Church Rock, Thirlmere..

Well, a scorching week of weather in Cumbria; and Claire and I got the chance to make the best of it today. Despite both of us having so much work to do it is stupid; we went to Church Rock in Thirlmere to get a bit of climbing in before we head north on belated honeymoon next Friday.

It's only a 10 min walk to the crag from the church in St. Johns in the Vale and it was a lovely morning - hot and sunny but with a nice, cooling breeze and we had the crag to ourselves. Neither of us had climbed in a month or so, so nice easy routes were the order of the day. First on the list was Confidence - a nice 1* Diff. The climb is a little bold at the start - however all the holds were there and once worked out it went very nicely indeed. One feature of this crag is the fact that an outdoor pursuits centre have installed belay bolts on top. This meant that I could clip in, relax and see Claire as she came up. No problems at all for Claire and she was soon at the belay.

After a quick instruction in abseiling; I showed Claire how to do it by abbing down and then walking back to the top (only a 2 min walk) to watch. Claire took to her first abseil like a duck to water and was soon down.

Next on our list was Carrick's climb; which took an improbable line at Diff through some overlaps. There were a couple of moves on this that were a little committing and I dithered a bit before committing - it's all their and Claire waltzed up and found it easy - GRRRR. Another abseil and we called it a day....lovely setting and a lovely morning - followed up by lunch at the Mill Inn!

Hopefully the weather will hold - will be updating the blog from Scotland next weekend onwards whenever I am able to.

Go well

Warming up...?

Claire and I spent the weekend in Edinburgh; Claire had a conference on Saturday and I was feeling full of cold.

I actually feel a lot better today - the decent weather from last night helped; however all I could manage was a wander along the beach with Claire. The amount of work I have to do is ridiculous, especially when combined with job-hunting. I seem to be running hard to stay upright.

The forecast for the week is quite encouraging - with temperatures around the 20 degree mark. Given that Claire and I head to Scotland on honeymoon in the NW Highlands. Some good weather would be VERY much appreciated...

Back on the hills....

With bank holiday weekend upon us; Claire and I took the opportunity to go for a walk...the previous weekends being scuppered by a combination of tiredness; too much work and Claire working last weekend. The original plan had been to go to Scotland - however the fact was that I simply couldn't face driving up north for 4 hours - given how exhausted I was it would have been too dangerous. So we opted for a weekend in Cumbria instead...

So, it was a small(ish) walk that we planned; and as such drove to the Skiddaw Car Park on a sunny morning although with quite a wind. Despite the wind it actually felt warm in the sun for the first time in quite a while; which was good.

The pace was slow as we are both unfit, however we plodded up the path towards the gate; where we had a choice. Claire, being a true daughter of Howard (a man who has tabasco sauce on his cereal he is so hard!); we elected to go over Lower Man. Although the extra ascent was steep we we're rewarded by the sight of 3 curlews sitting in the heathery grass (there was one party ahead of us but no-one else had gone this way).

Coming over the other side of the hill - the path up to Skiddaw was full of people and the cloud was hovering over the summit. So, we elected to go down to Skiddaw House (our intended destination anyway) and have lunch there in quiet rather than with loads of people in the cold.

The descent to Skiddaw House was nice and gentle with great views of the 'empty quarter', the hills at the back of Blencathra and Skiddaw, and of Skiddaw House. This has been a Youth Hostel off and on over the years; I have no idea if it's open now or not. It is certainly a lovely spot; and provided a nice log for us to have lunch on.

The walk back around the slopes of Lonscale fell was pleasant in the extreme, with the wind dropping and us both actually feeling some real heat from the sun at last...

https://picasaweb.google.com/102361192587557786751/SkiddawHouseViaSkiddawLowMan


these are the pictures...