Fightin Scared This is a true story of a walk in the Lake District that ended up a bit of a mess, but its also a story of life in the Lakes for me, its a long one, so well done if you decide to read it …........ Its approx 11am one Christmas Eve, my phone rings, its my friend...... Friend: Fancy getting a walk in today? Me: Yeah, there looks a good chance of a cloud inversion, maybe do Swirl How from off the Wrynose Pass see if we can get above the clouds? Friend: Yeah okay, see you in a bit Me: Okay, bye The Wrynose Pass is a familiar road to motorists who mainly use it to cross from one side of the Lake District to the other, like most passes its fairly steep and can be dangerous in winter conditions. There is space to park a few cars at the top of the pass which makes it an ideal starting point for the surrounding hills. I reckoned it would be fairly late in the afternoon when we got on the Pass so I wasnt intending to do a long walk, just get as far as we could but allow enough time to get down before dark, rushing about I grabbed all my camera gear and set off. We arrived on the pass, unusually there were no other cars parked there and nobody else was about, the obvious reason was because it was Christmas Eve. It was very quiet as we shouldered our backpacks then found the start of the path. And it wasnt long before we were completely surrounded by swirling cloud, the air became damp and very cold, and you couldnt see no more than 30 feet all around, there were bits of snow and ice trapped between rocks on the ground and I noticed a frost starting to appear, considering this was winter though I knew that conditions could have been ten times worse, especially underfoot, the path overall was ice free but very wet as it zigzagged its way up the steeper parts of the hillside, apart from the visibility there was nothing dangerous about this first section of path, most of the that would appear further up on the crest of the ridge (Wet Side Edge), however there was a couple of sections where the path disappeared across boggy ground and boot soles and scuff marks in the rocks were the only obvious signs of the next part of the path...…..we got higher and it gradually started getting lighter, you could sense something was about to change, the sun was burning through the cloud...... Then all of a sudden we broke out of the clouds, and the transition was amazing, it looked and felt like a summers day, the sky was clear and the sun was out, all around and below was a sea of thick white billowy clouds, the clouds were moving down the Wrynose Pass like a gigantic waterfall, and into the distance as far as the eyes could see the tops of the hills rose above the clouds giving the whole scene the look of something from the Jurassic Age. I was mesmerised. It was beautifully stunning. My thoughts quickly turned to photography and I decided that there was too much going on for one shot even with a wide angle lens, a panorama though would be perfect, I set up all my camera gear and ended up shooting six overlapping shots consisting of all the hills on the other side of the pass, the most prominent hills being Cold Pike, Pike O Blisco and Crinkle Crags. I then packed my gear and we carried on walking up, after a while we were well along the ridge with vertical drops down to Greenburn on our left, meanwhile the sun was getting quite close to the horizon, which meant we didnt have long before we needed to turn back. Time was virtually up and we hadnt quite reached the top of Swirl How but I wasnt too bothered because I had already done it before and what we was seeing all around us more than made up for that. I reckoned on one more shot before heading back, and while I was looking around for a suitable composition my friend said he would walk just a bit further up the path for a different view. Eventually I found a great spot looking right over the clouds with the setting sun on my left, however the sun was sinking fast and thus all the light with it so I needed to be quick, I had virtually setup all my camera gear but couldnt find my filters! Damn, where the hell are they? I searched everywhere but nothing, then I realised that my friend had offered to carry them when I was packing up lower down! I shouted him, hoping he wasnt too far away, I really didnt want to miss this shot. Eventually he heard me and walked over to where I was, I mentioned the filters and the fact that I couldnt take the photo without them and I needed to take it now, after passing me the filters he took it the wrong way and then completely surprised me by saying he was going down! I knew it was a bad move because you should never ever split in the hills unless you really need to, for example an emergency, however there wasnt much I could do because all my camera gear was already setup, anyway I took the photo as quick as I could, packed up and set off down. After a while I could see the edge of the clouds, then my