The Joy of Old Friends

My first time up The Old Man of Coniston was almost 31 years ago and I’ve been to the top a couple of times since then, but never in the company of so many good friends.  Eight of us started walking from opposite the Coniston MRT headquarters and headed for the quarries.  The good weather had brought out the crowds and we saw plenty of families making the most of their day out.

Low Water and Wetherlam

As we reached the zigzags we encountered some snow patches but they were soft and avoidable.  Some youngsters were running down them to quicken their descent and some of the older heads amongst us commented that they may just be hastening a mountain rescue callout!

Old Man summit approach

Brim Fell from the Old Man

At the summit we sat and ate lunch with the rest of the crowds.  For most, the way down is simply retracing their footsteps but for those who are a bit more serious about their hillwalking, there are quieter options.  As we headed towards Brim Fell I sought out Buckbarrow Crag; a Simpson summit.  I found a point on the edge of the cliffs which met the listed description but not the grid reference which would have been a point on the footpath with no prominence.  I’m claiming the tick!

Although a Wainwright, Brim Fell is not really a major summit and we quickly reached it and turned our attention towards Dow Crag.  A small snowfield led to a snowball fight before we started the ascent from Goat’s Hawse and the scramble to the very highest point.  There were a lot less people here than on the Old Man, which we could see still had crowds on the top.

Dow Crag

Windermere behind the Old Man

Old Man summit crowds

Walking down towards the Walna Scar pass was a promenade of easy terrain and turned out to be one of the most enjoyable miles I’ve walked in Lakeland.  Although I’ve walked up this way before, I was taken aback as to how good it was.

Goat's Water

Above Buck Pike I tried to locate Dow Crag South Top, another Simpson, and walked over every minor prominence that was a candidate.  Again I found a location that met the description but not the grid reference but I was confident that I could claim the tick.

Goat's Water from above the Dow Crag gullies

Dow Crag from the south ridge

Crowds on Coniston Old Man

Blind Tarn under Brown Pike

From the pass, it was a relaxing stroll down the Walna Scar road in the afternoon sun to the cars where we stowed our sacks and boots.  The obligatory post-perambulatory beverages were provided by the welcoming Sun Hotel, the headquarters of Donald Campbell’s doomed attempt to break the world water speed record.

Fountains Fell

The potential to tick three Yorkshire Dales Nuttalls in a relatively short walk and its proximity to home was the reason I chose this walk because I only had a limited amount of time to commit.  My variation of Naismith’s Rule said it should have taken 3¾ hours, but maps don’t take into account the conditions underfoot and just over 5 hours later, I was rushing home.

I parked near Blishmire House and followed the Pennine Way onto the summit plateau of Fountains Fell.  The snow patches were mostly avoidable and those that weren’t had been fortuitously stepped out by a couple walking ahead of me.  The last rise was banked out with snow and walking to the cairns required some cautious route-finding.  Despite this I still stepped knee-deep into a bog, the water overflowing the top of my gaiter and leaving me with a wet and cold right foot for the rest of the walk.

Crossing the wall was easy because of the banked snow and started a descent towards Darnbrook Fell.  Instead of following the wall, I took a beeline towards the summit but this mistake became obvious in just a couple of hundred yards.  The soft heather was ankle-deep, the spring snow was calf-deep and the bogs had the potential to be deeper still!  Progress was slow.

The trig pillar came into sight and similar to other moorland pillars, it exhibited an isolation found on these flat peaty plateaus, exaggerated by it being mounted on a deep stone base which was clearly above the ground, probably the result of years of erosion.

Darnbrook Fell summit cairn & trig point

I kept close to the wall on the return towards Fountains Fell but progress wasn’t much quicker as the terrain was not ideal.  Walking became a little easier from the Pennine Way towards the broad ridge, passing to the north of Fountains Fell Tarn.  The ridge itself had the most pleasurable ground of the day and I was soon at the south top of Fountains Fell where a small cairn marked the true highpoint.

Fountains Fell Tarn

Pen-y-ghent & Fountains Fell from the south top

The walk along the broad ridge to Fountains Fell was an enjoyably easy stroll, particularly after the heather and bog that had characterised Darnbrook Fell.  The summit cairn was obviously marked by a large cairn and the view ahead to Pen-y-ghent was the best of the day.

Fountains Fell summit

I can’t find anything to commend Darnbrook Fell with all of its bog-trotting and heather-bashing, but the ridge between the two summits of Fountains Fell would be well-worth seeking out, particularly on a sunny summer’s day.

