Thursday 3 September 2015

Lake District 2015

After the IRW rocket event, I went down to the Lake District for a couple of days walking in the hills.

On the first (half) day I did a quick trip to Aira Force, which is a bit touristy and famous, but it's somewhere I'd never been, despite going right past the car park several times on previous trips.


On day 2, I walked from the old sawmill almost by the edge of Bassenthwaite Lake (the only "lake" in the Lake District), up to the summit of Skiddaw.  The day started off beautifully, but then near the summit, rain showers would come and go. That meant that the last pitch up was basically in the rain cloud, and rather exposed.


Hmmm!  Shame there was no stunning view from the top of Skiddaw...


On day 3, I walked from Glenridding up past Greenside Mine (but on the other side of the river)...


Up to to Red Tarn, and from there took the side diversion to the summit of Catstycam...


Before tackling Swirral Edge (on the right) up to the summit of Helvellyn...


I had previously reached the summit of Helvellyn (from the YHA) by bike (OK, there was much carrying on the way up), via Raise, White Side, and Lower Man.

But this is looking back towards Catstycam and Ullswater from the top of Swirral Edge...


Did I really just climb up that?  It was more of a scramble than I had expected...


More pics on picasaweb/google+

Next time I shall try to reach the summit of Scafell Pike. I had pencilled that one in for this trip too, along with some other low level walks in case the weather was too bad, but there was not really enough time.