friend who was now disappearing into them, he must have heard me coming down because I heard him say Which is the right way?, he was lost, I finally caught up with him and at the same time realised we were quickly running out of daylight. Unfortunately wed been enjoying the views out over the clouds that much that we had completely lost track of the time. Wed now reached one of the boggy sections where the path ran out, and what we should have done here is found all the paths branching off, however, bear in mind, the visibility was dire, its thick cloud and darkness is upon us, and neither of us had brought a map and compass or even better a GPS.... we had to make a choice. My friend noticed a path, and at first it looked like it was going in the right direction, thats gotta be it, lets go for it I thought, we set off, but after about five minutes the path disappeared and i sensed something was wrong, I suddenly stopped and said This isnt the way we came up ! my friend looked bemused. On our right big swirls of cloud were rising up very quickly which meant there had to be steep crags there and on our left were big boulders, I reckoned wed drifted right next to the edge of the ridge and that if we carried on we would put ourselves in danger, and the last thing I wanted was for us to get cragfast in the dark, my friend said So what are we gonna do?, I said The path must be on our left over there, and we need to find it. By now the conditions on the ground had dramatically changed, a thin layer of ice covered every rock and boulder and it was virtually impossible to stand on one without slipping. This meant we had to find a way around every boulder to continue the search, and they were everywhere! My friend slipped a couple of times and was finding it very difficult and I was worried he may hurt himself. I got back to him and he said F*****g hell, this is a waste of time! What should we do? Call in Mountain Rescue? I said No, weve got to at least try and find the path first, because if we do find it well be alright, stay here and ill go and have a look around. We now had to use our torches and even with them on you couldnt see no more than 20 feet. I looked here there and everywhere but nothing, it really was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Inside I was fuming with myself for ending up in this position, and the fact that I hadnt brought a map and my GPS, if I had then I could have gotten us back on track in less than half an hour, but now was not the time, I tried to calm down so I could at least think about our options..... (A) Go back up and try to get out of the cloud which may help us find the path, then follow it down? Well wed definitely need torch light each to do that, what light did we have? Well I had a mini maglite, it wasnt very bright but with fresh batteries I knew from all the years id used it that it would last a few hours, so that was okay, my friend had an LED torch which was a lot brighter than mine, however its downside is the batteries didnt last long, I estimated about 30 minutes, maybe slightly longer, but certainly not long enough to go back up, search for the path and then come back down, damn it, (B) Force our way down over the icy rocks? Very dangerous in the dark and cloud, we wouldnt be able to see any steep sections before it was too late and if my friend did hurt himself there was no way of me carrying him down, (C ) Hold out through the night until it got light? I reckoned we were both strong enough to see it through but I didnt think my friend would be too happy about it. A long shot then. My friend kept shouting to ask if I had found the path and I could tell he was panicking. Everybody reacts differently in a situation like this and its impossible to know what that reaction will be until your in it, my friend and I had done many many hill walks over the previous year including some long ones such as Scafell Pike via the Corridor Route, but this was unexpected and it hit him like a ton of bricks. What he didnt know is that I would never abandon anyone in the hills, never. So it was catch 22 for me, I knew that the path was our safe way off here, yet I couldnt go out too far to look for it without the risk of losing sight of and contact with my friend. I got back to him and he asked Did you find anything? I said Not a thing, I cant see f**k all in this cloud he said Shit !, I dont f*****g believe this, what are we gonna do now? Should we call Mountain Rescue? I asked Have you got a signal? he checked his mobile and then said Yes I said Okay, but it will be hours before they come out and even then there is no guarantee that they will find us, do you still want me to call them? he said Yes Me: Okay, Ill call them in, but once I do we need to stay where we are, the last thing we need is a load of people up here risking their own lives who cant find us because we are moving about Friend: Alright The time was approx 5:30pm My