Wednesday 10th February
Brock Barrow SD 298 898
Low Light Haw SD 301 900
High Light Haw SD 303 904
Top 'o Selside SD 308 919
Carron Crag SD 325 943
The title refers to Wainwright's chapter titles and the list above shows the fells visited in those chapters.
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Doing a walk with a fellow blogger presents a problem when writing the post - if your companion has posted before you the story has been told, and often photos are almost identical.
The map here and Bowland Climber's account tell the story of this trip.
Although only just over eight miles this was a tough walk for me, but it was a perfect weather day and a wholly satisfying round.
Last summer I was averaging sixteen miles a day on my backpacking trips, but rough terrain and around 2000ft of ascent make a big difference.
I recall a similar experience from Northumberland last year:
I'm often asked if I enjoy such outings, and my answer this time may be undecided, but the view from this very remote top and the feeling of utter isolation and tranquility on a perfect, weather-wise day compensated for the trials, and I had that little glow of knowing that I had conquered against some difficulty.
CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO READ THE FULL ACCOUNT
Do I learn from mistakes? I can recall numerous thrashes across felled forest landscape, by far the most difficult terrain to traverse, and my avowals to avoid such in the future. The problem here was to gain the return bridleway from the summit of Carron Crag, and the route we took was more or less the same as shown on my map. BC refers to our combined 100 years of experience, and that told us we would be in for trouble on that course, but just look at the map, bearing in mind the forest rides marked are non-existent due to new planting. In retrospect we should have returned by our inward route to rejoin the bridleway south of Mustard Hill. So much for multi-years expereince.
I seem to have become obsessed with the zoom facility on my camera, and this foreshortens the foreground and reduces the feeling of extensive wilderness that we tackled on the tops - BC's photos convey this better than mine.
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| Brock Barrow - our first summit |
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| Coniston Lake, Dow Crag, The Old Man of Coniston, Swirl How and Wetherlam, |
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| Distant Top 'o Selside but picture foreshortened due to zoom, reduces the feeling of extensive tracts of rough terrain |
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| Zoom to Dow crag - look how far away it is on second photo! I know I've chopped off the top, but it's not easy holding still at that extent of zoom combined with the difficulty of seeing cleaerly in the viewfinder. I suppose I should have a tripod |
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| Carron Crag. The benign looking bare patches are actually felled forest - the worst of terrains |
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| BC going for the summit of Carron Crag |
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| From Carron Crag |
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| Pink is actual route of ascent |
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| Low Parkamoor here and the next pic. My route descended the valley before it. The old farmhouse is joint privately owned with the National Trust and they hire it as a holiday cottage - if you want ? Here, an extract from their advertising: "It is eco living all the way with no mains services. The house is served by a traditional Lakeland composting toilet, pure fell water straight from the well, with cooking and hot water provided by the restored Georgian wood-burning range. Living at Parkamoor is a unique experience. It takes care and consideration but the rewards of the simple pleasure of sitting by the fire or cooking on the range make it a treasured experience." Mmm? |
Sorry if I posted before you Conrad, we will have to have an alternating arrangement.
ReplyDeleteOne of our more interesting ventures and I'm sure you are far fitter than you realise.
I can imagine climbing A Buttress or Giant's Crawl from your zoom of Dow.
Ah! "going for the summit" - in the best traditions of will go high, might go high, might have gone higher, higher was where he was going, and (rarely used) had no intention of ever going high again.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't realised this before but a bum, artfully positioned, can greatly enhance a photo of someone actually in the process of making vertical progress (more concisely: going high). North Face and others are missing a retail trick here in failing to brand their goods accordingly.
BC - Not a problem. I will always find something to write about.
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RR - That was all entertaining in Rum Doodle (published 1956). But in today's world of narcotics those phrases could have quite different meanings. I'm just having a re-look at one of my two copies of that book . There may be a post arising.
RR - as the owner of that particular 'bum' I'm now seeking advice on proprietary rights and personal branding, just in case North Face approach me, presumably from behind.
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