Lake District, Walk Reports

High Street and Harter Fell

I’m. on my way to Fort William for a five-day winter skills course with Rob. The forecast is finally looking good,  with snow forecast for tomorrow. Rob’s ‘snow dance’ must be working.

There wasn’t much of it in evidence today though, with the fells pretty much bare.

Rather than drive up in one day I stopped in the Lakes on the way up. The “Far Eastern” fells are a short drive off the motorway from Shap, and I was parked at Mardale Head, at the far end of the Haweswater reservoir by 11:30. After a bit more kit faff than usual I was heading up the ridge towards Rough Crag. The ridge is a gem – steep drops down to either side without feeling exposed, and plenty of easy hands-on stuff as you head on and up towards High Street.

The weather on the way up was a bit of everything: Hail, a bit of snow, rain, all mixed together with a very generous helping of wind. The northern side of the ridge was very sheltered, so there were plenty of opportunities to escape the wind.  The summit of High Street was in cloud most of the time, but the lower tops of Harter Fell and Mardale Ill Bell occasionally peeked out from underneath it. I stopped to have a bite after the hail stopped, and was rewarded with glorious view back down the ridge over Haweswater, complete with rainbow.

From High Street, it’s an easy walk over Mardale Ill Bell, with views down to the tarn of Blea Water, followed by an incredibly blustery crossing of the Nan Bield pass before the wind abated on the climb to Harter Fell. Again, great views here on the descent of the crags on the northern face.

Blae Water

Lots of folk out on the hills today despite the weather, and despite this being one of the ‘quietest’ parts of the Lake District. I guess I’ve been spending too much time in Wales.

Onwards to Ft. Bill…

 

 

Wales, Walk Reports

The Frozen Sponge

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Pumlumon : 2/2/2012

Despite living just on the ‘wrong’ (Shropshire) side of Offa’s Dyke,  Powys always feels rather like ‘home’. We regularly visit or shop in Newtown, Welshpool, Llani and Hay, and many of my favourite hills are in Powys: The Black Mountains, Mynydd Du, and of course, Pumlumon (although the border with Ceredigion runs along the plateau).

I chanced upon Mike Parker’s “Real Powys” recently, and it’s one of the most entertaining books I’ve read for a long time. It’s billed as a ‘psychogeography’  of Powys – but don’t let that put you off: It’s sharply written, very funny and stuffed full of odd details and great anecdotes while underneath it all runs a huge dose of affection for his home county. If you live in or near Powys – or even just fly in occasionally to T3 at Llandegley International Airport, it’s a great read.

However, I suspect Pumlumon isn’t one of his favourite mountains. He describes it as:

Pumlumon … that great upland sponge that squats like a fat toad at the centre of Wales. At least the grey miasma oozing out of the slopes had successfully blotted out most of the two hundred wind turbines that now encircle it

Unlike him, I seem to be always drawn back here. When I can’t make my mind up where to go, the answer is always this: Pumlumon. While the convenience is a factor, the remoteness is the magnet that brings me back time and again. As I’ve mentioned before, there’s plenty of signs of man’s presence here, but hardly anything that feels ‘contemporary’. Even the Outdoor Centre at Maesnant looks as though nobody has stayed there for years. With the remains of unused sheepfolds and age-old cairns, it can feel like a dead landscape, just waiting to be explored .

And on a day like Thursday, when it’s cold, white, and the wind has filled the paths and footsteps of everyone else with blown powder snow, it’s just a great place to be.

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Wales, Walk Reports

Monochrome

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Crimpiau and Craig Wen – 20/1/2012

Yesterday, I found myself on top of Bury Ditches hillfort with the dogs, a glorious sunset, and a camera.

Sadly, the camera claimed there was “No battery power remaining”. (Splitting hairs: How did it manage to display that message, then?) So, no photos.

But today I’m in Snowdonia (writing this now in the Tanronnen Inn in Beddgelert – good pub food) and have a fully charged camera. But, not a glimmer of sunlight – cloud everywhere.

Met Office Mountain Forecast

The forecast this morning was pretty grim, so I decided to wait and see what looked sensible when I got there. All the high hills were cloaked in cloud, but Creigiau Gleision and the other hills NE of Capel Curig looked OK for a quick afternoon outing – and, the rain seemed to have held off.

