Lake District May 2014 - Great Gable

We went up to the Lake District for a walking weekend in May, only our third trip in three years. I was hoping for decent weather but the forecast was appalling, it had rained hard in Huddersfield for 48 hours and was going to carry on. I checked the radar picture and it was fine north of Manchester – and it was! It was a different world, the roads were dry and more importantly so were the fells. The weather held fair all weekend, raining overnight, it did put us off doing a big walk one morning as it was still raining at breakfast time and the cloud was very low. There was a time of day that we would just have gone regardless, now I want a view from the top – I’m getting choosy.

On Saturday we drove up to Honister and Parked at the Quarry. There was a Foden Alpha loading at the side of the car park so that was the first stop, a few photos and a chat with the driver, 20 minutes later Jayne came back looking for me having set off without me. It will be an interesting drive up to the quarry in a 44 tonner I would think, a bank holiday weekend as well. We headed up the quarry road and then across to Brandreth, Green Gable, had a good wander around the top of Great Gable, taking in the best viewpoints all the way around. A holiday weekend and for a while we had Gable to ourselves, very unusual. We dropped over the top down to Beck Head and back under Gable Crag, over Brandreth again and on to Grey Knotts heading straight down the fell to the car park, back at the car for 1.00pm – Brysons tearoom in Keswick next stop for coffee and toasted plum bread. Gable is a fantastic top with some of the best views in the Lake District – on a clear day!

On Sunday, after some overnight rain – in places – we again headed to Keswick, then up to Braithwaite, the Coledale Horseshoe beckoned, with a couple of extras at the end for good measure. It’s a long slog up Grisedale Pike but it kills a large chunk of the days climbing at one go. Again the fells were very quiet, I think that the appalling weather in the rest of the country – and the atrocious forecasts, put a lot of people off. Only at the end of the walk did we meet people heading up – as we were done for the day – on the fells! The Coledale is another cracking walk, Hopegill Head, Eel Crag, Sail, Scar Crag and Causey Pike. The light was fair for photography, not fantastic. On Causey Pike we did a U turn and headed back to Outerside and Barrow, just to add a couple of extra tops on and put us in a better place for the walk back to the car. Again we were off the tops in good time with the afternoon to ourselves.

Driving up to Keswick on the Monday the cloud from overnight rain was hanging low so we resorted to plan B – Idleness! We parked at Rosthwaite and set off to explore Borrowdale on foot, including a trip up Castle Crag. For ten Minutes the light was brilliant I was chomping at the bit to get down along the riverside, we don’t normally stay low so it was a pleasant change. The cloud rolled over, thick and grey, blotting the sun out and that was more or less that. We yomped up Castle Crag with moaning kids and wives dotted about puffing and gasping. At least it was fine, calm and warm.
Most of the photos were taken with the little EOS M – with its touch screen! The problem with this very responsive touch screen is that it can’t be locked, only switched off. I carry the camera on a wrist strap in my hand and every time I touch the screen a setting gets altered without check or warning. When I got the photos on screen at home I realised that there was a problem, the camera had switched from Raw + large files to smaller Jpegs, not quite a disaster but close, the photos weren’t great and were salvageable, still being as good as the output from an older digital camera – a lesson learnt – I hope!

To see more information about the 130 year history of J B Schofield and Sons, including their transport and 33 years gritting in the Pennines look here www.jbschofieldandsons.co.uk/

Taken on: May 24, 2014

Tags:

Lake District

CUMBRIA

English Lakes

ENGLAND

Fells

FELLWALKING

Mountains

HILLS

CRAGS

Honister

PASS

DUBS

GREY KNOTTS

Great Gable

GREEN GABLE

BECK

HEAD

Brandreth

Borrowdale « less

Sets appears in: • Lake District May 2014

Camera: Canon EOS M, f/4.0, 1/800 sec, 18mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS M
Lens:	EF-M18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM
Aperture:	f/4.0
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/800)
Focal Length:	18mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
Show full info

Stats: 593 views