31/05/15 - Skiddaw - (me) - [mtb]

It was raining heavily when I woke at the camp site at Wasdale, my knee was also fairly bruised and a little weak feeling. I got myself a sausage and egg sandwich, packed up my tent and set off, a little unsure of whether I was going to Skiddaw (as originally planned), or whether to accept defeat and spend the day wandering round Keswick, or even greater defeat and just drive home. I'd also under estimated how long it would take to get to Skiddaw - well over an hour. Luckily though the sky started to brighten slightlyand the forecast looked like it was getting better in the afternoon.

I pottered round Keswick for a while looking for goggles (which I didn't find), and a large helping of lasagne (which I did find). Eventually, the rain ceased and I set off for the base of Skiddaw.

I realised even as I was going through the forest at the base that it was going to be a tough ride - steep and slippy. But I figured that as soon as I'd had enough I could just turn round and head back - which would be decidedly easier. After taking a wrong turn (downwards!!), I eventually go to the car park from which most people start their ascent. At this point it started to feel like I was actually going up a mountain. Before long I was hiking my bike rather than riding it, I was surprised both at how steep it was as well as how scree covered the ground was. I was expecting this to be a common route for cyclists but every walker I went past looked at me with shock, admiration, amusement or disgust. Luckily, due to the poor weather forecast there were few walkers out.

My own amusement at my endeavour bouyed my spirits as the wind picked up and I was reasonably determined to get to the top,particularly as I thought I saw it in front of me. However, when I realised that the top was some way further on and the wind picked up even more, I startedto get a bid tired of the whole affair. As I looked at the plateau/ridge which I'd need to cross at the last stage I was also worried at how bad the wind would be. Shortly after a walker came past and advised me against proceeding any further because the wind would be dangerous with a bike.That was all the encouragement I needed to turn around and commence the descent.

At first it was fairly shallow, but surprisingly fast and while I had to watch out for walkers, it was just outright fun. However, I knew that there were far steeper sections to come - on slabby and jarring scree! I'd seen some small tracks in the grass at the side of the main path so I decided to take that line when the path got steep, but I realised when I braked to slow down that it was too steep and simply went into a downward skid. I returned to the path,but it was so steep that I couldn't get on my bike! So, bizarrely, I actually ended up walking the bike down some sections - luckily no-one saw me!

The sections I was able to do I took reasonably slowly and they proved to be a fun, but technical challenge. Once I reached the forest at the base though it was just outright swooping fun again though. The weather had also picked up considerably and it was now glorious sunshine. I got back to the car, keen to do it again.

I should have taken timings, but I think the ascent was about 3 hours and the descent about 20 minutes.

GPX File

30/05/15 - Great Gable, Kirk Fell, Pillar, Red Pike, Yewbarrow - (me)

I drove up to the Lakes early on the Saturday morning with the intention of walking the Saturday, camping and then riding on the Sunday. The weather looked like it would be mixed so I knew I'd need to play it by ear, but the day of Saturday at least looked to be good enough for walking.

This would be my second attempt at this route (the first was in March where I was essentially rained and blown off the hill), and I knew that another failed attempt would be pretty bad for my morale and general attitude toward hill walking. It was therefore a bit unfortunate that I felt a bit lethargic and slightly under the weather. However as I headed up toward Great Gable at least this time I could see it and I decided that I just needed to plough on. I decided against taking the climbers route as I didn't want to slow myself down or tire myself out, however I did cut across at the top of the path so as to do a bit of scrambling up to the summit. The views of the Scafell massif and down into Wasdale were magnificent, but as usual I didn't pause for long at the summit of Great Gable and instead started the descent to the col to Kirk Fell.

It was at the bottom of the col that I slipped and slammed my knee against the rock - I think this was at least in part due to my lethargy, i.e. I was dragging my feet a bit. The pain was bad enough that I had to sit down for a few minutes, but in the end I decided that I could carry on. The walk up and over Kirk Fell was surprisingly arduous, particularly as I seemed to lose the path on the descent. I ended up scrambling down some fairly steep sections - not great with my knee. This was at the same time as getting a dramatic, and somewhat intimidating view of the rest of my planned walk - it was all laid out before me and looked very long indeed....

I walked toward pillar and wimped out of descending into the valley in order to scramble back up as I figured that my knee would let me down and that I would end up regretting it later. In hind sight I decided this was a smart move, because while the views from the top of Pillar made it obvious that the scrambling routes up would be exciting, I also think that it would be easy to get into trouble and I was aware that my balance and flexibility was somewhat "off".

