Posts tagged 'YHA'

A weekend based in Keswick – Jan 2013 – Part 3

Posted by on January 24th 2013 in Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes, YHA
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Yet again I was up before sunrise and yet again Ella was reluctant to relinquish her duvet. After a quick breakfast we checked the MWIS forecast which confirmed that conditions would be pretty much the same as they were on Saturday. We decided that our half-day walk should be up something a tad tamer because my butt was playing up again so we chose Binsey for a simple up-and-down stroll.

After we'd filled the flasks we packed the gear in the car, said our goodbyes at the hostel and headed off for the short drive around the Back o'Skidda. We parked up in a small lay-by near Binsey Cottage, from there the track was straight up and obvious, no crampons required. If there had been a good covering of snow it would have been an excellent sledging hill with no problems going from top to bottom in one go.

Binsey's an odd fell, set apart from the others. It lacks altitude and technical appeal but it affords great views:

Snowclouds breaking over Skiddaw

On the way up we spotted from a distance what we thought was an injured sheep lying in the grass:

Sheep?

We should have gone to Specsavers  😎 ... on closer inspection it turned out to be a boulder with a peculiar covering of moss and lichen:

Notsheep

As usual, Ella couldn't resist playing with the ice:

Frozen

A few hundred yards further on we were nearing the obvious summit where the wind was tearing up from behind us and whistling over the top:

Ella makes for the top

Surveying the scene

Snug in the shelter

We got comfy in the shelter, it was time for cuppas and snacks. The view from the top is well-worth the minimal effort of getting there, it's a great place for appreciating the layout of the Northern Fells. I managed to take a few pics when the wind wasn't flinging ice at the lens:

The Uldale Fells

Pano from Binsey

The stroll back down to the car took around twenty minutes and soon we were back in Keswick - Ella wanted some retail therapy. While shopping we ran into the two folk that we'd met up on Satura Crag the day before... what were the chances of that happening?

I was determined to keep my hands off my wallet but couldn't resist using my YHA-membership discount in the Cotswold shop when I saw the snow-scooters. Yeah, I might well be fifty but there's nowt in the rules that says that I have to act like it! We'll try to remember to take the thing up Binsey in the snow next year.

The drive home was fairly easy with hardly any bad roads until we got within 100 yards of home. Four hours of simple driving and then an hour to get the car on the drive. While we'd been away our village had been more-or-less snowed-in and iced-up.

Here's the tale of the tape:

Saturday: 3.04 miles of walking, 1341ft of up/down, 1 new Wainwright for Ella, none for me;
Sunday: 1.48 miles of walking, 592ft of up/down, 1 new Wainwright for each of us;
Wainwright totals so far: Ella 14/214, me 209/214

A weekend based in Keswick – Jan 2013 – Part 1

Posted by on January 22nd 2013 in Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes, YHA
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The drive up was interesting - we started with occasional light snow on icy minor roads which led to salted major roads that were a 15mph slush-fest. We drove out of the falling snow at A5 Cannock and all was clear up the M6 to J36. There was no snow whatsoever on the ground between Preston J27 and J34. Leaving the M6 at J36 we found the A591 to be clear all the way to Keswick although the fells were suitably snow-clad, overcast and broody. In all we'd spent about six hours on the road. Keswick itself was practically snow-free despite Thursday's forecast of a heavy dump during the afternoon.

We were soon getting comfy in the hostel. YHA Keswick has changed a fair bit since I last stayed there but it's still a great place. We'd booked a two-bed room but were given a three-bed up on the third floor, it was spacious and had a great view over Fitz Park to the Skiddaw group. Everything in the room was good, everything worked and it was nice and warm.

We stayed in the hostel for a fine evening meal in the restaurant before having a mooch around the town window-shopping and deciding on a pub for Saturday's evening meal. Back at the hostel we planned and packed for Saturday's walk and then turned in early.

I suppose you'll want to see some pictures of the fells...

 

 

 

This pair was hanging in the hostel's reading room. Yes, two more works by Delmar Banner, the same artist whose work hangs above the fireplace at YHA Eskdale. I must admit that I'm developing a liking for his works, and the more I look the more of them I find. The top one is dated 1948, the other 1947. There are no visible indications of the subjects (I was reluctant to look on the backs to see if they were labelled) but I reckon that they're views of the High Stile ridge. If you know or think different, feel free to speak up.

A few Delmar Banner links:

Anyway, that's enough for now. Saturday's events will be posted soon, along with some proper outdoors pics.

 

To be continued... 

