This is another 'Blast from the Past', the earliest Ramsoc October meet that is recorded on these pages. The rest are here, and more, earlier, Ramsoc weekends may be added. What triggered this was the fact that we should have spent last weekend by way of 'Ramsoc goes to Langdon Beck', but sadly that was not possible and has been rearranged for the same weekend next year.
Here's the transcript of my contemporaneous diary entry:
"Friday afternoon saw me leave Adrian Richards' leaving lunch (39 Steps) soon before 3 pm, ahead of the rest, as Sue could also get away from work at 3 pm. So by 4:15 we were on our way on a 3 hour journey to Coniston for the annual reunion of Sue's University hiking club pals.
After brief
hellos we headed off with GS and Mike Coldwell to the Sun Hotel, recommended
for food in preference to other hostelries.
Sue adjourned
earlyish to the women's dorm and despite my efforts to stay up, I was one of
the first to bed down in the twelve person men's dorm. Luckily, the snoring
wasn't too bad and I only had to get up twice.
Saturday morning was damp, but by the time we were
ready to leave, the drizzle had stopped. My plan for a walk in the heavily
overcast weather to Tarn Hows then Grizedale and back to Coniston was vetoed in
favour of a drive to the Langdales and ascent of the Pikes ... > Angle Tarn,
then suck it and see. Twelve of us set off from the £5.50 car park by the New Dungeon
Ghyll Hotel: me, Sue, Chris, Martin S, Jess, Julie, Phil, Sue, Mike,
At the tarn it started
raining and the cloud was down. So Plan B was brought into operation and I
managed to manipulate 11 out of 12 into an alternative route heading east then
down to Elterwater. Only Chris stuck to the original plan. He went via Stake Pass
and Angle Tarn (no Langdale Pikes), to Bowfell and Crinkle Crags, then Wrynose Pass,
the long ridge to Swirl How, and back to Coniston. He was probably the only one
of us fit enough to do this.
Plan B worked,
and after hopping across the flooded exit to Stickle Tarn the 11 of us had a
pleasurable tramp over Blea Rigg to Silver How, initially keeping to the south
of the ridge on a contouring and sometimes boggy route, before reaching the
crest, overlooking Helm Crag and with views to the slopes of cloud riven
Helvellyn.
Lunch at 12:45
on a summit not far from Silver How, then a slithery descent to Elterwater
(2:30) before which seven of the group left to return to the cars via Chapel Stile
and the valley route. That left me, Sue, Jessica and
Soon after the
car park at Low Tilberthwaite, I headed up a quarry path and managed a short cut
through deep bracken. After a 5-minute wait (for me) the others arrived for the
last lap to Coniston. We got to a point high above Coniston, Mike's map reading
proving to be sound - before electing to descend by a faint path to a stile. This
was down White Ghyll - not the prescribed route. We eschewed the stile (it
would have led to an easy path) and continued our struggle - the descent had
been steep and slippery, much care needed - with the terrain by continuing to
the south of the wall. We eventually reached a gap just above the hostel. Mike
felt we were not yet there, so he continued whilst the three of us went on for a couple of minutes and reached our destination at about 5:20. Mike arrived
10 minutes later having climbed a wall to secure a cross country route. Hopefully
he didn't destroy it.
A few brews
later and the wine was opened and nearly 50 of us, 33 adults and 15 children,
enjoyed a reasonable meal for £12 a head.
Here's our route - about 18 km with 1000 metres ascent.
Sunday brought damper
weather and a trip, partly with all the kids, around the sculpture trail at
Grizedale - the green route first and then the yellow route, before going home
in plenty of time to do some chores!"
The mountain biking in Grizedale looks good. [It is good.]
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