Lake District March 2016 069 - Jayne on an icy Hart Crag
We managed to get to the Lake District for the Easter weekend. We were open at work on Good Friday so I had to be in at work for a couple of hours and didn’t set off until 9.00am. We had a quick café stop and then jumped on the M62. It took us until 2.00pm to get to Langdale. We crawled up the M61 and M6, reminding me why we used to avoid Bank Holiday traffic. Although staying in Ambleside we drove to Langdale to get a couple of hours walking in. Langdale was packed but we found a place to park at the foot of the pass up to Blea Tarn. We headed up Pike of Blisco – against a steady stream of walkers descending at this time in the afternoon. I didn’t bother taking photos to any great extent, it wasn’t great light, windy and the appalling weekend forecast had depressed me – this was supposed to be the best day and it was nearly over. After a nice settled spell, possibly the first in the north of England this winter (now officially British Summertime) heavy rain and gales were coming our way apparently.
Each morning I studied the maps trying to second guess the light, wind and crowds. On Saturday it was initially dry, much to our surprise, we parked in Coniston and set off up Walna Scar Road. It’s a long steep drag to the top of the pass, the cloud was down and thick, the wind was getting extreme as we got higher – and we didn’t see a soul! We were heading over Brown Pike onto Dow Crag, we weren’t likely to get lost on a ridge. By now it was raining hard and the wind was making staying upright difficult. We slid off the rocky summit of Dow Crag on our backsides, the safest way. We dropped on to Goats Hause, the wind was screaming through and but I guessed there would be some shelter if we headed for the Old Man of Coniston. We met the first person of the day here, arriving at the summit just before him. There was still winter snow on north facing slopes but the wind wasn’t as bad as Dow Crag. It was grim, 30 metre visibility and there was very little point in staying on the tops as originally planned. Jayne was up for heading straight down the tourist track through the quarries. We have only ever ascended it before but we set off down at a trot, passing some fell runners along the way. There was a steady stream of Easter trippers heading up and judging by the questions we were asked on the way down they had little idea of what they were heading in to or how far they were from the summit, and all in appalling conditions. Lower down it was quite calm and many had little idea of the severity of the conditions on the tops. The countryside was rapidly waterlogging again after the belated dry spell.
Sunday brought more very heavy rain and gales on the tops. What looked like snow had accumulated on high ground overnight. It was actually several inches of hail and was horrible underfoot, like small wet marbles but trapping a lot of water on the lower slopes below the freezing line. We parked at Patterdale and walked across slopes that the recent floods had wreaked havoc on, with a lot of remedial work to be done this summer. The plan was to get to Boardale Hause and decide whether to go high – over Place Fell – or head in to Boardale and stay low by doing a circuit of Place Fell. It was raining hard and there was a howling gale but it was behind us, the cloud had lifted a bit so we went high. The summit plateau was a nightmare, covered in slippy, wet, slushy hail with the wind nearly blowing us over. We went north straight over the top and down the other side, the top was in thick cloud but the lower slopes were clear and we legged it off the fell, descending by Scalehow Force waterfall, which was in fine form with the heavy rain. We followed the path above the shores of Ullswater back to Patterdale. Another wet walk.