Garbh Bheinn of Ardgour

“Gharbh Bheinn is a magnificent mountain.” ⁽¹⁾

“Gharbh Bheinn of Ardgour is one of the finest mountains in the western Highlands.” ⁽²⁾

The MWIS predicted a “rare benign day” as Storm Gertrude had passed and Storm Henry was heading towards us, due to arrive that night.  Garbh Bheinn was my major objective for the weekend and the calmer conditions forecast gave me the chance to reach it.  We made a relatively early start to catch the first ferry at Corran and after a short drive to Inversanda we were walking by just after 9’o’clock.

From where we were staying at Onich, there is a good view of the mountain when the weather is cooperative, but there was little chance of seeing it this weekend.  It is as a Corbett that Garbh Bheinn is best known but it was on my ticklist because of its inclusion in the TRAIL 100 list and it was my first attempt at a summit listed on my #trail7summits challenge.

The south-east ridge has a reputation of being “interesting” and with a liberal coating of snow, that interest became obvious.  Careful route finding was needed to avoid the icy rock steps and we had to resort to ascending smaller snowed-up gullies, plunging knee-deep to make progress.  As we moved up, I was thinking that returning this way would be a challenge late in the day as it would mean reversing some awkward moves.

the way up - Sron a' Gharbh Choire Mhoir 

Although there was no particular need to do so, we dug a snow pit and discovered a layer of graupel about five inches below the top layer of unconsolidated snow.  There wasn’t much risk of avalanche as there were no continuously big areas of snow cover and we were plunging to a level below the graupel layer.  That was lucky as a consolidated top layer would have given us pause for thought.

We continued up to the lower summit of Sron a’ Gharbh Choire Mhoir where we had something to eat and put on our crampons.  Although visibility had not been extensive – good enough to select a sensible route but poor enough to mask views of hills further afield – a quick break in the cloud gave us a tantalising view of the Garbh Bheinn cliffs looming above us.

ethereal Garbh Bheinn

A descent to the col was much easier now that we were wearing spikes, before picking our way up the final slopes to the top.  We took the obligatory summit photos and made our way back down to the col where we discussed the way down and agreed that finding a way down Garbh Choire Mor was a better option as it would lead to a much easier walk out down Coire an Iubhair.

Garbh Bheinn summit cliffs with hanging boulder

Sticking to the right of the corrie, an opportunity to bumslide down the first couple of hundred metres was gleefully taken and it saved us quite a bit of time.  An inch-deep layer of windslab was sliding away at the top of the slope but this dissipated as we lost height and the terrain became slightly rockier.  The rocks brought the fun to a halt and marked the start of footstep roulette, not knowing whether we would be stepping on rocks below the surface or plunging thigh-deep.  The croak of a ptarmigan became louder as we were obviously approaching it but its camouflage was hugely effective and despite looking around the corrie below us, we never saw it.

It was becoming obviously warmer as we reached the lower slopes with the debris of many small slough avalanches below the more significant crags.  We reached the track but after a mile on the very boggy, and sometimes indistinct, path we realised that rushing for an earlier ferry was pointless and we eased off the pace.

It’s not often that having climbed a mountain I would want to do it again, but I suspect that a summer ascent in good  weather would give a superb day out.  Not that today wasn’t, of course !

⁽¹⁾        quoted from     “Walking the Corbetts Volume 2: North of the Great Glen”

            author              Brian Johnson

            publisher         Cicerone Press

⁽²⁾        quoted from     “The Corbetts & Other Scottish Hills”

            editors             Rob Milne & Hamish Brown

            publisher         Scottish Mountaineering Club

With Gertrude in Lochaber

As Storm Gertrude hit Scotland our motivation to get amongst the hills was lacking.  The MWIS forecast of sustained winds of at least 60mph on Munro summits put paid to any idea of heading high, so the only realistic option was a lower-level walk.

Decision made, and starting at Kinlochleven, seven of us were soon heading up past the Grey Mare’s Tail waterfall on the way to Loch Eilde Mor.  We and soon reached the snowline as well as increasing winds and had to cross a couple of streams, trying our best to avoid a soaking.  At Allt Coire nan Laogh the decision was taken to head towards the loch below us instead of a tentative plan to climb another 1000 feet up to Coire an Lochain at the eastern end of the Mamores.  The wind had reached over 35mph, not many of us had brought crampons and the chance of reaching any summit was considered so low that the option to head higher was quickly dismissed.

Pap of Glencoe and Loch Leven

We descended to the shore of Loch Eilde Mor and followed the path around to the dam to take some shelter before following the pipeline path above Allt na h-Eilde.  As we turned a corner into a natural amphitheatre, the wind speed reached a sustained 40mph giving us reason to appreciate our goggles in the increasing rain and sleet.

The walk down to and through the woods coincided with heavier rain and we all ended up soaking as we reached the cars.  Thankfully the drying room at the hut successfully lived up to its job description and gave us some wearable gear for us to take full advantage of the following day’s gap between storms.