friend passed me his mobile phone and I dialled 999 and asked for Mountain Rescue. I was asked for my name, who was with me, our general location and the mobile phone number and then told to standby for a call back. (From now on I will refer to the Mountain Rescue Team as MRT). All we could do now is wait. After what seemed like ages the mobile phone rang, it was a member of the MRT ….. MRT: Is that Neil? Me: Yes MRT: Can you give me some details about your situation? Me: Yeah, sure MRT: How many of you are there? Me: Just me and a friend MRT: Do you have warm clothing? Me: We each have Paramo waterproof jackets on, but thats all, we dont have any other winter gear on or with us MRT: Can you give me an idea of where you are? Me: We were coming off of Swirl How towards the Wrynose Pass There was a pause then... MRT: Can you remember passing the wreckage of a plane? Me: No, we didnt see any wreckage He was referring to an aircraft that crashed at the top of Great Carrs (near Swirl How) during WWII. I knew he was thinking that if we saw it then it would have given him a rough idea of our present location. MRT: Do you have a map or compass? Me: No, no map, no compass and no GPS MRT: Have you tried getting down? Me: Yes, many times, but there are big boulders all around us covered in thin ice, my friend has no grip and neither have I, the ground is also steep, our torches are pretty useless and we cannot see very far in the cloud and darkness. MRT: Thanks, keep the mobile switched on Me: Okay, thanks I knew it was going to get a lot colder while we was waiting so I said to my friend that we need to put our hoods on to preserve body heat, neither of us ever wore or carried woolen hats, and I only ever put my hood on if its pissing down, snowing or very cold. Our hoods were now up. Being in a cold, dark and lonely place though was nothing new to me. Id trained for it many years before because I knew it was inevitable. I learned to mentally and sometimes physically force myself into cold dark lonely places. Some of this training was just physical, it had to be, but most of it was a battle with the mind. It was a dangerous game because even though it was helping me now I never knew if it would come back to haunt me later on in life. Meanwhile we decided not to use our torches unless absolutely necessary to save the batteries. There were no lights in the distance and no sounds to be heard, and you could just make out the odd rock and boulder on the ground, apart from that, total darkness. My thoughts were interrupted by a beeping noise. Me: What the hells that beeping noise? Oh no, dont tell me the .... My friend grabbed the mobile phone out of his jacket pocket and looked at it with disbelief. Friend: Oh shit, the batterys running low ! Me: You are joking me? I couldnt believe it, here we were stuck in the middle of nowhere and our only way of getting help was about to die as well. My hatred of mobile phones had just gone a notch higher. At the same time we both realised that all we could do now was try to keep the phone as warm as possible and hope the battery would last. It meant though that we now couldnt call anyone to tell them we would be late, although only my friends sister knew we was out on the hills, however she didnt know which hills. To relieve the waiting i started remembering past days on the hills, memories were crystal clear........... 2800 feet up on top of Crinkle Crags for the first time with another friend, he’s away off in front then all of a sudden he disappears! I rushed over to the location where I last saw him, looks down and says ‘What the hell !’. I’m standing on the edge of vertical rock which was only about 15 feet high, but took me completely by surprise, and theres my friend stood at the bottom looking up and saying its dead easy! Now I know why he always wore trainers instead of boots like me. With a big smile I says ‘Well you know I ain’t no f*****g rock climber!’. I eventually clambered down, dusts myself off and then came across a couple of other walkers who had somehow gotten in front of us, one of them turned around smiling and said ‘So, did you enjoy your climb down the Bad Step?’ I said ‘Yeah, piece of cake, how about you?’ He replied ‘We didn’t bother, we decided to use the path over there which allows you to go around it’, I looked at my friend who having over heard our conversation now had a big grin on his face and laughing I shouts ‘You Bastard!’ I sort of got him back not long after.....cos he preferred fell running to walking he always went walking in shorts with white socks and trainers, so there we were coming off of Red Screes towards Ambleside, he was in front, next thing one of his feet went straight into a peat bog, well he pulled his foot out and one of his white socks had turned completely black ! When I saw it I literally fell over in stitches with laughter, and all the way up the road back to the Kirkstone Inn every time I saw his odd socks I tried very hard to hide my amusement but he would turn around with a grin and say Whats up with yer? and Id say Nowt mate, why? then Id either burst out laughing or shout Gang way, its Long John F*****g Black Leg !! Not long after that it was my birthday, I remember cos my boss was away, bad move for him, perfect for me, my friend phoned where he worked and said his car had broke down, we were laughing all the way as we took on the Kentmere Horseshoe, we rolled off the hills one by one...... Shipman Knotts, Kentmere Pike, Harter Fell, Mardale Ill Bell, High Street, Thornthwaite Crag, Froswick, Ill Bell and Yoke. Endless views, endless days. Unfortunately my friends days in the Lakes were numbered cos not long after he had to move to Lincolnshire. Another flashback, this time on Hall’s Fell Ridge, Blencathra, we’ve just reached an apex in the ridge where it literally narrows to a knife edge of rock with over a thousand foot drop on both sides, since I was in front it was up-to me to find a way across it, I was carrying all my camera gear which meant my balance was always a bit dodgy so I decided that the safest bet was to straddle it. We also had with us my friends dog, only about 1 year old and a tiny Cairn Terrier called Lucy, having watched her grow up amongst the hills I admired her fighting spirit to stick with it, she loved it though, where ever we went she would race up and down like a little mountain goat making it look all so easy. I waited for my friend to clamber over the rock the same way I had and then looked around for Lucy, but there was no sign of her, ‘Where’s Lucy?’ I said, my friend looked around and back down and then said ‘I don’t know’, we couldn’t see much of the ground around us because it was so steep, I wondered whether she had gone back down because she couldn’t get over the sharp section of rock, but no she would never do that, my friend started to panic, and then my heart sank as I feared the worse ‘Lucy !, Lucy !’ we shouted but nothing, again we called her name, but still no sign. I finally looked up towards the route ahead thinking that there was no way she could have gotten around that steep ground, but there she was sitting pretty on a rock, looking down at us and panting heavily with her tongue hanging out! Friend: I wonder what everyones doin out there? Me: Probably wrapping their Christmas presents and cooking their turkeys for tomorrow! Every now and again we would suddenly go quiet thinking we could here a vehicle, but it always seemed very far away and then the sound would slowly fizzle out then just stop. And when it did stop and it all went quiet again it was always a kick in the teeth for our morale. I smoked my last cigarette and then we got another call on the mobile from the MRT who wanted to know some more details, I told them that the battery in the phone was running low and I wasnt sure how long it would last. They told us to try and keep the mobile phone warm. We could only hope now that the battery would last. In 10 years id had to move 7 times for one reason or another to stay in the Lake District, I hated all that because I just wanted one thing, to be out. I often got to thinking what the Lake District really meant to me, I never have found the answer but certain things I was sure about. I knew it was a place I could love and a place I could die happy, but more than that, for the first time in my life I got rid of that feeling of not belonging, in other words it felt like home. Fleetwith Pike is the prominent hill standing at one end of the lovely lake at Buttermere, just over 2000 feet high, its seen in nearly every photo of the lake, were on our way to the top via the ridge from Gatesgarth, 1750 feet spread just over 1 mile …..its a lovely clear summers day but hot, and Im shifting, the sweats pouring off me and my tops now off, Im playing games with Lucy my friends dog, trying to beat her, but I havent got a chance, shes up and down the ridge between me and my friend then sort of laughing as she runs on ahead....eventually me and Lucy arrive near the top virtually together just as a middle aged couple were starting to descend, I stopped to say hello and they asked Whos the fittest, you or the dog? laughing I said The dog of course!. We rested on the top and not long after my friend arrived, he said he had stopped for a short while to have a chat with the couple on their way down, they told him that I must be fit to have reached the top that quick, his reply Not sure about that, I think he must have a rocket stuck up his arse !! The mobile phone rang. MRT: Neil, weve got two teams out, one came up from Coniston and the other from the Wrynose Pass Me: Thats great MRT: To help us find you, can you start shouting and switch your torches on? Me: Okay, will do, thanks I told my friend what he had said and every now and again we shouted Over here! and flashed our torches on and off then stopped to