Monday saw us parked a mile or so south of yesterday’s parking place in Patterdale at Bridgend. With the weather being bad people weren’t out early, even on a bank holiday, so we didn’t have a problem parking. There wasn’t a plan, we were just making it up. Today looked promising, Storm Katie was battering the rest of the country but missed the north for a change. The tops were wintry, again it was hail accumulations not snow, on the high ground it was on very old lying snow and very difficult on steep descents. We decided to take the steady slopes of Hartsop above How to Hart Crag, on to Fairfield and then hopefully over Cofa Pike on to St Sunday Crag, Birks and finally Arnison Crag. This was just less than ten miles and it turned out to be a very tough five hours, exhausting, particularly after the three previous days. A large coastguard helicopter circled us repeatedly and finally landed on the path we were following to Hart Crag, we assumed it was on an exercise. The ground was frozen above 2500 feet and walking was easier as the snow/hail was load bearing and we could yomp on a bit. It was like midwinter with frequent squally whiteouts blasting in. The wind would pick up first lifting the frozen hail in a frozen spindrift that bounced along several feet high blasting our faces, this was followed by, what was more like frozen drizzle than snow, fine, but hard, we could feel it through our clothes it came at us that hard. I decided that we would head straight over Cofa Pike to St Sunday. A mistake with hindsight. The lake of footprints was the first bad sign but we were committed. We lived to tell the tale but Jayne had a bit of a near miss. The crag down to Cofa is steep and it was covered in hail on old snow, the layer of hail was shearing away from the underlying snow and we had to go down on out backsides, keeping a tight grip as we went. At one point Jayne failed to arrest a slide that was above a steep and deep drop. I had hold of her from a position in front of her and to her left and I was fairly well anchored so I felt in control and was sure of the outcome. From her point of view it was frightening and it subdued her for the rest of the walk. She had also ripped the outer lining of her Paramo waterproof trousers as well. Considering that we were going downhill it was hard going, every step a slip or a slide, with the underlying grass saturated and a thin layer of hail it was an unpleasant walk off the fell. At the end of Arnison Crag we took a pathless shortcut – that we swore we would never use again years ago – to save around twenty minutes of walking. This was the only day I had the camera out all day and had to cover it with a dryliner bag whenever a heavy shower came in. I also broke the lens hood. We drove to Keswick for afternoon coffee and toast at Brysons. The new Paramo store across the square was the next stop for new trousers. These Paramos had cost £85 14 years ago and they have just brought a new model out. We had two choices, The old model was reduced to…..£85 – after 14 years we could pay the same price or we could return the old trousers - cleaned – and get a £50 voucher towards the new model, which are £135, or £85 with the voucher. The old ones were ¾ of a mile away in the car – unwashed – so we bought the old model. Needless to say we had a couple of drinks in the Golden Rule in Ambleside every night before our tea.
Lake District March 2016 069 - Jayne on an icy Hart Crag
We managed to get to the Lake District for the Easter weekend. We were open at work on Good Friday so I had to be in at work for a couple of hours and didn’t set off until 9.00am. We had a quick café stop and then jumped on the M62. It took us until 2.00pm to get to Langdale. We crawled up the M61 and M6, reminding me why we used to avoid Bank Holiday traffic. Although staying in Ambleside we drove to Langdale to get a couple of hours walking in. Langdale was packed but we found a place to park at the foot of the pass up to Blea Tarn. We headed up Pike of Blisco – against a steady stream of walkers descending at this time in the afternoon. I didn’t bother taking photos to any great extent, it wasn’t great light, windy and the appalling weekend forecast had depressed me – this was supposed to be the best day and it was nearly over. After a nice settled spell, possibly the first in the north of England this winter (now officially British Summertime) heavy rain and gales were coming our way apparently.
Each morning I studied the maps trying to second guess the light, wind and crowds. On Saturday it was initially dry, much to our surprise, we parked in Coniston and set off up Walna Scar Road. It’s a long steep drag to the top of the pass, the cloud was down and thick, the wind was getting extreme as we got higher – and we didn’t see a soul! We were heading over Brown Pike onto Dow Crag, we weren’t likely to get lost on a ridge. By now it was raining hard and the wind was making staying upright difficult. We slid off the rocky summit of Dow Crag on our backsides, the safest way. We dropped on to Goats Hause, the wind was screaming through and but I guessed there would be some shelter if we headed for the Old Man of Coniston. We met the first person of the day here, arriving at the summit just before him. There was still winter snow on north facing slopes but the wind wasn’t as bad as Dow Crag. It was grim, 30 metre visibility and there was very little point in staying on the tops as originally planned. Jayne was up for heading straight down the tourist track through the quarries. We have only ever ascended it before but we set off down at a trot, passing some fell runners along the way. There was a steady stream of Easter trippers heading up and judging by the questions we were asked on the way down they had little idea of what they were heading in to or how far they were from the summit, and all in appalling conditions. Lower down it was quite calm and many had little idea of the severity of the conditions on the tops. The countryside was rapidly waterlogging again after the belated dry spell.
