Thursday 2nd Feb
Hot cross buns (hot), biscuits and tea. Off to Wasdale Head Inn for dinner. John spoils #fishuary with steak pie (he's allowed it is a leap year and anyway he'd accidentally eaten pastrami earlier in the day). Speirsy overdoses on YewBarrow beer (a whole 3 pints) and gets a telling off for putting more logs on the fire, Mark waxes lyrical on trials of getting a Greek doctor to sign the right paperwork to get a dog into the country.... Northern contingent were a no show at the pub #lotsoffails
Friday 3rd Feb
Very dark and very quiet night's sleep. @Pylon and @DingDingBell arrived during evening. Hearty breakfast and packed to go out. Speirsy the only one in shorts.
Up YewBarrow to Red Crag and then Scoat Fell. A little ridge walk in 6" snow to Steeple to bag another close Wainwright. Over to Pillar where Speirsy had to hide behind the trig point from the wind while the guys chatted to a few other walkers in the full gear and crampons.
Over to Kirk Fell then dropping down the snow covered scree to the valley that separates Kirk Fell from the Gables. A quick descent down to Wasdale Head through the snow covered scree and the yelps from @Pyllon. Navigating through fields and farms proved problematic and so 1st time to be lost in a field. Bronze award Mark quick to point out he had not been in charge. Speirsy had eaten nearly all his food and needed more so ran home in front of the others.
#fails of day included 1 tumble by @Dingdongbell and a couple by @Pyllon. All else seemed to go to plan. Lots of technology up on fells including navigation machines, Blackberries, iPhones and cameras. More faffing than expected for fell running.. Wasdale Inn again in the evening. @Dingdongbell not hungry so he just had fish and chips. @runner786 turns up at 9ish. Apparently tonight the fire can be fed by anyone, but Speirsy stays shy and leaves to Mark. The Fell walkers from earlier in the day on Pillar go back to their tents a lot earlier than we would have expected.
Saturday 4th Feb
Woke up to grey skies, wind and white caps on Wast Water. A lot of milling around as our next door neighbours had a leisurely lie in until after 9am. Some hint of snow in the air and expecting wind chill to minus 10 degrees (according to John). Shorter route with 3 Wainwrights expected with potential to add more if it cleared up.
Jog down road west away from Wasdale Head. Pass one craggy outcrop without a name, then up the valley to the side of the brook. A slow but methodical ascent, with the occasional debate to where the hell we were and what the hills were called around us. For once, @johnnny_M was right and the hill to our right was not YewBarrow. But he did make us turn too early (one gill to early) straight up alongside a frozen stream. Quite vertical but still with grass and no snow yet. Into the clouds with a need for compass bearings and machines to get us to the top of the dome of Seatallon. See here for conditions and iPhone juggling by Marko. Some debate whether we really made it all all anyway. Snow was about 4" deep at worst - but now horizontal as well. We dropped off the dome down a steep but smooth, snow covered side down to the left of the tarn picking up a larger path eventually that led to the many summits of Middlefell (many as we kept discovering new ones).
Some debate what to do next, but we agreed to go down the pass towards the valley between us and Buckbarrow and then skirt around to Buckbarrow for our last Wainwright of the day. The snow had lifted a little, but we could see that the ascent to Whinrig then to Illfell would have been a little treacherous with the ridge under snow and the wind carrying more in it. A quick couple of hot cross buns (not hot) and a quick descent to the road. Having been reminded that we were "ultra runners" by @runner786, we plodded back some along the slush and what now became rain. Only a total of 10.5m for the day but had extracted the best out of the time we'd had on the hills. Mr Bronze (Mark) had broken his compass, @Dingdongbell had tried to tell him his map was upside down, @pyllon took another tumble but no-one noticed and Speirsy kept his shorts on (all three pairs) keeping up his "wearing shorts all year" challenge for 2012.
Return by 2:30pm to polish off remaining food (carried but not eaten), drink copious amounts of tea, fall asleep and await the visit to the pub. All eat at the pub and talk copious amounts of blarney about shoes, races and other sh*te.
