A small account and a few shots from our run out on the Lakeland Traverse in the Lake District, official stats were 38 miles and 13300ft of ascent. After running The Lakeland Traverse a few years back one early December I fancied another day out on the route before the year was out. The route takes in some of the Lake Districts lesser known peaks, a south to north high-level traverse of 21 Lakeland peaks involving some 35 miles and 12000 feet of ascent. Devised by Sue and Dick Courchee, it was first completed in 2005. It starts at Broughton Mills in Dunnerdale and finishes at the Moot Hall, Keswick, although it may be completed in either direction. As before we caught the first train at 5:59am and headed down to Foxfield some 90 minutes later. The route officially starts at the Black Smith Arms at Broughton Mills but due to catching the train and having no transport we had to run the 4-5 miles on the road before reaching the pub. A surprisingly mild morning we soon had to shed a few layers, clear skys in the south west were soon overshadowed by the gloomy dark heavy skies upon where we were heading. We werent out to break any records today, some times its nice to go slow in the mountains, it was more about trying to eat all the cake Chriss wife had made before we reached Keswick. In the first hour or so we had already taken in Great Stickle, Stickle Pike, Caw and climbed the steep slopes of White Maiden where our autumnal weather began to disintegrate, clear skys gave way to grey clouds, mist, snow and ice blasting winds. Navigation was still relatively straight forward over Brown Pike, Dow Crag and Old Man Coniston it was just the icy under foot conditions which made it difficult to stay upright mixed in with the blustery cross winds. Most of the snow had turned to slush apart from the odd drift. Up on to Swirl How and Great Carrs and we broke through the snow line, descending down wet side edge onto the top of Wrynose Pass where the sun broke out and wind dropped, it was just like a summers day. We crossed the road and made our way up the path towards Pike O Blisco, the same route the 3 Shires race takes before taking a left turn and making the wet boggy climb up to Cold Pike (which was aptly named). We climbed up into the cloud and once again into the white clag, underfoot the snow became deeper and the navigation trickier, every now and again your step would go a little deeper into the hollows below the snow where the snow had turned to freezing slush. It reminds you that a foot wrong in these conditions and your situation can quickly deteriorate without the right equipment. Rich and Nick navved us without any mishap round to Crinkle Crags and Bow Fell where the freezing fog gave way to patchy blue skies again. After a short climb to Esk Pike we dropped into Esk Hause, from here it was familiar territory and we could see Keswick in the distance. The next top is Great End, Ive never really understood why this top was included in the BGR and cant understand why its included in the Traverse, its a rocky boulder strewn top with little to no path made more difficult today because it was covered in snow, It seemed that every second step you took you managed to find a hole in-between the rough jagged rocks just big enough to scrape your foot through and break the skin on your ankle. Again the few hundred meters difference turned the weather from calm blue skies to cold blustery winds with visibility down to a few meters. We took a more direct route off the top and headed down joining the main path to Styhead Tarn. From here the route climbs Great Gable the longest climb of the day, we approached the summit as the light began to fade, the snow and ice made it difficult to descend so we opted to walk off down the main path, what we could see of it any ways. We reached windy gap and trudged up the rocky scree path on Green Gable which was shrouded in mist, from here we followed the Borrowdale race route taking in Brandreth, Grey Knotts and then down to Honister for a quick bite before the last leg into Keswick. By now the skies were clear, the wind dropped and the stars were out, there was just enough moon light to be able to run without head lights on, which was magical. We made our way up the lower slopes of Dalehead before contouring up and over to Dalehead Tarn, Highspy was the last climb of any significance closely followed by Maiden Moor, which is not much of a summit, more like a boggy plateau and this was only the second time Id visited the summit cairn. We followed the main path to the col , the last summit was probably one of the most visited summits in the Lakes, Catbells, this is evident as the path is one well worn, its easily accessible to anyone and quite often there are rescues for tourists whos ankles cant handle its steep slopes. We hit the summit all together, everyone was in high spirits as we talked about the food (beer) that wed soon be consuming. Down off Catbells the route follows a small trail leading us to Portinscale before a small road section over the swing bridge back into Keswick and Moot Hall, the recognised finish. Anyone fancying a good day out should definitely give it ago. Cheers, Chris & Peter and navigators Nick & Rich who know the fells like back of there hands 👍
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 20:42:59 +0000
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