I was properly into my stride now though, the crowds around Great Gable had long disappeared,the weather was settled and the walk felt very doable, even with my knee.

Red Pike virtually skipped by, but by the time I reached Yewbarrow the sun was showing signs of tiredness and so was I. I decided to continue on the planned route rather than taking the easy option. The ascent of Yewbarrow showed itself to be cheeky little scramble from the outset. I lost the path at one point, concerning myself that I was scrambling to the wrong point, but was quickly overtaken by a more confident fell runner who quickly disappeared in front of me. The walk over Yewbarrow was actually one of the most enjoyable parts of the day, it was small and spikey, challenging without being deadly, there were options and decisions to be made. It was difficult to detemine how far I could go before descending to the side though - it was obvious that at some point a turn to the right was needed in order to avoid going over the edge of the cliff, but it wasn't clear how far you could go. In  the end I realised when I'd gone too far and retraced my steps (not without difficult), but soon realised that the descent to the path was not going to be easy. I had to scramble down and decided that it would be easier without my rucsac, so I threw it down about 7 or 8m, however it rolled down a further 30m, luckily to a point where it was still retrievable!

Eventually I arrived at the path, but it was still reasonably steep and by now my knee was really aching. I was very relieved to make it to the road and then the car.

I checked in at the camp site at the Wasdale Inn (much later and there wouldn't have been room) and treated myself to a steak, couple of local beers and some whisky before checking in for the night, by which time it was raining pretty heavily.

23/05/15 - Fan y Big - (me, Luca, Ellis)

So I managed to con Ellis into agreeing into walking up a mountain as part of a wild camping weekend. We were going to go to the Lakes, but after a close review of the weather I decided that the Brecon Beacons was a better bet, I settled on Fan y Big as being a suitably achievable focus to our endeavour - particularly as the car park was reasonably high on the hill!

We arrived reasonably late in the day, each of us having our suitably sized rucsac (small, medium and large), filled with food, clothes and tent.

Ellis started bemoaning the activity pretty quickly but luckily I knew the worse bit was the start and sure enough, once we got going a bit it got easier and he started to get into the groove. The bogs provided some entertainment and I even saw a lizard. We reached the peak of Fan Y Big reasonably quickly (the name was cause of some amusement), my only regret was that it lacked the kind of drama that might be required to get him hooked.

We wound our way down into valley (the sun was pretty warm now), and past the reservoir. We were approaching the point where I wanted to start looking for somewhere to camp. This was a balancing act between finding somewhere fairly soon and finding somewhere where we wouldn't have a massive walk the following day. It also soon proved difficult to find somewhere level enough - the forest was far denser and wilder than I'd expected and the edge of the river was far steeper. The boys were starting to get tired (Ellis in particular) and I was starting to panic a bit. Ellis fell in a bog at one point while crossing over a plank bridge - luckily this caused amusement rather than distress.

We eventually found a flat bit of land, but it was right by the path and was lacking in any character or charm. We stopped for something to eat - beans and soup. Fortunately this gave everyone an energy boost so we decided to soldier on. We passed by an excellent site by the river, but it was already occupied. Before long we were on the road. Luckily I asked for directions from someone before proceeding the wrong way down the road.... By now were were just a mile or 2 from the car - I was starting to think we'd reach the car before finding anywhere suitable and that once we got that far we'd end up just jumping in the car and going home. However, we saw some more people camping by the river and this gave me confidence that the river was starting to become campable.

We had once last chance to find a spot as the road crossed over the river and luckily it was both perfect and unoccupied, slightly near the road, but that was fine. We scurried down to it and quickly setup camp. Fire wood was plentiful and we got a nice fire going in no time.

It was going to be a beautiful starry night, but everyone was too tired to stay up. I panicked a little when some local kids/yobs drove past and heckled us - made me think of my car back there in the car park and whether it would get broken into....  I was in my new bivvy and the boys were in the 2 man tent. The bivvy turned out to be pretty comfy, but was cold on the hips where the material just laid on the body - I need to get a better sleeping bag!

I woke pretty early and it was only then that I realised how beautiful the forest was. The trees were straight and elegant and bluebells covered the floor.

The boys didn't wake for a couple of hours, so I got another fire going. We cooked a breakfast of roasted frankfurters when they eventually woke up and then packed up camp. I just walked with them to a nearby car park and then left them there while I walked back to the car. Was a good job because it was all uphill.

Ellis summed up the trip on the way back to the car - "That was really good fun,.... but I'm never doing it again."