Monday 8 March 2010

Greenburn Round (07/03/10) - 7 miles

With forecast for clear sunny skies, I was somewhat disappointed when I opened the curtains in the morning to be greeted with low cloud.  But the bag was packed and a meet time was arranged, as once again I was joined by Sarah for today's walk.


As we headed down Dunmail Raise the sun was burning off the cloud and it looked  like it was going to be as good a day as forecast.


Steel Fell from the Ghyll Foot


From Ghyll Foot we headed up the first Wainwright of the day, Steel Fell, as the picture above shows there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  Just goes to show the early bird doesn't always catch the worm! If we would have started earlier this would have still been in the cloud I think.


The gentle path up Steel Fell


The path was a good one going up Steel Fell, a nice long steady climb.  However there did seem to be an awful lot of false summits, which allowed for lots of pictures to be taken along with the rest stops!!


Looking across to the Hellvelyn range on the way up Steel Fell


We also had the opportunity to see the rest of the days walk across the valley.


Helm Crag (The Lion and the Lamb)


Finally the top of Steel Fell comes into view


After a while the top of Steel Fell appeared and it wasn't long before we were at the top enjoying the stunning views.  There were only a few patches of snow lying about, the sun shinning on the south facing slope had melted most of it.


Steel Fell with Thirlmere in the background


Steel Fell cairn with St Sundays Crag in the distance

Me on Steel Fell

Sarah on Steel Fell

After a sandwich and some flapjack it was time to head towards Calf Crag. On the way we passed a number of small unnamed tarns, all of which were completely frozen over.  There was also a lot more snow and ice on the northern facing slopes, including a great slide down a slope on some hard compacted snow!

One of the many frozen tarns

The area was boggy, but frozen enough to be able to make a fairly direct route to the top of Calf Crag without getting wet feet.

Calf Crag

It was a reasonably short climb to the top to reach the top of the second Wainwright of the day.

On the top of Calf Crag

From Calf Crag it was a really nice walk along the ridge heading towards Helm Crag via Gibson Knott.  As we walked along we could see Morecambe Bay in the distance and could also see Easdale Tarn which was frozen over.

Gibson Knott

It didn't seem to take long before we on the third Wainwright of the day, Gibson Knott.  We had another long rest stop here as the views were so good and there was no wind so wasn't cold at all.  After looking at the watch we decided we should get going again as we wanted to get up Helm Crag before the sun went down.

We passed to path back down to Ghyll Foot on the way up the steep but short climb to Helm Crag.

Helm Crag

Helm Crag is also known as The Lion and the Lamb as it the rocks look like a ion and a lamb from the valley.  It isn't so easy to make it out from the summit, but it didn't matter as the views were great!

The Lion and the Lamb, with Grasmere in the distance

From the top we retraced our steps back to the little saddle and down the grassy slope back to the car.  An excellent days walk completing another 4 Wainwrights.  

When I got home I realised I was my head was glowing rather, yes I have my first sunburn of 2010!!  Don't expect to be needing sun hat and cream during March in the Lakes!