Home Again, Home Again...

Well, I'm back from our weekend away in the Lakes.  I am knackered and refreshed all at the same time, which sounds perverse!

The weather could not have been better.  I've gone some of the way towards my fitness goals of 2010 - I've bagged my first new Wainwright of the year!  On reflection, this sounds very adversarial - I don't like the idea of Man (or Woman!) battling Mountain/Elements, whatever.  I like to think that I'm tackling my goal with the consent of the land...

Saturday dawned very bright but cold.  We were staying at a very nice B & B in Easdale, which is just to the north of the town of Grasmere, in a little secluded valley where the only thoroughfare is the Borrowdale Bridlepath.  The view across the car park towards Easdale Tarn & Sergeant Man is shown below:-

Our walk that day was targeting Steel Fell.  At 1811', it's not a big peak.  But at this time of year, when injury might mean hypothermia, it seemed a prudent choice.  Steel Fell has been tantalising me for years.  It's visible from the road on the approach to Grasmere from the north, and it's a big bruiser.  This was our view of it as we approached (the path's visible as a green stripe of grass amongst the dead bracken):-

 

Our landlady warned us that it was a long slog to the summit, and she was right, but it wasn't quite as long as I'd anticipated.  It was pretty straightforward, too.  There was only one dodgy bit where the path went up a steep rocky outcrop, and there was about 3m of black ice in places.  My boots are very good, but they don't like black ice!  I had to negotiate it rather carefully. 

Since it's one of the less well known fells, I'd hoped we'd have the place more or less to ourselves.  Unfortunately, it seemed like half of Grasmere's half-term tourists had the same idea as us.  But, being serious walkers, they were all really pleasant folk.

The views from the summit made all the effort worthwhile.  They were stupendous.  I've included two to give you an idea.  The first looks north across the waters of Thirlmere, with the vast whaleback bulk of Blencathra on the right and the lower slopes of Skiddaw on the left. The second looks towards the summits of Harrison Stickle and Sergeant Man, the former being where the pictures from my earlier blog post came from. 

 

Our friends who'd accompanied us on the climb to the summit soon moved on - they were doing the ridge walk to Calf Crag.  Sadly, I'd lost faith in my boots and didn't feel inclined to try and join them at that point.  So we had our lunch with just a brace of ravens for company (probably hoping we'd drop dead so they could eat us!), then returned to Grasmere.

This was the view towards Grasmere as we descended:-
 

 

I didn't think this one would work at all, as I was pointing the camera right into the sun.  I'd have loved a shot of the rock formations on Helm Crag (to the right), but the light was all wrong, unfortunately.  'The Lion and the Lamb' were looking particularly good, too...
 

Home Again, Home Again...

Well, I'm back from our weekend away in the Lakes.  I am knackered and refreshed all at the same time, which sounds perverse!

The weather could not have been better.  I've gone some of the way towards my fitness goals of 2010 - I've bagged my first new Wainwright of the year!  On reflection, this sounds very adversarial - I don't like the idea of Man (or Woman!) battling Mountain/Elements, whatever.  I like to think that I'm tackling my goal with the consent of the land...

Saturday dawned very bright but cold.  We were staying at a very nice B & B in Easdale, which is just to the north of the town of Grasmere, in a little secluded valley where the only thoroughfare is the Borrowdale Bridlepath.  The view across the car park towards Easdale Tarn & Sergeant Man is shown below:-

Our walk that day was targeting Steel Fell.  At 1811', it's not a big peak.  But at this time of year, when injury might mean hypothermia, it seemed a prudent choice.  Steel Fell has been tantalising me for years.  It's visible from the road on the approach to Grasmere from the north, and it's a big bruiser.  This was our view of it as we approached (the path's visible as a green stripe of grass amongst the dead bracken):-

 

Our landlady warned us that it was a long slog to the summit, and she was right, but it wasn't quite as long as I'd anticipated.  It was pretty straightforward, too.  There was only one dodgy bit where the path went up a steep rocky outcrop, and there was about 3m of black ice in places.  My boots are very good, but they don't like black ice!  I had to negotiate it rather carefully. 

Since it's one of the less well known fells, I'd hoped we'd have the place more or less to ourselves.  Unfortunately, it seemed like half of Grasmere's half-term tourists had the same idea as us.  But, being serious walkers, they were all really pleasant folk.

The views from the summit made all the effort worthwhile.  They were stupendous.  I've included two to give you an idea.  The first looks north across the waters of Thirlmere, with the vast whaleback bulk of Blencathra on the right and the lower slopes of Skiddaw on the left. The second looks towards the summits of Harrison Stickle and Sergeant Man, the former being where the pictures from my earlier blog post came from. 

 

Our friends who'd accompanied us on the climb to the summit soon moved on - they were doing the ridge walk to Calf Crag.  Sadly, I'd lost faith in my boots and didn't feel inclined to try and join them at that point.  So we had our lunch with just a brace of ravens for company (probably hoping we'd drop dead so they could eat us!), then returned to Grasmere.

This was the view towards Grasmere as we descended:-
 

 

I didn't think this one would work at all, as I was pointing the camera right into the sun.  I'd have loved a shot of the rock formations on Helm Crag (to the right), but the light was all wrong, unfortunately.  'The Lion and the Lamb' were looking particularly good, too...