Archive for the 'Great Escapes' Category

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Posted by on January 4th 2010 in Great Escapes, Rambling on...
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I've been thinking of the impending trip up to the Lakes for me and Ella to do some more winter-walking. In particular, I've been considering the financial costs of the "green option" - leaving the car at home and using public transport instead. There's a bit of maths involved but it's not too arduous...

 

By car: The "there-and-back" trip is usually 400 miles or thereabouts, depending on exactly where in Cumbria we head for. Suffice to say that I've never failed to get there, get around and get back home on one full tank of petrol, and usually there's some to spare. The cost of this is variable due to fluctuating fuel prices, but right now we're talking £55 tops. Factor in insurance and servicing costs and we'll call it £60. For this princely sum we can leave here after school on a Friday and return at any time on a Sunday, which means that we can fit in another half-day or full-day walk. Oh, and we also get the flexibility of travelling wherever and whenever while we're there. Food-stops, toilet-stops and fag-stops are taken as required, not as scheduled. The main journey time is about 4 hours each way.

 

By National Express coach: Tickets for the two of us to travel from Coventry to Windermere and back will cost £72.65, not too much more than the car option until other elements are factored in, elements such as 2x transport between home and Coventry, 2x transport between Windermere and destination, and probably transport between destination and walk start/end. Altogether it'll top £100. The main journey times are 6hrs 17mins out, 6 hrs 30 mins back. The outward journey starts at 12:40 on Friday which means a half-day of school must be missed, and the return starts at 08:55 which means no walking on the Sunday. Oh, and I don't get to play The Cure, The Blues Brothers, The Macc Lads, the B52s, The Sex Pistols or Beethoven's Pastoral at window-rattling levels either. Not good.

It doesn't help that I've had bad experiences with National Express, the worst one being on a return journey from Snowdonia. The coach stopped at Oswestry Station to set-down and pick-up. We asked the driver if we had time to nip off and go to the station toilets, he said we had fifteen minutes. We were back in five but he'd pissed off and taken his coach, his passengers and all of our gear with him. We had to pay again to get back to Brum by alternative means and pay some more to get our gear out of the "Lost Property" vault at Digbeth Station. What we didn't get was an apology, and we didn't get a refund. Arseholes.

 

By Train: Nuneaton to Windermere and back will cost us an incredible £98.55 and there are still the same getting-about costs to be added on as per the coach option, so we're looking at £125 minimum. Times are a bit more flexible and it is possible to do an after-school outward journey, but there's still no realistic chance of getting in a decent walk on the Sunday. Journey-times are just under 4 hours each way, and each trip has at least two changes of train, which means much potential for missed connections. It's hassle we just don't need. There is good news, though - there's no need to get off to use the loo!

 

So, we're talking more money for more hassle, less pleasure, more time and more chances of it going tits-up. If I'm going to spend that sort of cash on a weekend away, we might as well fly somewhere more, err, um, exotic. I can get two tickets to Zurich and back and a free taxi to and from the airport this end, all for less than £98.55, or there's East Midlands to Cork - two returns for less than £94 with more-or-less guaranteed free pickup, transport and digs over there from my uncle and aunt.

No, I think we'll stick with the car. It's the only working public transport system in this country. It covers almost any route at almost any time, and it'll do detours if necessary. It's made for going where you point it.

We'll point it northwards sometime soon.

Returning to the scene of the crime

Posted by on December 5th 2009 in Great Escapes, Pics
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Had a great day out on Wednesday.

In the afternoon I introduced Ella to the Guild of Students and to the campus of The University of Birmingham, including a good look around the Great Hall in the Aston Webb Building:

 

 

 

 

In the evening we attended The Shell University Lecture in the Earth Sciences Department. The speaker was Dr Tina van de Flierdt (lecturer in Isotope Geochemistry at the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London) and the topic was "Reconstructing the History of the Antarctic Ice Sheet: Clues from the past for the future". If you have an interest in such things, the lecture can be experienced online here.

I met a few staff that were there during my undergrad days, and Ella studied the specimens* on display in The Lapworth Museum of Geology. My thanks go to the Curator, Jon Clatworthy, for the guided tour of the recently refurbished and modernised Petrology Lab, and for the pre- and post-lecture refreshments.

Afterwards, we went for another walk around the campus:

 

 

 

 

 

* undergrad lads as well as old fossils 😆

Guess where we went today

Posted by on December 2nd 2009 in Great Escapes, Pics
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We need a go, no-go for launch

Posted by on November 30th 2009 in Fundraising Folk, Great Escapes, In the News, Lakes Escapes, Weather

There's snow on them there Cumbrian Fells and the winter gear's prepped and ready for the off when the opportunity arises.

