing and "significant" descending would have added close to 45 minutes to route time. At the saddle I heard motorbikes revving and immediately saw 2 motocross riders zoom straight up the 33% slope in less then a minute. Oh, how I wished I could have had a backer as I slogged up to Kensgriff.

Over the top, I then needed to skirt around Randygill (another previously bagged Nuttall) to a long ridged Dewey called Hooksey. Then another skirting around to Green Bell, a Dewey with a trig point, a rarity for these parts. 

So far nothing special about these hills, just frozen grass and snowpatches. The next objective was Harter Fell and to get there I followed a small rough unpathed stream called Gais Gill. These small streams often have very few visitors and this was evident by no paths. I often think they are sometimes better to walk along side then bagging the boring mountains and hills that tower over them.

Harter Fell was an easy bag, with a dozen wild Howgill ponies all watching me about from 50 metres away. That completed the Deweys.

However, a HumP (hundred metre prominent) hill called Wansdale Hill was still to be bagged. This looked easier on the map then in reality. Google earth showed the eastern side was the best side as there was large gaps in the walls. But viewing the hillside from Harter Fell showed it was steep and unrelenting. I therefore decided to bag it from the shallower north. The ground was rough but easy in gradient. The descent was also easy by taking a baring towards the Mountain View house in the valley and then following the bridleway to Narthwaite farm.

Like most paths that go through farm yards I just don't like it, and this was one of those nightmares for me. This path went right next to the farm cottage, and the dog's kennels. The signage was a yellow dotted arrow. But I knew it was the wrong way as the one I followed was the farmers road. So I had to return back to the farm yard and guess the correct route back to Cross keys. I jumped over a cattle gate, then another before just seeing the correct pathway...Phew!

I finished much earlier then expected (due to missing out Yarlside) and started to kick myself for not bringing 2 maps of easy Dewey hills on the way back. 

Mellbreak and 4 others

The proposed route were a double, first off was a five Wainwright route and then a 2 easy Wainwright route just north of the main one.

My morning didn't start well as I have a chest cold and sore throat, but still felt OK. I think if the walk had been the day before I might have posponed it, so we were lucky on that account.

Arriving at Maggies Bridge car park, we set off back up the road to the start of Mellbreak. I have often wanted to climb Mellbreak on it's northern ridge as it looks steep and exciting. However, there was only a few places of excitement and lots of scree to climb. This was my first Dewey this year, I had previously climbed Mellbreak's southern Wainwright top many years ago.

Mellbreaks north ridge, the route is the scree just the right hand side.

After we had bagged the southern top we head back over onto the saddle and dropped down to Mosedale to climb a pathless sided Hen comb. Once bagged, Ross suggested we follow the fence line to Gavel fell, the next Wainwright. On the map the bridleway looked best, but as usual changing a plan once seeing the lay of the land can be a bonus and a short cut.

A view of Honister Pass in the distance.

The weather up to now had been cool, breezy and sometimes sunny. Now it became colder and windy. A slog upto Blake Fell meant at least we were closer to finishing. At the top we decided to split up. Ross was to take on his main objective Burnbank Fell and me on Carling Knott (a Dewey). We met up just before Holme Wood.

The loneliness of a long distance walker, mountainmanjuniour is the spot

Ross sleeping like a ...er, log!

The completed route for me, but Ross bagged the Wainwright Burnbank Fell.

We had both agreed to drop the 2nd route as I had been feeling tired and I have a strange injury to my ankle which I'll investigate further but I think it my be related to my boots innersole.

A slow drive back through Buttermere followed, to the amusement of Japanese tourists on a bus as I had to squeeze my car past their coach. I loved the comment from Ross "Did you see their faces?"....NO, I didn't because I only had 1 inch clearance either side of my car! The last place I wanted to look was up :-0 

It's now Monday morning and I'm coughing my lungs out!!!!

All the ten's

Just a quick update on a me and Mountainmanjunior's walk of the Kentmere round last weekend. Also my apologizes for the lateness as I only had my laptop available and I didn't know my password - LOL

I realised early on that there was 9 Wainwrights in the Kentmere round, but Mountainmanjunior had already bagged High Street, and that 2 Wainwrights (Sallow and Sour Howes) were fairly close. This would have meant a good 10 Wainwrights on the 10th of October (10th month) 2010....Wicked! 

I parked at Troutbeck, just beside the river and next to the church. First thing was I had forgotten how to reset the GPS - DOH. This took at least 1km to rectify. 

As sometimes happens it wasn't easy to spot the top heights of a Wainwright and both Sallows and Sour Hows meant we had passed the tops without realising it. The GPX file does confirm both bagged....phew!

As soon as the Sallows was bagged we started on the Kentmere round going in a clockwise direction. I had elected to go ultra-lightweight and this had the effect of me being fairly easy going up the long ridges of Yoke, Ill Bell and Froswick. At the beacon of Thornthwaite Crag we ate some sandwiches sheltering from the wind. Up to now the day was cool and hazy.

Mardale Ill bell was a bit troublesome as we didn't find a path up from our direction, although it was probably there but due to my impatience we cut across rough ground and almost immediately found the top.

A lengthy and rocky ascent lead up to Harter Fell and from there a whole long ridge meant an easy bagging of Kentmere and Shipman Knotts. We had completed the 10 Wainwrights fairly easily and I was feeling quite good and not even tired.

We cut through some right of ways past lovely fields, streams and bridges to Kentmere village itself. Now was our hardest test, the bridle path of Garburn Pass back to Troutbeck. It was littered with small to meduim sized pebbles and stones. It twisted your ankles and strained my knees. The worse was on the descent side and at one point my right knee had a shooting pain. The only course of action was to try and find the smoothest route through.

It was only the Garburn Pass that drained me of energy as we arrived back at the car. A quick energy drink and we set off to travel as far as possible before it got dark. I don't like driving in the dark :-(

The following day only tight Achilles heel and a bit of tiredness showed. I must be fitter then I thought.

And the last photos.

Look what I found...pics of suffering!

These are photographs of me on Boltby Bank. Just after I passed the photographer I had to walk the rest of the way - like the other poor soles who tried and failed.

Sorry for the watermarks, I'm too stingy to buy the photos.

Suffering was the game, despite the photos making it look flat, it was very steep.