Ascent: 3,458ft
I had originally set out to do 8 peaks in 6 to 7 hours on the Coledale round this morning. It seems the dreadful weather and the having to check location and the difficult climb to Grisedale Pike meant time ran after 4.
The day started at 7.30am from the small car park just outside Braithwaite. Some rather steep steps lead out onto Kinn. Short for 'Kinn Hell if you ask me. Whether it was the early start or the bcaon and egg butty for breakfast the 1st climb towards Grisedale Pike was tough going. The heavy drizzle did not help either and it's fair to say I was pretty damn wet within 20 minutes despite various waterproofs.
The fog was thinner at lower altitudes, but we eventually cleared the 1st steep climb after Kinn we were in a pea soup. The fog is strange it really deadens the sound and sheep suddenly appearing out of the gloom did little for my nerves either.
We thought we had attained the summit of Grisedale Pike after a brief scramble, only for more fell to appear, with a more sustained scramble, then a bit more. In the fog, the fell seemed to carry on forever and it felt like we would never reach the top. It really as a massive fell with a very long ascent.
We ascended down quickly. The view was non existent so no point loitering on a winy fell top. We made our way quite briskly to Hopegill Head, then we walked right past it, descended to the edge of crag (which was a path off the fell), realised and retraced our steps.
The path to Coledale Hause is fairly obvious from the vicinity of Hopegill Head and a quick check of the iPhone compass told us we were heading south east (much quicker than taking a bearing, if you have a big path to aim at. The GPS and compass on the iPhone were invaluable and easy to use. The compass gives you direction of travel and means you can orient your map to match it. Wheras the GPS was good to pinpoint us when unsure. The paths were fairly obvious.
We descended to Coledale Hause an got a respite from the thick fog. It thinned as we approached the pass between Crag Hill and Grasmoor. We had intended to do Grassmoor, but with a pathless summit and no views we left it for another day. We turned left up Crag Hill, where an over-zealous cairn builder had made one every hundred yards. It's fair to say that the road sized path gave the route away without a cairn every 2 minutes. The summit was eventually attained, but having now walked 4 hours without a break we were struggling a bit.
It was too cold to stay up there and too foggy. Visibility was about 50ft or less. We decided to do Sail, then stop for lunch.
The descent off Crag Hill was a surprise, certainly what I would call a scramble. Nothing too taxing, but care had to be taken. A short walk brought us to Sail, it also had a small scramble followed by a rocky path to the summit.
Despite the atrocious conditions, we passed several people around Crag Hill and Sail. One guy passed us bare-armed. Very keen with the wind howling around.
After a windy path we eventually reached the point where we could ascend Scar Crags. Time was beating us by now and we stop for break before deciding to end our peakbagging for the day and head straight back to Braithwaite. The walk between the larger and smaller fells on this side of the valley is quite pleasant itself with views opening up towards Blencathra and Skiddaw.
I took a good 6 hours to do what we did through a combination of factors. So we will return again to bag the 4 Wainwright's in the Above Derwent part of the valley.
Not many photos this time (views were rubbish or weather was)
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