Lake District February 28 2004

Day 1

When someone says to me “we got up at 6 and arrived at 9” or “we got up early and made a good start”, meaning the pre-sunlight hours, my mind goes blank. I’m not a get up early kind of guy; sometimes a source of amusement with friends, but sometimes – and always, underneath, actually – a source of pain for me. I didn’t have good health as a child and adolescent and part of that was a crippling and near-constant sense of dreary tiredness. Getting-up morning person I am not - which is quirkily amusing I suppose, but feeling dreadfully tired and incapacitated by it is not really funny. But setting off on this trip, I had the option to indeed get up and set off early, enabling me to undertake a major walk on arrival i.e. have a full day ahead of me. And there is a real satisfaction in organising a day like that, to maximise the fun. You can see it’s novel for me, which is why I am reflecting on it. I was very inspired by the fact that a) we had snow and b) we had the delightful combination of blue skies with it.

I set off walking not especially early after my 6 am rise, but early enough – 10.30 – to consider 6, 7 or even 8 hours walking. Seeing how snowy the Langdale valley was I considered stopping off there but decided to press on up to the Keswick area, destination the Dale Head walk und the Newlands Valley. However since I intended to do the Thirlmere up to Helvellyn trek, and I passed the departure point on this journey, it made sense to stop off and elect for this rather than the more northern vicinity of the other walk....

I actually did this trek many years ago; in fact it was the very first substantial walk I did (together with Catbells – what I would now call more of a ramble - I can’t remember which one of the two came first). A friend and I were staying in Braithwaite, north of Keswick, and had got the bus back down to Thirlmere. He decided to wander around the foothills because the weather and visibility was appalling. Even at that early stage these hills inspired me to vigorous effort; I wanted to get up Helvellyn and that’s what I did. I saw nothing, became frightened at the precipitous drops you could wander up to without seeing them, and got very wet. But I did it, for the satisfaction of knowing I did it, i.e. ascend probably the most famous Lake District peak. Here I was again, fully equipped (jeans and old shoes were my former apparel), more fit and experienced, and on a bright, snowy day: altogether more wonderful. I remembered sections of the uphill path – quite an arduous one – but not the views because I’d seen nothing.

The Thirlmere path is not the best route, because it takes a long time to get away from the sound and the sight of the road, and establish a sense of mountainous peace. But you do eventually do this, and are treated to an impressive ridge just below Helvellyn, and then of course the latter itself.

The intrepid photographer goes in search of elusive Beauty:

I am not a ‘peak person’; I can’t understand the fascination for ticking off the ‘Wainwright peaks’ because for me all the pleasure is in the moment by moment experience rather than getting to the top. Occasionally I enjoy the satisfaction of arriving because the ascent is particularly challenging and the arrival might be sudden and dramatic. But it’s not a mental, peak-bagging kind of fun but the physical and sensory experience. On my first visit I did badly want to tick of this peak, but that was unusual. For me, the fun of this walk now derives from the full extent of the Helvellyn ridge, stretching down to Dollywagon Pike, where the views are very extensive and the walking is mostly easy and quite flat. I enjoyed the views looking back down to Keswick, Derwentwater and the backdrop of Skiddaw and Blencathra, when ascending the path. Along the top you can look almost anywhere and enjoy huge panoramas, beautiful contours, and on this occasion, areas of bright white snow.

I considered going all the way along to Dollywagon Pike but didn’t have the time for it, and got to about half way before I retreated. Back over the Helvellyn peak, gazing down at Striding Edge and Swirral Edge, there was an alternative descending path which I opted for, providing unexpected and enjoyable views across to Catsycam; I enjoyed this area because it was particularly peaceful and scenic, in a compact way. About 7 leisurely hours.

So back to the car park, and onward first to the supermarket in Keswick and then to Grange-in-Borrowdale for my B & B.

