13 and 14 April 2019 – A Visit to the Lake District

Fairfield, with Hart Crag behind Sue

This posting is by way of a pictorial journey through last weekend’s activities. If you scroll down the posting you get low resolution images with commentary and captions, and if you click on any of the images you get a good resolution image, but no caption, and you can scroll through these images at the foot of the screen.

 

Lancaster parkrun starts in front of the Ashton Memorial (1909), built by Lord Ashton in memory of his second wife

Sue was chased home in just over 28 minutes on the hilly course in Williamson Park, by Alice, who is under 11 and doing her first parkrun

Here's the 5 km, two lap route

Then we headed up to Patterdale for a cuppa with Marian

Soon we were on the path beyond Side Farm

Lunch was taken in a sheltered spot on the ascent of Gale Crag

Looking back, we could see the distinctive twin summits of the Angletarn Pikes, with Place Fell to their left

First summit - Gale Crag - 512m

Sue marches along Hartsop above How

After reaching Fairfield, we headed towards Grisedale Hause, with views down to Grisedale Tarn

By 5 pm we had set up the Nallo and were looking forward to a relaxing night in the tent at Hause Moss (NY 350 115)

The short entry I posted earlier is here.

Sunday morning: we enjoyed a lie in, then made sure that all we left at Hause Moss was a patch of temporarily squashed moss

We soon braved some icy patches and reached Hause Gap, above Grisedale Tarn, with the zigzag path up to Dollywagon Pike in the distance

Others had a longer lie-in than we did

Looking back from the Dollywagon Pike path

On the summit of Dollywagon Pike, looking towards Helvellyn

There were lots of people making their way along Striding Edge, despite a strong wind

It was sheltered enough at the windbreak for us to enjoy a leisurely brew

Shortly before reaching the summit of Helvellyn, a runner jogged past us. We chatted to him at the top, impressed by his fitness. He then dashed off, saying that his young son would soon be coming from the other direction, and that he would have trouble keeping up. His son Noah had broken the Penrith parkrun course record the previous day - 15.33. Brilliant. I note that dad Derek, in his 50's came 4th in 17.44. Not that it's a race!

Meanwhile heads turned. Bear in mind that it was about minus 3C on the summit, with a strong wind that probably took it into the minus 20's, after taking account of wind chill.

Hannibal



Meanwhile, Sue was well wrapped up and enjoying her mug of tea

There were numerous friendly groups milling around near Helvellyn's summit

Swirral Edge - not our route down - -that's to the far left in this picture

Heading towards Lower Man and White Side in extreme wind

Looking back from Glenridding Common, with Swirral Edge on the left

We took a pleasant contouring path past Glenridding

A convoluted route passing near Lanty's Tarn saw us back down in Patterdale, and supping a pot of tea with Marian before
heading home for a good curry at Jitrada in Sale

My mobile posting for Sunday is here.


Saturday: 11km, 900 metres ascent. Sunday: 15km, 800 metres ascent. Red triangles represent the 10 Birkett summits (including 7 Wainwrights and 2 Marilyns) over which we passed