Bowscale Fell with Claire...

It was a very strange day - stupidly warm in the valley; Claire and I walked up Mousethwaite Combe in shirt sleeves - yet spent lunch on top of Bowscale Fell in windproofs and multiple fleeces.

The original idea was Blencathra - perfect for a shortish day; dropping Claire's car at the garage to be fixed and then needing to do lots of school work in the evening. However; arriving (depressingly out of breath) at the top of the Combe we looked to a cloud-wreathed Blencathra. We also arrived to some lunatic farmer type gunning his quad bike and doing a Lewis Hamilton impression - without his skill level. After almost running down so poor innocent dog wandering around he gunned up off Souther Fell at high speed.

To avoid him we dropped down to the little troll bridge which crosses the River Glenderamackin; and from there started the very steep pull up the shoulder of Bannerdale Crags. This was another odd day of weather - a stop for tea and cake halfway up necessitated pulling on lots of clothes - yet these were immediately shed once we started uphill. I have run down this way on several occasions yet have never gone to the top - so touching the cairn was a new hill for me. We then ambled across the plateau and squelched up onto the summit of Bowscale Fell. A cold lunch was taken before we descended the same way. At the junction of the paths we headed across the plateau to the col between Bannerdale Crags and Blencathra. A descent of the valley of the River Glenderamackin followed - on the Sharp Edge side for a change.
Our final obstacle of the day was almost being run over by a flying mountain biker at the head of Mousethwaite Combe....which was like an oven -  crazy for mid november...when will it snow?

Pictures below.

https://picasaweb.google.com/102361192587557786751/BoswcaleFellFromMousethwaiteCombe#

censorship from blogger...

I presume is the reason that the picture has vanished...it was a group of protesters outside St. Pauls in London with a nice sign saying "sorry for any inconvenience whilst global network improvements take place" - or something of that ilk!! It was  rather humorous but there we go......


Am VERY pleased it is friday...and the forecast for Sunday is decent.

A pretty good summary actually...

Quite funny really....wonder if the powers that be see the funny side...

Claire bags another munro...*

Looking to St. Sunday Crag and Fairfield - part of our walk in April

Part of the summit view

Striding Edge..

It was still misty in Penrith when we drove back to the flat....a faint aura of smugness could be discerned in the car at that point..well at least from the one of us who was awake!!

Saturday was gorgeous in Cumbria and actually quite cold - which bode well for today and it did not disappoint. Claire had never done Helvellyn so, as our first walk since our engagement, we drove down to Glenridding; with bags packed with lots of fleeces expecting it to be cold. It wasn't, and we were both unfit so the slog up towards the 'hole in the wall' (where several paths converge and one must choose how to get onto Helvellyn) was long and hot...the views and the weather were somewhat of a palliative for this however - as can be seen they were quite simply superb.

We decided on Swirral Edge (not as famous as Striding Edge [which is massively overrated anyway]) which does have the benefit of a terminally loose headwall - I would recommend doing Striding Edge under a hard frost seriously.

We took the avoiding path a bit; scrambled a bit and soon arrived on the plateau, with just a short step to the summit and some more amazing views. Lunch was taken early and more photo's were snapped...after lunch the party, as Bill Murray might have said, sat on its haunches, had a hot drink and decided its next move.
We elected to traverse over (term used loosely) Helvellyn Lower Man and Whiteside before descending the steep zig-zag path (good recce for me and the bike!) and enjoying the afternoon walk down to Greenside Mines (oh and a pint in the Travellers Rest might have had something to do with it!!).
Helvellyn Lower Man is quite probably the easiest 'top' in the UK - on ski/bike in mist you might well not even notice it. There was more of a pull onto Whiteside before a very pleasant descent to the start of the path down. This is quite steep - running would probably be easier than walking to be honest...we also saw hordes of mtb riders - coming uphill. Most were pushing up - some brave souls tried to ride - it would be a good test of fitness...

The weather was still pretty warm - base layer only weather - and, in due course, we arrived at the Travellers Rest...and ambled out later with some Red Tarn (a beer I had not tried before) inside us...all that remained was a wander through the village to the car and the drive home (for me)/snooze (for Claire..)....oh until we saw the mist in Penrith :-)

https://picasaweb.google.com/102361192587557786751/HelvellynWithClaire#  is where you can see the rest of the pictures...


* the Irvine Butterfield book - ' The High Mountains of Britain and Ireland' has all the peaks over 3000' including the English ones!