Soloing from Patterdale

Posted by on December 15th 2011 in Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes, Testing for review, YHA
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After Friday's nightmare seven-hour drag up the M6 I was glad to be back on the familiar A591. The further I drove the deeper the surrounding snow was, and I was unsure as to whether the Kirkstone Pass would be navigable. In the end, after discussing the conditions with a few local folk, I decided to go for it and found that although the road-snow at the top hadn't iced over it was beginning to do so on the leeward side and that made the descent into Patterdale quite interesting.

After getting installed at Patterdale YHA the evening was spent planning routes, chatting with a Mary and Paul (a nice couple staying at the hostel) and going out into the frosty night to take some pics of the amazingly clear sky.

Saturday was cold and windy but dry with the odd bit of sunshine - perfect weather for taking in a few easy fells. I decided to nab Red Screes and Middle Dodd via Caiston Glen and the Scandale Pass. Not too far a journey, but walking into the wind and spindrift on the way up towards the Pass and then with a strong ice-laden side-wind on the pull up to Red Screes made it seem twice as far. I'll let the pics do the talking for a while...

Middle Dodd and High Hartsop Dodd from the Kirkstone Road.

 

A better view of Middle Dodd.

 

Looking back towards Hartsop.

 

Caiston Glen.

 

Little Hart Crag and High Hartsop Dodd from Broad Crag.

 

The wall above Broad Crag.

 

A wider view of Broad Crag and beyond.

 

Light over Morecambe Bay.

 

The Red Screes trig-point.

 

The Red Screes summit-cairn and shelter.

 

Looking down Smallthwaite Band towards Middle Dodd and Brotherswater.

 

 

Looking northwards from the upper cairn on Middle Dodd.

 

Red Screes from the upper cairn on Middle Dodd.

 

Westwards towards the Little Hart Crag and the Fairfield fells.

 

Eastwards - a glimpse of the Ill Bell ridge.

 

A better view from the lower cairn on Middle Dodd.

 

Steep ground on the descent.

 

As the descent got steeper, the views got better.

 

Moraines and fields.

 

A bit of blue sky above Little Hart Crag.

 

Sunlight on Angletarn Pikes.

 

The evening was spent much as before but without the photo-opportunities - rain had set in and cloud-cover was almost total. After a fine hostel meal and hours of chin-wagging with Mary and Paul I turned in for the night.

Sunday morning was different again - full of incessant driving rain and low clouds. Looking out from the hostel during breakfast I had half a mind to bail to the shops of Ambleside and Windermere, but managed to summon enough gumption for a quick slog up to Shipman Knotts. Another minor walk, but the clag, the wind and the abundant run-off made it quite an ordeal. There was still plenty of deep snow up there but sorry, there are hardly any pics from this walk - for most of the time the conditions were just too wet to risk soaking the camera. Here's what you get:

 

Plenty of water in Stile End Beck.

 

A clagged-in Shipman Knotts from near Stile End Farm.

 

In spate - the Kent in Staveley.

 

And that's about it. I negotiated the A591/M6/A5 and was home in time for tea and a long session of sorting/washing/drying the gear. Job done.

Summary:

Wainwright tops reached: Red Screes (2541 ft), Middle Dodd (2106 ft), Shipman Knotts (1926 ft). All first-ascents for me.
Number of Wainwrights still to do: 9

On Saturday I was expecting that the overnight freeze would mean that the tops would be more icy than snowy, so I carried crampons. My expectations were wrong, though, and I didn't need them. I really should have taken the snooshows and the clackysticks instead - they would have saved a lot of post-holing in the seriously-deep drifts. The axe saved me several times on the steepest bits of the descent of Middle Dodd. On Sunday I took no such metalwork, I'd have been better-off taking a diving-suit and flippers!

Regarding gear taken for test-and-review... I took one item supplied by Adam Smith representing Go Outdoors. Yes, I actually got around to properly using that Montane Lite-Speed H2O jacket that I've had for months! Conditions on Sunday's walk were so wet and windy that I decided to use it as a shell over my Rab VR Climb jacket as an extra layer of defence. It kept out most of the driven rain and the hood worked well underneath my L.A. Mountain Cap. My only gripe with it is that because there are no pockets in the Lite-Speed I had to resort to gloves, and the cuffs of the jacket aren't glove-friendly. On the plus side, it kept me warm and dry and I didn't have to walk around with pockets full of water!

I was also trying out some base-layer stuff, but more about that later.

Sherwood Forest YHA – 11th September 2011

Posted by on October 12th 2011 in Great Escapes, Testing for review, YHA
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Sunday morning was a little overcast with the threat of rain. We were soon breakfasted and the cars were loaded up with our luggage. The venue for the day was to be Rufford Abbey Country Park, just a few miles to the south-east. We'd heard that it was a peaceful place with well-kept grounds, a fine lakeside walk and some indoors stuff for when the weather turned bad.

