Sunday 11 April 2010

Grasmoor (10/04/2010) - 8.2 miles

I am still alive!  Not been out in the Lakeland hills for a while as I have been skiing on some bigger hills in Austria!  But I am back now and plan to get cracking on with the challenge.


Apologies for some of the photos in this entry.  I messed up some of the settings and don't have the time to fix them on Photoshop!!


I started from the car park in Lanthwaite and headed up the path towards Whin Ben.


Looking towards Whin Ben from the car park


The weather was great, with practically no wind and the sun giving a pleasant warmth, so very different from many of my walks so far this year!  As I made my way up the steep but clear path the vuew behind of Crummock Water were amazing.


A very still Crummock Water with Mellbreak in the background



Looking over Whin Ben to the reflection of Mellbreak in Crummock Water

It wasn't long before the step scree path began to level out and I made the first Wainwright of the day - Whiteside.


Looking towards Hopegill Head from Whiteside


From Whiteside it was a really nice path along the ridge to the top of Hopegill Head, the second Wainwright of the day.


Grasmoor from Hopegill Head


From Hopegill Head I headed down the clear path over Sand Hill towards Coledale Hause.


Looking back towards Hopegill Head from Sand Hill


I was planning to meet some friends who were on a stag do on top of Grasmoor. As I was making good time I decided to walk up to Wandope before going up Grasmoor.  


Crag Hill from the summit of Wandope


It was a short walk back from Wandope to the main path up Grasmoor.  It was a steady pull up a well worn path, but is wasn't long before I made it to the top.  The views were great from up there.


Grasmoor Summit shelter



Loweswaer from Grasmoor



Buttermere from Grasmoor


As found a grassy spot to lie back and wait for the guys to turn up. It was so warm and sunny up there, I didn't mind waiting.  I drifted off a few times and was really enjoying the peace up there.  After over 3 hours, I was wondering where they had got to, and I finally got through to them.  They had gone back down and not let me know!!


So much later than planned, I head back down to Coledale Hause and then took the path down Gasgale Gill to the car.  The winter rains haven't been kind to this path, there was a lot erosion and the path had a lot of detours, but after a while I made it back to the car.