For @thespeirsies, up early on Sunday morning for a leisurely trot around to the end of the lake only to suffer a twisted ankle on the roots by the YHA. Ibruprofen for the snowy journey home.
In the words of Joss Naylor "Happy days"
Quick ride over to John's (nice enough - but needs a lick of paint to be sorted out by Mark later in the week). Swap cars, argue with a refuse lorry then on way to M40. Stop just above Manchester ship canal then last slog to Wasdale. School run coaches in the way hinders progress but we arrive at the Joss Naylor pilgrimage location. Very nice! No signal for anything - tv, radio or phone. So kit on and out before light fails. Straight up YewBarrow to back of cottage. Cut through a cleft in the initial peak to get to false ridges getting into the snow line. 1st cairn - but only at 617m. so progress to the one ahead at 650m. Drop down slowly now as getting dark. No head torch for Mark so #1fail. No spikes for Speirs #1fail and Mark #2fail. John has both but major slips on ice #2fail. All get wet feet from stepping through ice into boggy ground - later to be known as splungen. All home safe.
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| Yewbarrow |
Hot cross buns (hot), biscuits and tea. Off to Wasdale Head Inn for dinner. John spoils #fishuary with steak pie (he's allowed it is a leap year and anyway he'd accidentally eaten pastrami earlier in the day). Speirsy overdoses on YewBarrow beer (a whole 3 pints) and gets a telling off for putting more logs on the fire, Mark waxes lyrical on trials of getting a Greek doctor to sign the right paperwork to get a dog into the country.... Northern contingent were a no show at the pub #lotsoffails
Friday 3rd Feb
Very dark and very quiet night's sleep. @Pylon and @DingDingBell arrived during evening. Hearty breakfast and packed to go out. Speirsy the only one in shorts.
Up YewBarrow to Red Crag and then Scoat Fell. A little ridge walk in 6" snow to Steeple to bag another close Wainwright. Over to Pillar where Speirsy had to hide behind the trig point from the wind while the guys chatted to a few other walkers in the full gear and crampons.
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| Speirsy, Paul, Davie and Mark |
Over to Kirk Fell then dropping down the snow covered scree to the valley that separates Kirk Fell from the Gables. A quick descent down to Wasdale Head through the snow covered scree and the yelps from @Pyllon. Navigating through fields and farms proved problematic and so 1st time to be lost in a field. Bronze award Mark quick to point out he had not been in charge. Speirsy had eaten nearly all his food and needed more so ran home in front of the others.
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| Descent into Wasdale Head |
Saturday 4th Feb
Woke up to grey skies, wind and white caps on Wast Water. A lot of milling around as our next door neighbours had a leisurely lie in until after 9am. Some hint of snow in the air and expecting wind chill to minus 10 degrees (according to John). Shorter route with 3 Wainwrights expected with potential to add more if it cleared up.
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| @Pyllon no good as a wind break |
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| Chilling out at the top of Seatallon |
Some debate what to do next, but we agreed to go down the pass towards the valley between us and Buckbarrow and then skirt around to Buckbarrow for our last Wainwright of the day. The snow had lifted a little, but we could see that the ascent to Whinrig then to Illfell would have been a little treacherous with the ridge under snow and the wind carrying more in it. A quick couple of hot cross buns (not hot) and a quick descent to the road. Having been reminded that we were "ultra runners" by @runner786, we plodded back some along the slush and what now became rain. Only a total of 10.5m for the day but had extracted the best out of the time we'd had on the hills. Mr Bronze (Mark) had broken his compass, @Dingdongbell had tried to tell him his map was upside down, @pyllon took another tumble but no-one noticed and Speirsy kept his shorts on (all three pairs) keeping up his "wearing shorts all year" challenge for 2012.
Return by 2:30pm to polish off remaining food (carried but not eaten), drink copious amounts of tea, fall asleep and await the visit to the pub. All eat at the pub and talk copious amounts of blarney about shoes, races and other sh*te.
For @thespeirsies, up early on Sunday morning for a leisurely trot around to the end of the lake only to suffer a twisted ankle on the roots by the YHA. Ibruprofen for the snowy journey home.
In the words of Joss Naylor "Happy days"
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| Photo by @Pyllon from Bowerdale Cottage |
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