Longer Days



Myself & Nigel heading for the hills

Over the last few weeks preparation and training has been going well despite the weather and a recent cold, so good in fact that i have been able to increase the time out on the fells in preparation for Mays Bob Graham attempt.
Last weekend saw 5 of us, Nigel, Simon, Bill, and Steve setting off from the village of Stonethwaite at the bottom of Borrowdale valley, where we ran up Greenup Gill which is the route for the Coast to Coast path and was going to lead us upto Low White Stones then onto High Raise which is one of the summits of leg 3 on the BG round. From the top of High Raise we headed across towards Thunacar Knott, with Simon doing the navigation for the day it was going to be a great test for him as visability was poor at times to say the least. With the snow being quite deep in places as well it was also going to be a good day for building some strength into the legs also. After reaching Harrison Stickle we made our way to Pike Of Stickle where we used the ice axes to give us a bit of help to pull us onto the summit. From here we followed the path around Langdale Comb to Rossett Pike,  instead of across Martcrag Moor to try and keep our already frozen feet a little drier, and as everyone knows who has been across Martcrag Moor it can be very boggy and wet. Upon reaching Rossett pike we decided to miss Bowfell out due to the weather conditions, and headed across to Angle Tarn then upto Esk Hause. Because we missed out Bowfell we made a decision to climb Great End instead just to give us a little more height for the days asscent. The wind on the summit was very strong and cold, so we did not hang around for too long and made our way back to Esk Hause through the deep snow. The next part of our run was up and over Allen Crags then across to Glaramara, were the snow was very deep in places. After Glaramara we made our way across to Thorneythwaite Fell, then decsended down to Thorneythwaite where we took the path back to Stonethwaite. Total miles for the day was 18.5.
On the Sunday Simon, Bill, Steve and myself also had a recce around leg 1 in not too brilliant weather conditions again to give us a total of approx 33 miles for the weekend.



Navigator Simon

 

Looking towards Harrison & Pike of Stickle