Lake District trip - September 2013

Time for another trip to the Lake District!

September is a great month to go because the campsites are relatively empty and the weather can still be quite pleasant.  So after following the weather forecast for a while, a stretch of several days fine weather towards the end of September became apparent, and I went for it.

Day One:  Set up camp at Castlerigg campsite near Keswick and then went up Cat bells (451m) - a popular ridge walk on the west side of Derwent Water; an hour to the summit and then followed the lakeside path back to the start point.    (Click on photos to view them in full size)

View from Castlerigg campsite near Keswick

Day Two:  Hay Stacks (597m) is reputed to have one of the best summit views in the Lake District.  The five hour slog began at Buttermere with a 3 mile walk along Buttermere lake and the valley before a steep climb up to Hay Stacks.  As often happens, the path became less than clear and I found myself scrambling up a gully before working my way round to the summit with spectacular views on all sides.

The photo above shows the end of Buttermere lake with Fleetwith Pike (648m) rising in the foreground.  Haystacks is slightly off the right of the photo. 

Here I am on the summit of Hay Stacks with Buttermere lake and Crummock Water in the background.

Innominate Tarn with Great Gable two miles away in the background - the view looking SE from Haystacks.

The sun had just set, and this view from the west side of Buttermere lake on the return part of the walk was certainly worth a photo.

Day Three:  After yesterday's long walk, I decided it might be nice to do a spot of gliding, but the winds were light and SE which presented a challenge in finding somewhere suitable to fly.  Binsey hill (447m) near Bewaldeth, a few miles north of Bassenthwaite Lake is a recommended flight site, but the contours make this more of a slope for SW/ S winds.

Here's the wonderful view looking south from Binsey hill, with Bassenthwaite Lake three miles away and Skiddaw looming on the left of the picture.  I didn't fly there in the end as the wind was too light and unpredictable, but it was worth the climb for the view.

Back at base camp, this was the evening sky, looking west towards the Derwent Fells.

Day Four:  Another fantastic day of blue skies and perfect conditions.  This photo was taken while walking up Dodd (491m), which is a beautiful little mountain on the SW side of Skiddaw Forest, a few miles from Keswick.  It is surrounded by forest and has the most charming views from the top.

Derwent Water over Dodd Wood from the summit approach of Dodd.

 Panoramic photo of Bassenthwaite Lake from the summit of Dodd (3 miles NW of Keswick)

In the later afternoon it was definitely time to do some gliding.  So with the wind blowing from the ESE, a study of the maps suggested Souther Fell (522m) seven miles to the east of Dodd should give some superb slope soaring.

And here is the view from Souther Fell looking SE towards Great Mell Fell (537m), a little over 3 miles away.  My MULTIPLEX SOLIUS glider (2.2m wingspan ) had a great flight on one of the biggest slopes I have ever flown, as can be seen in these next two photos.  It was one heck of a climb up there, and in retrospect I think it might have been better to have given the east face of Latrigg a go instead, which although semi-forested on the lower slopes, can at least be reached by car with relative ease.

Slope soaring on Souther Fell looking across to Great Mell Fell.

Slope soaring on Souther Fell.

Here I am on the summit of Souther Fell; the final shot of the holiday.  It might look warm but it certainly wasn't!

Bwlch flying trip - June 2013

Bwlch lies midway between the Brecon Beacons and the Black Mountains in south Wales.  I'd heard that it was a particularly good place to fly with superb lift and parking near the flight site, so I thought I'd give it a go.  The actual recommended flight site is on the edge of a large bowl, a couple miles west of Treorchy. By chance, my trip just happened to coincide with the the National Slope Soaring Championships which turned out to be something of a mixed blessing; on the one hand it was interesting to see the pros flying their super-fast carbon fuselage gliders whistling through the air at astonishing speeds, while on the other hand it meant that I had to fly further along the bowl so as not to infringe their airspace.  Still, the weather made up for it, as did some phenomenal lift.  It was a fair distance to go to fly the slopes of Bwlch, but it was worth doing, and I camped there overnight.

