Honeymoon in the Dales...

 So, Claire and I got married on Friday (the 13th of course!) and, after a lovely meal with the close families (including Claire's mum and dad who came over from Botswana) Claire and I set out for the Yorkshire Dales.

My father and Pat had booked us a B and B at West Witton in Wensleydale; which was a lovely place in a lovely spot. I had forgotten how lovely Wensleydale is, the winding river and the narrow valley.


After a meal in the pub we had breakfast and watched the snow falling outside; closely followed by the sun; closely followed by rain - clearly changeable was the order of the day!
That being the case - we elected to drive to Whernside, a hill I know very well and one which would give an ascent on well-made paths that should not be too boggy. After a 40 min drive we arrived at Ribblehead - to find a biting wind and not much warmth in the sun. I discovered this by being dispatched to get some tea from the tea van!

Suitably well wrapped up, Claire and I started up Whernside via the viaduct -as in the picture above. It was a slow ascent, but very well judged given our progress up the mountain. Ingleborough was snow capped as can be seen from the shot. What was amazing was the number of people around, I had imagined it would be busy but not as insane as it was. It seemed that hordes of people were on a 3 peaks challenge walk.                                                                                                                                                                    Quite a few were either dressed oddly and/or sporting headphones depriving themselves of the noise of the birds and sheep....

The summit ridge was very cold, with a cross-wind and Claire was able to wear her birthday present gloves ( a present from Mum expected for Scottish winter). Fully dressed up we wandered down - Claire being extremely nimble on her feet on the steep descent.

Turning left at Ellerbeck farm and suddenly the numbers dwindled to about 1/20 of what they were before...all that remained were hot-dogs and hamburgers - twice. Oh and a lovely (but rotund) doggy who offered to help!

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

pictures

Walking around town in the snow...

weird weather with a capital W...went up to work today and then met Claire for lunch in Carlisle; the wind was biting and it was sleeting gently.

Went for a stroll around town this evening - snow was in the air and was falling; although not settling. Wonder what it will be doing in the mountains?

Climbing again..

another amazing day in Cumbria...blue skies and sunshine; although we sat outside in Keswick eating our ice-creams with the forecast saying snow on Tuesday - mad!

Back to today; Claire and I decided to have another go at climbing - an reasonably early start saw us at Brown Slabs on Shepherds Crag before the madding crowd. The fact that Shepherds gets the afternoon sun meaning we had a couple of hours as being one of only two parties on this part of the crag.
Brown Slabs (Diff) was first on the menu - the first route that I had led for nearly a year as well. I felt ok on it - it is polished but not to oblivion and I could potter up ( I have done the route several times before) to the top ok(ish). Claire did a really good job of following - the top does steepen a bit and become quite arkward - with a couple of high steps that are easier for me with my longer limbs. However, she climbed really well - using her feet well - and soon joined me on the summit.

After an amble down we found a few more people arriving at the bottom and so staked our climb for Brown Slabs Direct (V.Diff). The start to this was horrendously polished and the gear a bit minimal for the first 30' or so. Once above that; the rock improves a lot, the gear is spaced but excellent and I really started to enjoy the climbing. It was good to feel like a proper climber again; picking my way up a route. After the tree; which is a possible belay the route steepens a lot but the holds are all there and the friction is good...I was soon on the top and watching a bravura performance from Claire. Claire climbed the route faster than I did and showed really good technique. More to the point, she seemed to have enjoyed it as well which is the key thing.

The crag was getting rather busy as the sun had hit - so it was time for lunch and a gear spree in Keswick. With Claire working nights this week, we might need to test her new fell running shoes out!!

Fell-'running'...

well sort of...

two lovely weekends here in the Lakes; last Sunday at least was fantastic and Claire and I made the most of it by walking and running around the hills around Hesket Newmarket. We walked up High Pike and then ran/walked around the rest of the circuit - mainly walking the uphills (although I did manage to jog two of them) and running the downs.

Poor Claire's hip hurt on the last leg - so she missed out on some of the flying 1 mile descent of Willy Knot which is the highlight of the round!! However no major damage was done as we were back out this morning.

