213 down, 1 to go

odell_rd3
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213 down, 1 to go
213 down, 1 to go

Over a number of years I had gradually worked my way through (up!) the "Wainwrights" - the 214 Lakeland mountain peaks described in great detail by Alfred Wainwright in his 7 hand-written, illustrated guide books first published between 1955 and 1966.
This was my penultimate Wainwright, the un-prepossessing summit of Birks with its tiny cairn. The long ridge-line of the 214th and final peak of St. Sunday Crag is to the left of my son's head.
The inclusion of Stephen is very appropriate since he was my companion for over 150 of the summits, and it's fair to say that I'm unlikely to have done them all had he not been willing and able to join his ageing old man on so many occasions!
Although the weather here looks perfect, it was very windy, however within the next 15 mins or so all would change. Looking at the times of my photos, none were taken between this one at 11.37 and the next at 14.21, when we were well on our way down. My camera stayed tucked up in a drybag in my rucksack as wave after wave of rain swept through.
Stephen did mark our extremely brief sojourn on the summit of St. Sunday Crag with a shot on his phone (and very thoughtfully produced a celebratory bottle of Wainwright beer, which sadly remained undrunk as there was nowhere to escape the gale-force wind!)......
We were thankful for good kit which kept us dry and warm (the temperature on the summit at 841m/2756ft was not far above freezing - and it was blowing a gale into the bargain). Thus we abandoned our initial plan to make our way onto the Helvellyn ridge and then descend via Swirral Edge as this would have been a very exposed and dangerous descent in such windy and wet conditions. Instead we dropped down to Grizedale Tarn and walked out along the beck. As Edmund Hilary and more recently, Ed Viesturs, have said (admittedly about climbing infinitely higher stuff!) "Reaching the summit is optional, getting down is mandatory.”

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Taken on: October 3, 2017
Tags: Everybody's photos tagged with Birks Birks Everybody's photos tagged with St. Sunday Crag St. Sunday Crag Everybody's photos tagged with Lake District Lake District more » Everybody's photos tagged with Wainwright Wainwright Everybody's photos tagged with son son « less
Sets appears in:   • Lake District   
Camera: Nikon D5300, f/8.0, 1/400 sec, 18mm (=27mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Nikon D5300
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure Time: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Focal Length: 18mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm)
ISO: 100
Exposure Bias: -1/3 EV
Flash: No Flash
Exposure Program: Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode: Auto
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
White Balance: Manual
Light Source: Shade
Scene Capture Type: Landscape
Color Space: sRGB
Software: Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 Windows
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Stats: 15 views