We paid our three-quid car-parking fee, parked up and made our way towards the Abbey. We noted a few odd vehicles being driven around. Folk were wearing khaki, bowlers, hairnets and seamed-stockings (but not all at the same time, obviously!) - it was as if we'd driven through a rift in time and had emerged in the 40s. We'd turned up during their "On the Home Front" Living History weekend. There were period cars, mock-battles, field-gun firings, tank-engines blasting away, 40s dancing and live singing, Winston Churchill lookalikes and much more besides. And then there were the grounds and the lakeside to explore. More photo opportunities!

 

Leyland Titan Water Tender

 

Morris Quad 4x4 tractor

 

Not-so-lightweight camping

 

A fine tree in the grounds

 

1936 Rolls-Royce 25/30hp Saloon with a Park Ward swept-back body

 

As previous

 

Hmm...

 

Rolls-Royce Meteor tank engine (developed from the Spitfire's Merlin III) at full throttle

 

Teasels

 

Rufford Lake

 

 

Robin

 

Brackets

 

Rufford Lake dam and overflow

 

The Watermill, Rufford Lake

 

Avenue

 

You'll have noticed that the weather got better, not worse. Instead of having to dress for howling winds, we were in T-shirts for the whole day. I tell you, the act of carrying that windproof jacket is enough to deter inclement weather.

After leaving Rufford we called in for some minor retail therapy at Decathlon before getting home. Oddly for me, I didn't buy any more outdoors gear (but I did have to tear myself away from the Forclaz 400 fleece hoodies).

Sherwood Forest YHA – 10th September 2011

Posted by on October 11th 2011 in Great Escapes, Testing for review, YHA
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As we were travelling to Sherwood Forest YHA on the Friday afternoon we were expecting the weekend to be grim - 80mph winds were forecast for the next few days, courtesy of the tail-end of Hurricane Katia. Not the best of conditions for woodland walking, but ideal for finding the limits of the Montane Lite-Speed H2O windproof jacket that was supplied by Adam Smith. Well... nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say.

 

Sherwood Forest YHA

 

After getting sorted at the hostel we went out into the calm warm late afternoon and walked into Edwinstowe in search of bar-meals. Enquiries at pubs drew blanks, but we were directed to Dukeries Lodge on the High Street. Their restaurant room was booked for a celebration but they made up a table for us near the bar and gave us great service. The food was excellent, a cut above our usual standard of fare, the servings were huge but the prices low. Result!

We strolled back to the hostel wondering where the bad weather was.

Next morning we were up bright and early for the mandatory YHA breakfast, and after that we kitted up for a walk around the local woodlands and headed off for the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre.

 

On the way to the Visitor Centre

 

On arrival a guide-map was purchased for a nominal fee. On the back was a 10% discount voucher for meals at Dukeries Lodge, so that was the evening vittles sorted. Serendipity or what?

Anyway, there was plenty of "Robin Hood stuff" going on all around. He was in the tress, on posters, inside key-rings, in a movie and even in the toilets. He's going a bit grey in his old age, though:

 

Robin Hood

 

There was a good choice of well-graded paths through the woods so we concocted a DIY circuit that would tax the kids a bit and eventually bring us to the Major Oak. As you'd expect, there was plenty of interesting stuff to point the camera at:

 

Confused bracket fungus on a fallen trunk

 

One of many old oak trees

 

A mushroomy thing

 

Fallen wood #1

 

Fallen wood #2

 

Stragglers

 

The stragglers sent up front

 

To the adults it was a Chestnut, to the kids it was a baby hedgehog. It had to be cared for, mainly by feeding it biscuits:

 

The Woodlanders

 

Red Admiral

 

Some of the enclosures were set aside for grazing. In one there were many of these beasts, I got fairly close but legged it when the leader started to scrape the ground and got set for a charge:

 

Close enough

 

Too close!!!

 

Back on the path all was sweetness and light...

 

Hands

 

until I was brutally attacked by a stick. I was walking a pace or two behind Chris when she stepped on the end of a fallen branch. The other end was levered into the air just in time and at just the right height for me to walk straight into it, thus spearing my knackers with some force. There was much swearing while I crouched doubled-over at the side of the path. Anna laughed but the younger kids were curious as to what I was doing, luckily they were satisfied with the honest explanation that I was "checking for nuts". As far as I know, there are no photos of this event or of the aftermath.

 

Storm damage

 

A spot of easy tree-climbing

 

The Face Tree

 

The Knobbly Tree

 

At last we arrived at the Major Oak and sat at the picnic-tables while scoffing our packed lunch. The kids had a go at archery, the adults declined (I was in no fit state to be toting a 50lb-pull bow):

 

The Major Oak

 

Anna on the pull

 

The trunk of the Major Oak

 

Note the wide stance and the pained expression

 

Back at the Visitor Centre I got my revenge on Anna:

 

Gotta get me one of these for home!

