Summit of Harrison Stickle
Our previous walking trip with Nigel had been hampered by poor weather, well that's North Wales for you! So a new schedule was put together, this time in the Lake District and its finest of valleys, Langdale.
As Nigel was booked in at The New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, we made a plan to walk from the door each day, and we succeeded.
Monday gave us glorious sunshine for much of the day. We took in all of the Langdale Pikes and included an ascent of Jacks Rake, so plenty of fun scrambling squeezed in to the day. We fly around this circuit in under 5 hours too, phew!
Tuesday brought more challenging weather, a good wake up for us. Very strong and bitterly cold winds saw us don hat & gloves early on. We had Bowfell in our sights and choose to go up The Band then on to the Climbers Traverse as far as The Great Spout. After a rest here it was onwards and upwards via the majestic Great Slab. After being sheltered from the wind below The Great Slab it was something of a blow (so to speak) being up on the summit of Bowfell and back in the full force of that North-Westerly!! A few other hardy walkers were out enjoying the day too.
We dropped down to Three Tarns then took a small path into Oxendale - a valley I'd never visited before - so we could visit Whorneyside Force and Crinkle Gill. This proved very worthwhile as the valley and Gills are all stunningly beautiful.
For our final day of walking this week the weather gods had turned against us somewhat. So we decided to turn this to our advantage and stay in the valleys to visit some amazing waterfalls. Again walking from The New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel we followed good tracks to Little Langdale and Cathedral Quarry, having an explore here before continuing to Colwith Force and Skelwith Force, both in full flow and most impressive. Our return route being via Elterwater and Chapel Stile then along the bottom of Langdale valley. Looking ahead to Stickle Ghyll in spate was very impressive. The power of nature is so great.
Tired legs and refreshed minds all round. Thanks Nigel.
Mark
As Nigel was booked in at The New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, we made a plan to walk from the door each day, and we succeeded.
Monday gave us glorious sunshine for much of the day. We took in all of the Langdale Pikes and included an ascent of Jacks Rake, so plenty of fun scrambling squeezed in to the day. We fly around this circuit in under 5 hours too, phew!
Tuesday brought more challenging weather, a good wake up for us. Very strong and bitterly cold winds saw us don hat & gloves early on. We had Bowfell in our sights and choose to go up The Band then on to the Climbers Traverse as far as The Great Spout. After a rest here it was onwards and upwards via the majestic Great Slab. After being sheltered from the wind below The Great Slab it was something of a blow (so to speak) being up on the summit of Bowfell and back in the full force of that North-Westerly!! A few other hardy walkers were out enjoying the day too.
We dropped down to Three Tarns then took a small path into Oxendale - a valley I'd never visited before - so we could visit Whorneyside Force and Crinkle Gill. This proved very worthwhile as the valley and Gills are all stunningly beautiful.
For our final day of walking this week the weather gods had turned against us somewhat. So we decided to turn this to our advantage and stay in the valleys to visit some amazing waterfalls. Again walking from The New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel we followed good tracks to Little Langdale and Cathedral Quarry, having an explore here before continuing to Colwith Force and Skelwith Force, both in full flow and most impressive. Our return route being via Elterwater and Chapel Stile then along the bottom of Langdale valley. Looking ahead to Stickle Ghyll in spate was very impressive. The power of nature is so great.
Tired legs and refreshed minds all round. Thanks Nigel.
Mark
Getting ready for Jacks Rake - a classic Lakeland scramble
Looking to The Great Slab and on to Langdale Pikes from the summit of Bowfell
Cathedral Quarry main chamber
Colwith Force in full flow
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