Path to Crimpiau from Capel Curig

I parked up behind Joe Brown’s, and headed up towards Crimpiau. Even with the cloud, the views are pretty stunning. There are few places in the park where you can see both Llyn Ogwen and Lynnau Mymbyr. Looking northeast, the valley holding Llyn Crafnant looked worth exploring as well on another day.

Crafnant Valley from Crimpiau

Lynnau Mymbwr from Crimpiau

I dropped down into the bwlch leading up to Craig Wen, and the wind was really picking up, with gusts up to 45MPH. From here, a wall shows the obvious route up towards the top. Craig Wen has two adjacent tops which seem almost identical in height – I guessed (correctly, it transpires) that the furthest one was the higher. I passed on the scramble up wet, moss-covered rocks from the south, and found a simple walk up from the other side.

Tryfan and Glyders from Craig Wen

With the wind still strong – and limited daylight – I headed down across country to the bridge over the leat below Llyn Cowlyd. From here there’s a good, if muddy, path back to the A5 and a few 100 metres of road back to Capel Curig.

Gallt yr Ogof

 

Cup Lichen

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Gear

Mountain King Trail Blaze poles

Mountain King Trail Blaze poles on Dduallt
I haven’t always got on well with trekking poles: not so many years ago I comprehensively sprained my ankle by tripping over one. “Clumsy” would be putting it politely.  My balance and movement skills are rather better these days, but it took me almost a year before I’d trust myself using one again. A couple of years back I switched from a single pole to using two, and found that worked well for me.

I was happy with my old poles, a pair of Leki Makalu carbon ones, but thanks to a bit of grade 1 stupidity I left them in the car park at Dan yr Ogof at the end of a walk. The staff were helpful one the phone, but the poles had long gone. Hopefully someone else is getting some good use out of them now.

The Lekis had let me down once, when an adjuster failed on top of Carnedd Llewellyn – so looking at something else (and something cheaper) seemed a good idea. I’d read Petesy’s review of the Mountain King Trail Blaze poles, but was concerned that even the longer 120cm model wouldn’t suit my lanky 6’3″ frame, but apparently Bob at BackpackingLight uses them and he’s the same height. (There’s now a 130cm model, but that seems too long, even for me.) While the Trail Blaze poles are very light (125g each, if you believe the MK website – mine are a little over 135g), the real benefit is that they shrink down to just 36cm when packed, while conventional poles are typically over 60cm, with four folded sections rather than three telescoping ones. The length means they’re a lot easier to stow on your pack when you don’t need them – either in the wand pockets, under compression straps, or even just velcro’d on to the front of the shoulder straps. (I tried this last briefly, and while it’s possible, any stumble will likely end up with a walking pole in your eye socket). For scrambling you can even stick them inside your pack, which is ideal.

Assembling and dismantling the poles is really straightforward. A shock cord runs the entire length of the pole, and pulling this taut makes the pole sections slot into each other. Then, pull (harder!) until a knot in the cord comes out the top, which slots into a notch on top of the handle to keep the tension. The loose end of the cord can be tied round the pole using the Velcro loop which normally wraps the pole sections together when they’re collapsed.

There are some downsides, of course. You can’t lengthen the poles slightly for descents like a normal pole, and the fixed height means they may not work well as supports for Tarp shelters. And unsurprisingly, they feel a bit flimsier than ‘proper’ poles but despite a few clumsy attempts I haven’t been able to inflict any serious damage on them. And, if you accidentally plunge them deep into typical mid-Wales gloopy  bog, then as you pull to extract them the joints will pull apart a bit as the shock cord stretches, until they finally pop out of the mud and snap loudly back together. At times they feel slightly ‘rattly’, but if that gets noticeably bad, then re-tensioning the shock cord should be straightforward.

I like to keep a length of spare duct tape wrapped around a pole – with the Trail Blaze, this also helps keep the loose end of the shock cord nicely tensioned. Without it the velcro loop can move up and flap around a bit.

 

Hillwalking, and other frivolous pastimes