listen for any replies or see if we could see any sign of them, we did this for a while, but nothing. Friend: What if they cant find us? I dont wanna die up here Me: No f*****g way are we gonna die here, if they cant find us then well just go for it ourselves, okay? The sub zero temperature was getting to us now, and the cold takes no prisoners, it starts with your feet and like a never ending spiral it gradually works its way up your body, and you know its bad because youve been trying to hold it off but eventually you start to shake and theres nothing you can do. The mobile phone rang. MRT: Neil we cant find you in the clouds, is there any way you can climb up? Me: Sure, we can give it a try I told my friend that they couldnt find us and we need to try and get out of the cloud, we quickly grabbed our backpacks switched on our torches and started going up. I was very glad to be moving and positively doing something to get out of this mess. And upwards we moved through the cloud and darkness. Eventually we broke out of the cloud and the first thing I saw was a beautiful clear sky filled with thousands of twinkling little stars, id never ever seen so many before. The gods were with us, or were they just playing games. All of a sudden my friends torch completely died.....here we go, what next I thought..... sure, id anticipated this happening earlier on, but it certainly didnt help because we now only had one light, mine, I said to my friend Dont stray too far, the last thing we wanna do now is split up in the dark, he agreed and we carried on walking up, but still we didnt hear a sound or see any lights, onwards we went, but still nothing. And then out of nowhere a faint flicker of light, I turned around to my friend and pointing I said Over there, a light, thats gotta be them We shouted but wasnt sure if we got a reply, we rushed over because we noticed the light now going in the opposite direction, we shouted again and this time they must have heard, because they turned around, and eventually we reached them, the light we saw was the headtorch of a member of MRT, he said Is that Neil? we both replied Yes, its us he then shouted They are over here, ive found them ! And in the space of a few minutes headtorches appeared from everywhere, it suddenly looked like a scene from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. I wasnt sure how the MRT members were going to react to having to come out for us, after all it was now nearly Christmas Day! They actually turned out to be a great bunch and in one way they were just like us in that they loved being out on the hills, they asked if we was warm enough and if we had torches for on the way down, the batteries on my friends torch had gone so one of the team members borrowed him a torch. And at one point I noticed a couple of them struggling to get a compass bearing to the start of the path down, in for a penny in for a pound I thought and with a big smile I says Should we call Mountain Rescue? they turned around and laughed and one replied Yeah, as long as its not the ????? team because we dont get on with them I laughed and said Oh right, sure, no problem, ill bear that in mind They are unique in that they are prepared to come out on the hills, in all weathers, day or night to help people. And for the first time i wanted to be one of them. They located the path and we all set off down, on the way down we thanked a team member for coming out and he said Its okay, it got me out of preparing the Christmas dinner anyway and we laughed. After a while I lost sight of my friend but hazard a guess where he would be, I looked around for the only female member of the MRT and sure enough like a bull in a china shop there he was chatting away and practically tripping her up! I chuckled to myself, leave him to it I thought, because I dont think he realises that most stories are supposed to end with the lady being rescued not the other way around ! Time approx 10:30pm Eventually we arrived on the pass, we thanked everyone again and said our goodbyes, we walked over to my friends car and couldnt help noticing that the radio aerial now had a 3cm thick rime of ice going all the way down it. A testament if anything of how cold it had been up there. Many thanks to the Coniston and Dunnerdale MRTs :-) The panorama was taken during that evening and is looking across the Wrynose Pass in the Lake District during that fabulous cloud inversion .... this is a panorama of approx 6 images so your never gonna see the true detail here, the original is 25709 x 2792 pixels and the filesize is 672mb !! Easily big enough to cover the whole of any ones living room wall :-) The other photo is just one section of the panorama to show the detail :-) I also previously uploaded a photo looking across the clouds when the sun was setting :-)
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 18:39:25 +0000
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