Day 2

The Dale Head walk was first on my agenda because it had provided an exhilarating introduction to blue-sky-and-snow walking last year, and although I took about 30 photographs the film was not winding on and it was a terrible disappointment. You develop a kind of relationship with the Lake District and your walking plans, and a second Dale Head walk was priority-level unfinished business so I would feel better about the upset. However delightful as it is (I will do it again some time), this walk is not especially dramatic and more importantly, there was very little snow up there. As I discovered last year, the best area for snow is the Scafell/Great End/Great Gable vicinity - together with Helvellyn – and I decided on the Great Gable walk, which is a plan I’d had for a few months anyway. I enjoyed it immensely when I first did it, and repeated it a few times in quite close succession. Then I realised I was forgetting about exploring new fells and valleys, and spent two or three years doing that. And then I remembered, I’d not done the Borrowdale to Gable route for a few years, and it would be a treat to return to an old favourite. I’d been in that area a few times from Wasdale, but not from Borrowdale. I did enjoy it – Great Gable is frequently people’s favourite mountain – but it was not as lovely as I expected, even with snow. Having explored most of the Lake District and left behind the sheer novelty value of mountainous terrain, my primary delight is the Eskdale and Wasdale areas – again, not unusual for frequent (and discerning) hikers. I especially enjoy the quiet Base Brown area and the views across to Buttermere, Ennerdale and far-off Scotland are some of the best in the entire Lake District: interesting, expansive, beautiful. But from the top of Gable, at the moment I associate it more with the trek up from Wasdale than from Borrowdale, and that’s something I did quite a lot of over the last year, so stunning as it is, it is not novel.

It was fun to recall in the mind previous walks up to the peak, and curious and interesting to discover that I couldn’t easily ‘recall’ them; even though the routes and fells were laid about before me, I couldn’t ‘feel’ those past experiences even though thy were only a few months previous. Which made me want to re-experience them, to feel again some of the happy times I had last year romping around and up from the Wasdale valley. The views across to Great End and Lingmell were stunning, beautifully wrought in crack, crevice, contour and bright side-light across shining snow:

Down then to Styhead tarn, a very familiar landmark, although never as sparkling and lovely as this:

And then down the track back to Stockley Bridge and then the Borrowdale valley, remembering the last time I did this it was snowy, dark, and not terribly pleasant.

About 7 hours, including a long 45 minute lunch break (unusual for me) and plenty of photo time.

Day 3

Familiar as I am with the Lake District, I rarely use a map and select routes mostly from memory rather than a guide book. It’s all very leisurely and spontaneous, changeable up to the last moment according to conditions and inclination. Scafell Pike? Yes, as I munched breakfast, Scafell Pike. It’s not my favourite walk at all; I’m not really bothered that it’s the highest peak in England which is often its major attraction. But it would do three things: take me into the best i.e. snowiest area again, give me views over to Wasdale for potential snow (I was considering driving over there), and allow me to re-experience one of my favourite paths, the Corridor Route – which I knew was quite snowy, from the views from Gable.

The day started delightfully, up Grains Ghyll to Esk Hause, but from that point on the weather began to deteriorate and after ascending the ridge up to Great End for a stop-over, it was decidedly overcast and threateningly wintry. I considered retreating down the gully behind Great End to the corridor route, and a slightly aborted route. But although the conditions were not good and you could see very little, I was enjoying the exercise, I still had 4 hours of (dark) daylight, and Scafell Pike was not that much further effort, along the ridge. Besides – as every walker knows – the weather can change dramatically, and you walk in hope. In fact it didn’t, and on the tops visibility was very limited; I passed a couple going over to Wasdale who were disconcerted, a little distressed by this, and I was grateful for the fact that I knew these fells quite well. Asking my advice, she said “you look like you know what you’re doing” and yes, I did.

Only once did I have any real concern: when I reached the peak I wandered around a little and suddenly realised I had to stop doing that and focus, because in those no-view conditions I could easily get lost, losing the only navigation guidance I had, which was my internal sense of direction. There was nothing to see, thus no way of surveying the route. I stopped wandering and quickly picked up the path I knew I needed. I wondered about the couple behind me and hoped they would find it too, and thus be assured of a safe return.

After getting off the peaks you realised visibility was OK – grey and completely overcast, but extending into the distance. The thick cloud was only on the tops. I made my way down the Corridor Route, finding that in fact it wasn’t especially interesting when snow-clad, and wouldn’t have been even in sunlight. But this was partly walking for walking’s sake, and I enjoyed it accordingly. Back down to Styhead Tarn again, and then the valley. About 7 ½ hours, which included about 45 minutes of photographic/food time.

Day 4

The morning was beautifully bright and clear, promising another good day. I’d decided to move on from my B & B, and have a day of lightweight rambling rather than strenuous effort, and decide later if I wanted to stay another day – probably over in the Ullswater area, depending if there was any snow there. Before driving over there I spent a few hours wandering about Borrowdale, ascending the small but pretty peak of Castle Crag.

The day quickly became cloudy and overcast and over at Ullswater it was also quite windy – even in the valley. I wandered around a little, waited for the 4.30 weather forecast, expected it to confirm my suspicions for the next day – it did – and decided to return. There was very little snow - I fancied St Sunday Crag but it looked bare - and nothing to inspire any further walking….until the next time.