 

After that we spent a while at the kids' playground and then made our way back to the hostel. Despite the forecast it had been a dry, warm and calm day.

Washed and changed, we went off to Dukeries Lodge again for another fine meal. While we were there the heavens opened and a storm hit, the roads were more like streams and the drains didn't cope. I was hoping that it would last until I could get the Montane jacket wet but by the time we'd finished desserts the storm had passed on and all was warm and calm again. The jacket would have to wait another day - the forecast for Sunday was for some badass weather.

Back at the hostel we stayed up to watch yet another Last Night of The Proms bereft of Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs. Barstewards!

 

To be continued...

A few days at Borrowdale – Part 3 – Long and gentle

Posted by on April 27th 2011 in Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes, YHA
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Thursday morning and yet again some of us were up bright and early. Some of the others were reluctant to part company with their duvets, until they were informed of the possibility that they might miss breakfast.

Fed and packed, we loaded the cars and drove indirectly (I made a few wrong turns) to the free-for-all that is otherwise known as the Gale Road car-park. After spending some time finding a less-boggy and less-pot-holed bit of verge for the car, we started to make our way up the zig-zag path towards Jenkin Hill for our ascent of Skiddaw:

 

Looking back to Latrigg and the Gale Road car-park from the Skiddaw zig-zags

 

Again, the youngest members of the party needed a fair few pit-stops on the steeper sections, as the sun was beating down again and the temperatures were higher than the previous day. Truth be told, the older members were glad of the rest too.

After the last steep section the path almost levels out across Jenkin Hill and we made good progress to the gate and stile below Little Man where we stopped for elevenses.

 

The gate and stile below Little Man

 

The un-barbed fence that runs towards Lonscale Fell

 

There was much discussion as to whether to go up Little Man before heading for Skiddaw proper. I'd been up these fells already and didn't mind either way, and eventually the decision was made to head for the main top and then decide about Little Man on the way back down, based on how the kids were faring. Looking back from the upper slopes of Skiddaw, it did seem a shame to be bypassing the lesser Wainwright. No matter, onward and upward!

 

Outflanking Little Man

 

After pausing for the application of a little blister-prevention strapping, Anna made good speed up the final slope:

 

Home-made all-terrain personnel

 

The worst bits over, it was just a short stroll from the South Top across the top to the trig point

 

From the South Top the view westwards opens up, bringing back memories of a great walk along Longside Edge a few years ago, back when the route was a delightful thin trod winding through the heather. Looking down at it now, it looks like somebody's bulldozed a road along the crest:

 

Long Side, Longside Edge and Ullock Pike

 

A few minutes later and we were at the summit, restocking with carbs and rehydrating. The views would have been outstanding were it not for the haze:

 

At the top

 

Geoff makes it to the North Top as Natasha returns to the trig point

 

After a suitable amount of loitering we started to head back down, declining the option to take the Little Man path. As we passed by we noticed many of these critters defending their territories:

 

One of the many Wheatears that lay claim to the upper slopes, click to get a better pic

 

Back at the gate and stile me and Geoff veered off to make a beeline for Lonscale Fell while the others continued down the original route of ascent. After a leisurely 30-minute stroll we were sat at the small cairn trying to identify distant fells through the haze:

 

Blencathra from the top of Lonscale Fell

 

Clickable Panorama - Blencathra to Skiddaw

 

From there we took an indistinct track that led through grass and then heather in the rough direction of Gale Road. After a bit of meandering down steepening ground we found a distinct marker post (part of the "gateway" in Wainwright's Pictorial Guide, the fence being long-gone) at the head of a dry stream. We followed the straight line of that stream until it reached a new fence that prevented us from negotiating the ravine of Whit Beck, so we had to follow the fence across very steep and slippery ground until it reached the broad Cumbria Way trail that leads to Skiddaw House. After crossing Whit Beck at the ford and having a good bellyful of the cool clear water there we strolled the short distance up the ravine-side track to the junction with the path that we'd started on only a few hours before.

Five minutes later the rest of the group got down to us and after a short break we all headed back to the cars. Back at the hostel it was the same routine as before - showers, another great YHA meal, deal with the sunburn and a chill-out before bedtime.

All in all it had been another great day, most of the others hadn't walked as high as Skiddaw before and there's something special about someone's first 3000-footer, all the better because of the distinct lack of the customary rain. The only downer was the persistent haze - I'd been telling them all about the magnificent views to be had from the top, only to be banjaxxed by ironically good weather. Never mind, it's an excuse to go up there again sometime.

To be continued...
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