Sunday brought more very heavy rain and gales on the tops. What looked like snow had accumulated on high ground overnight. It was actually several inches of hail and was horrible underfoot, like small wet marbles but trapping a lot of water on the lower slopes below the freezing line. We parked at Patterdale and walked across slopes that the recent floods had wreaked havoc on, with a lot of remedial work to be done this summer. The plan was to get to Boardale Hause and decide whether to go high – over Place Fell – or head in to Boardale and stay low by doing a circuit of Place Fell. It was raining hard and there was a howling gale but it was behind us, the cloud had lifted a bit so we went high. The summit plateau was a nightmare, covered in slippy, wet, slushy hail with the wind nearly blowing us over. We went north straight over the top and down the other side, the top was in thick cloud but the lower slopes were clear and we legged it off the fell, descending by Scalehow Force waterfall, which was in fine form with the heavy rain. We followed the path above the shores of Ullswater back to Patterdale. Another wet walk.
Monday saw us parked a mile or so south of yesterday’s parking place in Patterdale at Bridgend. With the weather being bad people weren’t out early, even on a bank holiday, so we didn’t have a problem parking. There wasn’t a plan, we were just making it up. Today looked promising, Storm Katie was battering the rest of the country but missed the north for a change. The tops were wintry, again it was hail accumulations not snow, on the high ground it was on very old lying snow and very difficult on steep descents. We decided to take the steady slopes of Hartsop above How to Hart Crag, on to Fairfield and then hopefully over Cofa Pike on to St Sunday Crag, Birks and finally Arnison Crag. This was just less than ten miles and it turned out to be a very tough five hours, exhausting, particularly after the three previous days. A large coastguard helicopter circled us repeatedly and finally landed on the path we were following to Hart Crag, we assumed it was on an exercise. The ground was frozen above 2500 feet and walking was easier as the snow/hail was load bearing and we could yomp on a bit. It was like midwinter with frequent squally whiteouts blasting in. The wind would pick up first lifting the frozen hail in a frozen spindrift that bounced along several feet high blasting our faces, this was followed by, what was more like frozen drizzle than snow, fine, but hard, we could feel it through our clothes it came at us that hard. I decided that we would head straight over Cofa Pike to St Sunday. A mistake with hindsight. The lake of footprints was the first bad sign but we were committed. We lived to tell the tale but Jayne had a bit of a near miss. The crag down to Cofa is steep and it was covered in hail on old snow, the layer of hail was shearing away from the underlying snow and we had to go down on out backsides, keeping a tight grip as we went. At one point Jayne failed to arrest a slide that was above a steep and deep drop. I had hold of her from a position in front of her and to her left and I was fairly well anchored so I felt in control and was sure of the outcome. From her point of view it was frightening and it subdued her for the rest of the walk. She had also ripped the outer lining of her Paramo waterproof trousers as well. Considering that we were going downhill it was hard going, every step a slip or a slide, with the underlying grass saturated and a thin layer of hail it was an unpleasant walk off the fell. At the end of Arnison Crag we took a pathless shortcut – that we swore we would never use again years ago – to save around twenty minutes of walking. This was the only day I had the camera out all day and had to cover it with a dryliner bag whenever a heavy shower came in. I also broke the lens hood. We drove to Keswick for afternoon coffee and toast at Brysons. The new Paramo store across the square was the next stop for new trousers. These Paramos had cost £85 14 years ago and they have just brought a new model out. We had two choices, The old model was reduced to…..£85 – after 14 years we could pay the same price or we could return the old trousers - cleaned – and get a £50 voucher towards the new model, which are £135, or £85 with the voucher. The old ones were ¾ of a mile away in the car – unwashed – so we bought the old model. Needless to say we had a couple of drinks in the Golden Rule in Ambleside every night before our tea.