Looking east from the flying bowl towards Treorchy.

Snowdonia trip - May 2013

This was an early spring trip to explore some of the mountainous area of northern Snowdonia.
We started at the well-known Pen-y-benglog site, where we had visited before when we climbed Tryfan five years previously, and then walked up to Carnedd Llewelyn (1064m) which is virtually the same height as Snowdon, before bearing east and arcing round to meet the A5.  It was a ten mile hike with great views, especially of Tryfan, setting off at noon and arriving back at the car just before sunset. We camped that night at the camp-site close to Lake Ogwen.

Facing south after first stage of climb.

Looking west with Anglesey in far distance.

Red line is the 10 mile route taken.

Skiing in Courchevel - Jan 2013

Courchevel 1550

Scotland trip - June 2012

Stac Pollaidh and Suilven - North West Highlands

This week long trip to Scotland can be divided into three main parts:

Part one:  Stac Pollaidh

Part two:  Suilven

Part three:  The Cairngorms

Stac Pollaidh (pronounced Stac Polly) is an iconic looking mountain in the Northwest Highlands which has a very rocky crest running along its skyline with many pinnacles and steep gullies.

We walked up the east side of it and then scrambled as far as we could, most of the way along the top.

What makes this mountain quite special are the views from the top of it looking across to Suilven, Canisp and Cul Mor.  Completely breath-taking, is the only way to describe it.

We then drove on to Lochinver where we wild camped for the night a little further up the coast, waking up to a glorious view of the mountains we had seen from Stac Pollaidh but from an entirely different perspective, which can be seen in the last photo of the initial series below.

Stac Pollaidh from the A835

Stac Pollaidh (612m)

Stac Pollaidh

Suilven from Stac Pollaidh

Suilven (left), Canisp (distance) and Cul Mor (right) from Stac Pollaidh

Suilven from Stac Pollaidh

Ben Mor Coigach from Stac Pollaidh

Suilven (and me) from Stac Pollaidh

Canisp, Suilven, Cul Mor, Cul Beag and Stac Pollaidh, from near Lochinver

Suilven

Suilven is one of the most distinctive mountains in Scotland.  Lying in a remote area in the west of Sutherland, it rises almost vertically from a wilderness landscape of moorland, bogs and lochans.
At 731m, it is not as big as some other mountains, but it is its striking appearance and remoteness that sets it apart.  It dominates the skyline from Lochinver and beckons those that fall under its spell to climb to its summit.  Climbing Suilven was our main reason for this Scottish holiday trip.

But we decided to take this a step further, as we thought it would be quite an interesting idea to wild camp overnight on the summit itself.  That way, not only would we be able to experience the magic of a night on Suilven, but it would also conveniently break the long trek up into two separate days walking instead of having to rush and cram the lengthy 18 mile trek into one day.

This aerial view photo of Suilven was one I found on the web.  I have included it here because it is a particularly nice shot of the mountain showing its iconic shape.

Suilven, not far from the start point, on the approach path from Lochinver.

On the remote, rounded summit of Suilven (731m)

Camping on Suilven summit.

Looking southwards from Suilven summit towards Stac Pollaidh (just right of centre)

Suilven from its summit cairn (facing east)

Suilven from near summit (facing east)

Looking westward along Suilven's ridge, nearly a mile from the summit.

Delightful little lambs seen on the long route back from Suilven

Achmelvich Bay (3 miles NW of Lochinver)

Canisp (left), Suilven (centre: 7 miles away) and Cul Mor (right) from Loch Roe

 Satellite view of our Suilven route (18 miles) facing SW

Satellite view of our Suilven route (18 miles) facing NW

The Cairngorms

After our Suilven adventure in the North West Highlands, we drove 120 miles south east across Scotland to the Cairngorm Mountains, the final stage of our Scotland adventure.