But there's a dilemma. Something twisting in my mind that I've got to get straightened out before I can commit to another visit...

During the current post-flooding clean-up and repair operation, would my going be a drain on the resources of the area or would it help to contribute to the local economy?

Just getting there could be a strain on the transport infrastructure, what with the trashed roads and unsafe bridges that are the focus of repair gangs and the Army. I'd planned to stay at one of the YHA hostels and maybe eat and drink out, but I can't see that much of the spend would benefit those who are in most need. Besides, I'm sure that the LDSAMRA would have better things to do than to chug up a hill to stretcher me down if the need arose. They're all volunteers from the local community, they've been involved as rescuers during the recent disaster and no doubt they all know somebody who's suffered because of the deluge. I don't want to be a potential distraction while they deal with the aftermath of the floods.

Maybe the best thing for me to do is to stay away for a while and let them concentrate on getting the basics sorted out. In the meantime, a contribution to the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund via The Cumbria Community Foundation website or to the Cumbria Flood Appeal 2009 via The Wainwright Society's website would seem to be the best way to ensure that help gets to the folk that need it. John Hee recommends supporting MREW's Basecamp, more details here.

The people and places of Cumbria have given me much joy over the many years that I've been going there.

It's time to give something back.

Doing a one-eighty-one?

Posted by on November 20th 2009 in Great Escapes, Health, or lack thereof, Lakes Escapes, YHA
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I'd had an early night so I was awake well before breakfast. I got up and looked out of the window - good, it wasn't raining. Grabbing the map, I mulled over the options for a three-hour walk... Rosthwaite Fell was just over the road, I've never been up there so it seemed ideal. The hostel warden had said it was OK to leave the motor in their car-park after checking out as long as it wasn't an overnight thing, so there was no need to drive-and-hike.

After washing and dressing I got the pack ready and headed for the stairs down to the kitchen, being in need of a cuppa before breakfast, but there was a problem. I'd been walking about just fine on the flat, but the knee that I twisted the day before while descending the Lining Crag cascade just didn't want to go down any steps - it was most peculiar and most painful, although there was no visible damage. After I'd hobbled down, it was fine on the flat again, and after another good three-course hostel breakfast I went back upstairs to the dorm and all seemed OK, so I collected my gear to take it out to the car. Yes, you guessed it - the stairs beat it again.

So that was the day scuppered. Going up and along would be OK, but descending would be a nightmare and I didn't want to risk making things worse.  Ibuprofen would kill the pain but it wouldn't make the knee work, so I packed the car, said my goodbyes and started headed home, just as the heavens opened again. I was annoyed to the point of distraction, and didn't even yield to the temptations of the Ambleside gear-shops.

Suffice to say that it's all fixed now - just a couple of days of rest and the knee seems to be fighting-fit again. Even so, I'll give it a couple of weeks before I take it to the fells, just to be sure that all's well.

One-eighty-one can wait for a bit longer. How much longer depends on my injury/Wainwright ratio, which has been pretty dire this year.

Hopefully the season will end with some decent winter-walking - I can't remember ever falling or slipping in frozen conditions.

Doing a one-eighty

Posted by on November 18th 2009 in Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes, YHA
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The usual battle on the M6 didn't happen - the drive up was a sedate and rainless affair, mainly due to those excellent "average speed" cameras set up along the many miles of carriageway-widening scheme works which aims to provide us with four lanes each way by first cutting us down to two. Borrowdale YHA was reached at a reasonable time, and I got the pick of the bunks in the dorm - needless to say, I nabbed the one by the radiator. While I was sorting the gear the rain started and became so strong that I decided to stay in the hostel for the evening meal instead of paddling to the nearest bar. This turned out to be a shrewd move, as the three-course hostel fare was excellent, the lamb hot-pot being the best I've had for a long time.

After an evening of chilling and route-planning, I'd decided that the objective for Saturday would be Ullscarf via Greenup Edge, with the option of doing a one-eighty and extending the route to include High Raise if time and conditions were favourable. I packed the kit accordingly and hit the sack early.

Next morning I was up bright and early. The rain had stopped and things were looking good. After a hearty three-course YHA breakfast I donned the pack and ventured outside, just as the rain started again.

 

 

 

 

The walk through Stonethwaite, across the bridge and up Stonethwaite Beck, was sodden underfoot but for that first half-hour I was comfy using the Rab VR Climb as defence against upper-body wetness. It all changed as I passed Galleny Force, however, as the gods put the weather-machine into overdrive. The rain suddenly got much heavier and an evil wind started chucking it down the valley. As predicted, the Rab Corrie jacket had to be wielded in anger for the first time. I've never seen so much water running down the fellsides...

