Blog Posts in Category: Lake District

May Bank Holiday in the Lake District

We headed up the the Lake District for the first May bank holiday this year. After a terrible journey up with what seemed like most of the rest of the country who were also relocating for the weekend, we eventually arrived at the campsite in Langdale. While the weather forecast was lovely for the weekend, it was forecast to be very cold. As we wanted to climb we elected to stay low and headed to Raven Crag in Langdale. As a three we climbed The Original Route which was a lovely climb, and it was great to be back outside on rock and enjoying it! On the second day we went for a big circular walk from the campsite. We headed up to Silver Howe and then up the ridge above Langdale towards Pavey Ark. After some initial, and very unexpected, rain the weather soon improved and we were left with beautiful views. From Pavey Ark we scrambled up the brilliant Jack’s Rake before heading to all of the Langdale pikes as well as a bonus wainwright. After the long descent back down to the Langdale valley, we enjoyed a. Read the full article…

High Raise from Grasmere

Due to a short walk on Saturday we planned a long walk on the Sunday due to a better forecast. We decided on a circuit up to High Raise from Grasmere, which turned out to be an amazing walk as the views were constantly changing in every direction. We started up Castle How and Blea Rigg which gave us excellent views of Wetherlam and the mountains around Langdale valley. It was great to look down Langdale from above, although it was a shame that the light was very challenging photographically. As we climbed up our views over Stickle Tarn and Pavey Ark improved until we got to the summit of Sergeant Man. At this point we had views over to Helvellyn, Fairfield, Crinkle Craggs and Bow Fell. After the short walk over to High Raise we then had views to the north up towards Skiddaw and Borrowdale. The descent then took us down into a beautiful glacial valley and then along a final ridge as the sun light was fading. The final ridge did go on a bit with plenty of undulation, and unfortunately we got soaked in the last. Read the full article…

A Windy Wetherlam

Due to a very windy forecast we elected to have a short walk on Saturday which enabled us to have a lie in and then head up to Wetherlam after enjoying brunch in Coniston. We walked through the Coppermines and up to Levers Water. The cloud base was hovering around the summits during this walk which gave us some lovely views, however the light was very challenging for photography. Unfortunately the weather closed in as we approached the col before the final ridge up to the summit. After a quick summit selfie in the strong winds we made a hasty descent back down the other side of the mountain. As we dropped below the cloud base we have fantastic views over Coniston Water and the southern Lake District.

Taking climbing bags for a walk around Helvellyn

There had been lots of snow in the Lake District, which is always the first hurdle for winter climbing in the Lake District. On this weekend last year we were rock climbing in Langdale! However, unfortunately there was really a bit much fresh snow, which had even led to some sizeable avalanches over the previous few days. James and I came up with a plan to head to Dollywagon North, which had lots of good looking short routes on it. Unfortunately from Patterdale the walk up to Grisedale tarn is a long way, which was made worse by endless trail braking with often thigh deep snow. After a three hour approach we made it to the top of the crag, at the same time as some other teams. Unfortunately we were all disappointed as the crag was completely buried, the approach slope was under a large cornice, the top outs looked like they involved almost vertical powder below yet more cornices. With all these negative factors it wasn’t hard to make the decision to take our climbing bags for a walk to the summit of Helvellyn. On the summit we. Read the full article…