After telling my mate Dave about my walk on Helvellyn, he said it was a place he always wanted to go too. To find a walking partner was a bit of a relief as i thought at least i could blame someone else when we got lost, as we surely would. It was late 2010 that we decided to go and the forecast wasn’t the best. I picked him up at 6 am and off we went praying for some decent weather…
We arrived at Wasdale head and the weather forecast looked to be turning out right. After my last unprepared visit to the lakes, i was now armed with a map and a compass, although i was beginning to think my summer shorts were not going to keep me dry and warm on todays hike…..
After studying the map for a few minutes, we decided on our route and set off at a good gallop. Our route was suppsed to take us on the path up Lingmell gill, but unfortuntely we managed to miss the path for that and carried on the same path up towards the woods above wasdale Head hall farm.
After a couple of kilometers of walking, and Burnmoor tarn appearing on the horizon, that familiar feeling of being lost was going through my mind.
After a short discussion and the blame landing squarely on Daves shoulders we worked out where we were and more importantly where we had to go to get back on track. We had to drop down before Burnmoor tarn and head towards Hardrigg gill and follow that, which would lead us to Scafell.
The climb up from hardrigg gill was a long slog and got and visibility got worse the higher up we got. The last few hundred yards were very rocky and pretty steep.
The walk down Mickledore was very steep and slippy and needed great care to get down. After a lot of sliding on our backides we got down to the path that would take us up to scafell pike.
After finding the path we headed up towards Pulpit rock where we were to find the path up to Scafell pike.
It was on the final leg of the climb that we met other walkers who were unortunately seperated from their group and decided to join us to the top( the fools).
Finally we made it to the top, We couldn’t see a thing when we got there, but, the feelings we had as we stood at the top was amazing. The highest point in England…. For a couple of novices actually finding the way up in these conditions was quite an achievement for us and we felt rightly proud… Now to find the way down.
As we thought might happen we did lose our way going down, we were hoping to go towards Lingmell crag and drop down into Wasdale from there. Instead we followed a train of other walkers who seemed to know what they were doing and we ended up following the corridor route towards Sty Head.
The trek towards Sty head was a bit of a bind as we knew this had added a couple of extra km’s to the journey. The end was in sight though and a pint in the Wasdale Inn was waiting. Happy days
The final walk following Lingmell beck was a pleasure as it was flatish and we could reflect on the what we had done in the day. All in all and despite our woeful navigation skills and the weather not being great, it was a fantastic days walking. Dave was hooked, just as i was after my 1st venture on the hills. It wouldn’t be long before we were back enjoying the fantastic walking and the amazing scenery that the Lake District has to offer…
1 comment
tracey
26 November, 2012 at 12:10 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
another great read and fab photos bro..x