 

 

 

 

The run-off had submerged the path in many places, which meant that crossings were dodgy affairs, not so much because of the depths but more because of the force of the water. I waded the worst of the crossings as I slogged up the Greenup Gill path as far as the confluence of Greenhow and Mere Gills but there I found the water impassable without both danger and loss of dignity. After heading upslope alongside one of the two Mere Gill tributaries and finding no better options for crossing, I decided that my best option would be to change the plan and attack the fell directly, rather than via the Edge. It didn't look too steep on the map - just a few bits of 45 degree stuff, easy to zig-zag. So up I went.

Well, it was a knackering experience, all the better for the ground being slippery enough to ensure that the adrenaline never stopped flowing. I found just one small level place, near the top of the steep stuff, where I dared to stop and take some pics. I'm glad that I went up that way though, as it's a great place from where to view the glacial features of the hanging valley and the proper proportions of Lining Crag without it all being distorted by perspective:

 

 

The view down to Eagle Crag and Borrowdale wasn't too bad either:

 

 

From there on it was a marshy trudge to find the ridge's line of wireless fenceposts, which crosses the summit and hence was a good guide in what was now the base of the clouds. After 20 minutes of alternating clarity and wind-whipped clag I found the summit-cairn and stopped to take pics:

 

 

Then I did a one-eighty and headed back towards Greenup Edge, into the wind-driven stinging rain and weighing-up in my mind the option of extending to High Raise. Occasionally I could make out the path up there from the Edge, but it was mostly clagged up and didn't look appealing. As I neared the decision-point deep in the flooded marshes atop the Edge it started hailing big-time, which made the decision obvious - a dignified retreat to Lining Crag and a descent from there seemed much the more sensible thing to do. After slopping and wading to the big cairn overlooking the way down to Greenup Gill I found the path and set off to Lining Crag.

 

 

The views from the Crag were impressive during occasional breaks in the cloudbase, and I took some pics, but soon it was time to continue the descent. And that's where it all started to go bad...

There's a made-path down the side, where the crag meets the fellside. It's near-enough a straight-line down at a severe angle and due to the incessant rain it had become a cascade (it's the stream that you can see in the first pic of Lining Crag above). The rocks used for the path have been set at a slight angle downslope so that they don't retain water, but that just makes a slip more likely in descent. And that's what happened, several times, straight into the cascade. One particular slip ended in a twisted knee which I thought was going to be a day-wrecker, but it held together quite well and didn't cause any major hassle. By the time I got to the base of the crag, I was utterly soaked and the pack was full of water. Luckily all of the important kit was in roll-top liner-bags.

At the base is a small grassy flat where two couples were having a breather before their attempt to go up the path. They didn't have much of an option as they were practising their "Coast-to-Coast" route, bound for Grasmere via Greenup and Far Easedale, but I'm sure that they thought twice about this section having watched my antics. We chatted for a few minutes, during which I told them about the conditions on the path and up on the Edge. After a few more minutes I left them to it and started off towards the valley just as the rain started to ease.

The descent was uneventful until I got to the stream that had blocked me on the way up. The level had dropped by a couple of feet and I judged it safe to cross,  but I underestimated the force of the water and was swept off the submerged stepping-stones and ended up standing in three feet of white water. It was a very effective way to clean the mud off me boots. Walking further, I grabbed a few more pics in the improving conditions:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was beginning to think that I would make it back to the hostel with no further hassle, as the wind had dropped and the rain had stopped, so I paused for a breather at the bridge just above the confluence with Langstrath Beck, where there is a magnificent view of Eagle Crag. My poor camera skills don't do it any justice whatsoever:

 

 

 

I started back down the easy last few miles just as the weather kicked in for the last time. The wind had done a one-eighty and was now full in the face, and the rain started stinging again.

And did I care?

Not one bit.

I was wet, yes, but I was warm and happy. There was no point in avoiding the streams and flooded paths, so I just waded and splashed through them, just like a big kid. Great fun! Even the livestock seemed to be enjoying the weather:

 

 

 

Right at the end of the walk I dragged the camera out again for a few more pics before the light failed. The views from the hostel grounds are quite good - much better than shown in these shots :

 

 

 

 

Back at the hostel my gear took up a good chunk of the drying-room. I even had to get the warden to put my camera and lenses in a safe place to dry, as they were wet through. Later, while sat in front of the open fire, I put a tick against Ullscarf on my Wainwrights list and then double-checked the total number visited so far.

The number?

One-eighty, of course.

To be continued...

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