The plan was to do an epically long 15 mile circular route, walking up from the main ski centre car park to the summit of Cairn Gorm (1245m), then following the ridge along to Cairn Lochan (1215m) before traversing the Cairngorm plateau and summiting Ben Macdui (1309m - Scotland's second highest mountain); at this point we would be half way into our trek.
After a brief pause at the Ben Macdui trig point, we would then continue on to Shelter Stone and Loch Avon before an ambitiously steep climb up the Coire Raibeirt and back up to the summit of Cairn Gorm.

We had set off from the ski car park at noon and completed our circuit, getting back to the summit of Cairn Gorm just in time for a beautiful, orange sunset shortly before 10pm.
We then had the final descent of Cairn Gorm to do, and I'll never forget how the last mile of steps, down past the now silent Ptarmigan mountain restaurant to the car park, seemed to go on forever!

Exhausted, we were glad to get back to our wild camp spot at close to 11pm and make a nice hot dinner after one of the most gruelling non-stop hikes we had ever done.
The intention from the start had been to choose a long, tough, challenging route. We had wanted to push ourselves, mentally and physically, walking deep into the barren wilderness of the Cairngorms, always with the intention to be back by nightfall, and carrying everything we needed in the way of navigation equipment, head-torches, reserve food and clothing, to get us off the mountains, no matter what circumstances we might find ourselves in.

Perfect wild camping spot (a few miles SE of Aviemore) with the Cairngorm mountains in background.

Looking northwards from Cairn Gorm (1245m) over Loch Morlich and Glenmore Forrest Park.

In the foreground is the Ptarmigan restaurant.

SE view from near Cairn Gorm

The north end of the Lairig Ghru

Approaching the summit of Cairn Gorm once again, after our epically long 11 hour hike.

Sunset from summit of Cairn Gorm at 9.46pm

 Satellite view of the 15 mile route (facing south)

Satellite view of the 15 mile route (facing NW)

As a poignant historical note to add to this account, it is worth remembering that circumstances were very different back on the 20th November 1971 for the party of Scottish school children and their mountain leader who took the same route as us (as far as Lochan Buidhe on the Cairngorm plateau).

They had also set off from the same car park, at the same time as us, but they had taken the chair lift up to the Ptarmigan restaurant instead of walking up because they were already behind schedule. Their intention had been to reach the Corrour Bothy at the lower end of the Lairig Ghru where they were to bivouac for the night.  They were last seen heading in the direction of Cairn Lochan in deterioting weather, about to walk into one of the worst blizzards in living memory.

What followed next was tragic; the group had to abandon any hope of reaching the Corrour Bothy, and they decided instead to stop overnight at the nearer Curran Bothy near the Lochan Buidhe, but the bothy was actually buried under several feet of snow and, unable to find it, totally disorientated by the blizzard, the party dug into the snow for the night, huddled together in their sleeping bags, singing songs to try and keep their spirits up.

However, the storm did not relent the next day and the group found themselves spending a second night on the Cairngorm plateau in blizzard conditions.  Five girls and a boy died.  They were all aged 14 or 15.

There were only two survivors, one of whom was the female leader of the group who was in the advanced stages of hypothermia with frozen solid, severely frostbitten hands.  Although mentally confused she was just able to tell the mountain rescue helicopter that the rest of the group were buried in the snow near where she had been found.

In the course of our walk, we spent some time walking around the Feith Buidhe area on the plateau, trying to imagine what it must have been like to have been caught up there in a blizzard at night. There were large patches of snow still covering the ground here in June.  In late November the plateau would have been a formidable place to be.  Conditions here can quickly become arctic with winds reaching over 100mph.  One way off the plateau to escape a blizzard would be to descend the steep side of the Lairig Ghru, but that would be no easy task.

Many lessons were learnt following this disaster.  The bothy huts on the plateau were demolished because it was considered that they gave a false sense of security to those walking the mountains.  It also had a major effect on the way the Education system handled school trips thereafter.

It remains to this day, the worst mountaineering disaster in UK history.