2016 Targets

Lists to tick

My target ticklist has grown since this time last year as I have incorporated the Simpsons – a little known list of Lake District 2000-foot summits – to my existing combination of Nuttalls, TRAIL 100s, WASHIS, Bridges and Buxton & Lewis summits.  At the start of 2016 there are 349 individual summits on my ticklist and my goal of completing them in 2023 leaves 8 years to reach the target.

Still to be ticked at the start of this year are 215 of the 443 Nuttalls and 41 of the TRAIL 100 summits.

This coming year

In simple numbers, 12½% of my remaining summits based on my remaining 8-year target should be a reasonable goal for 2016.

Which means I’m aiming for 44 summits, amongst which should be 27 Nuttalls and 5 TRAIL 100s.

Included again this year are specific targets that have not been met in the last 2 years despite me highlighting them – the 6 Cheviot Nuttalls and Pillar Rock.  Despite its technicality, I’ve spoken to a couple of mates who are keen to join me on a trip to climb the Slab and Notch route of Pillar Rock, so hopefully I’ll actually get it done this year !

TRAIL magazine 7 summits challenge

The January 2016 issue of TRAIL magazine issued a challenge to its readers to list 7 summits that they would like to tick in 2016.  So for a bit of fun, I took it up and published my list on Twitter under the hashtag #trail7summits – keep an eye on this year’s blog entries will chronicle to see how I progress.

A 2015 Summary

At the start of 2015 I had 307 summits on my combined ticklist of TRAIL 100 summits, Nuttalls, WASHIS, Bridges and Buxton & Lewis summits.  2015 was the second year of my 10-year completion target and had aimed to tick 34 summits on my combined list which would include 26 Nuttalls and 6 TRAIL 100s.

For the second year in a row I fell short, but not by so much.

Overall I :

            went on             17                                walks

            walked              118.5                            miles

            ascended          34,304                          feet

            walked for         70 hrs 36 mins             (including rest stops !)

            reached             29                                individual summits that I hadn’t been to before

            reached             12                                individual summits that I had been to before

            reached             25                                summits on my combined ticklist

            reached             8                                  previously unclimbed TRAIL 100 summits

            reached             15                                previously unclimbed Nuttall summits

            drove                 4254                            miles on trips to and from walks

As the year progressed and the numbers of targeted summits decreased, a Nuttall was demoted following a survey and a WASHIS was added due to a list compilation oversight.  But I added a number of unclimbed Scottish 4000-foot  and Irish 3000-foot summits as well as some Lake District 2000-foot summits from a historic list known as the Simpsons.

So following a demotion, an addition, the ticking of 29 summits as well as the expansion of my target list, what started as 307 summits ended as a list of 349 !  Still quite a bit of walking needed !

Of the specific summits that I stated were 2015 targets, I did manage to tick the 3 Dartmoor summits and Worcestershire Beacon which was quite a challenge to do on a single day out from just north of Liverpool !  And again I didn’t manage to get near the 6 Cheviot Nuttalls and Pillar Rock.

Although 2015’s figures are quite a bit better than 2014’s, it didn’t feel that I’d got out very much and the high mileage was due to a couple of family holidays being taken advantage of to get a single hill day on both of them.  Highlights of the year were Suilven, Pen y Fan, Cross Fell and Merrick – all well-worth the travelling and except for Pen y Fan, devoid of crowds.

Now let’s see what 2016 brings.

Christmas Carneddau

It’s not often I head into the hills without any previously unclimbed summits as targets, but this was one of those rare days.  My club had organised a day out in the northern Carneddau and had touched lucky with quite good weather following the country’s battering by Storm Eva over Christmas – it was the only day that was forecast to have a lull in summit windspeeds.

We started from Abergwyngregyn and walked up the road to the North Wales Path, following it eastwards before turning right up the track that led to the summit of Drum.  I’ve rarely reached any hill as easily as this, with the sun shining and no wind.

The ridge to Foel-fras was a different matter and my post-Christmas fitness was sorely tested.  I slowed down significantly and reached the top quite some time after the rest of the group.  From here though, it was mostly downhill all the way.  We descended to the col below Llwytmor and walked up the short rise to the summit which was a new Nuttall for me.

I had hoped to tick Llwytmor but wasn’t necessarily expecting it as walking with a group tends to lead to a route defined either by “follow-my-leader” or consensus.  With today’s company I would have been happy with just getting out on some high summits – which I hadn’t visited for over 27 years!

From the summit a spiked tor beckoned us to the far side of the plateau before we avoided Llwytmor Bach in the increasing wind and decided to take a beeline to the Afon Goch above Aber Falls.  The path to the side of the falls needed some care to traverse as the tributaries made the exposed rock somewhat slippery but after what turned out to be the crux of the route, the easy path led us back to the road for the last mile to the car park.