This weekend has been SERIOUSLY hot - more like June than late March. Yesterday we went for a walk up the Beacon and today we elected to do a run around (and over!) Souther Fell.

The lay-bys under Blencathra were busy and we only got parked with difficulty. Once there, we jogged along to Mousethwaite Combe and walked (rather rapidly!) up it. Once there, we wandered (a little more sedately it must be said!) up to Souther Fell before picking up the descent path and running down to Mungrisedale. Both of us are getting fitter - however uphill running does not yet seem to be within range; especially of Claire who (coming from a country with zero hills) has (probably quite sensibly) never been that keen on the idea.

That being said - I doubt very much that I could have run much in that heat either; it was a very hot day and the valley that runs behind Souther Fell didn't get much wind. We walked nice and quickly up the valley and then ran all the way down Mousethwaite Combe and back to the car - which was excellent indeed.

Next weekend we are away - maybe Scotland or maybe North Wales - hoping the weather holds.

Back on the hills...

I know I haven't posted for a long time - I have simply being so busy to do much out on the hills at all. However, spring has hit Cumbria this weekend; with spring like temperatures to boot.

Claire and I took the opportunity to do a quick walk/run on the fells around Mungrisedale. Neither of us (especially me) is remotely  fit enough to run up Bowscale Fell yet; however we still managed a fast walk. The weather was so good that it was just base layer weather and I could have gone in shorts rather than Ron Hills. From the top, we ran most of the way down the path that drops from near the summit and took us back to the car - it was really good to be running again and hopefully this is the precursor of a good spring/summer,

Part 3 of the Scotland Feb trip..

After breakfast in the hotel Claire and I drove up the Glen and past the Cluanie Inn. We parked at the same place we had parked for the ascent of Carn Ghluasaid - which was our initial objective; followed by some exploring of the hills beyond it.

The walk up the stalkers path was very hot - with next to no wind again - quite devoid of snow until we got to about 2/3 of the way up. The path then went up a steep snowfield in which steps had been made - however the steps were wide apart. Claire found this not to her liking - so we took a detour (which to be honest was not much easier at one point - although I forgot to mention this til later!!). Luckily, others had been this way and we were able to rejoin the main path. As we'd climbed Carn Ghluasaid on the xmas trip - and encountered driving windblasted snow on the way down, we elected to avoid it and head for the belach between it and Creag a' Chaoruinn. This also allowed a nice lunch stop - as the sun came out and had cleared the mist from both hills. This was to be the pattern all day - every hill we arrived at the summit of had the mist cleared by the sun; whilst the previous hill was shrouded in mist. Needless to say - this made the day truly splendid; helped by the grandeur of the hills.

Another benefit of the clear weather was that it allowed us to pick the best line to the summit - and avoid the cornices which were quite large in places..There were several on the way up to Creag a' Chaoruinn; and lots more on the steep climb to Sgurr nan Conbhairean (the daddy of the day at 1100+m). After another stop on the summit to admire the view and have some food/drink we descended a quite narrow and awkward ridge (MUCH harder than what Claire had wobbled down yesterday), with considerable aplomb and made the short ascent to the top of Drochaid an Tuill Easaich. This took the days ascent to over 1000m, which was pretty good going for the two of us who have not done much recently for a whole host of reasons. It also has a south ridge which is a lovely way to complete the horseshoe. The descent was long and quite steep at times, angling SE towards a river crossing that Claire bounded across like a gazelle....We dropped to the road and I hiked the mile back to the car sans anything except the car-keys - and hike I did having failed to get a lift.....

A quite amazing day - not bad for 40% chance of clear munro's -just wish I hadn't forgotten the camera (left it in the hotel room). Claire had her camera - but not her lead to get the photo's off so will have to wait til we get home.

Scotland - part 2

leaving the Victoria Bridge car-park, we had a good run to Fort Bill where we stocked up with some supplies before driving off to the Kintail Lodge Hotel at Shiel Bridge - where we stayed after xmas. Even driving down the Glen in the early evening - it was apparent that the big snowfalls had not hit this part of Scotland - that and the pathetic people in the South East see a snowflake and hit the panic button...It was also apparent that conditions were a LOT better than last time we were here....

And so it proved.....


tbc