- Raise Fell for Jo's 214 -

Date & Time: Saturday 13th October 2007. 10 am start.

Location of Start : The Coach Road, St John's in the Vale, Cumbria, Uk. ( NY 316 321 )

Places visited : Clough Head, Calfhow Pike, Great Dodd, Watson's Dodd, Stybarrow Dodd, Raise Fell, The Lakeland Ski Tow, Sticks Pass and ending at Stannah.

Walk details : 9 mls, 3475 ft of ascent, 7 hrs 35 mins.

Highest point : Raise Fell 2889 ft ( 883m )

Walked with : Terry, Jo, Freddy, Edmund, Ann, David, John, Jill, Angie and the dogs, Harry, Bethan, Megan, Jodie, Bailey and Polly.

Weather : Low cloud and 5 -20 mph westerlies, but possibly clearer after lunch.

 

Jo on Raise fell completing her 214 - Photo courtesy of Angie Espin

 

Our walk started at St John's in the Vale.

We'd parked half of the cars at Stannah and had driven the few miles north to the start of the old Coach Road

where we gathered for an initial group photo.

Terry, Jo, Freddy, Edmund, Ann, David, John, Jill, Angie, and the dogs, Jodie, Megan, and Bailey (that's me on the insert).

   
John sets his Gps at the start of the walk.
Terry checking his camera as he climbs.

We started the walk by climbing up through the old Threlkeld Quarry area. It's been many years since this area was worked and the stone tips and roadways are supporting a good growth of birch and other woodland though the heather has past it's best now.

   
Climbing the old Peat Road up towards Threlkeld Knotts . . .
. . . we climbed into the mist and low cloud !
   

Clough Head successfully reached, Terry and the girls pause for a photo by the trig point.

I think Angie and Jo were telling some bloke (out of picture) what to do with the camera he was trying to operate.

   
AW's self portrait - Clough Head 7 Eastern Fells
Jo's portrait 13.10.07 - sorry no pipe - sorry no view !
   

At least you can start to appreciate the view we should have had.

I've posted this pen and ink drawing by Alfred Wainwright as Jo is following in his footsteps today.

For those new to fellwalking in the Lakes, AW wrote a series of seven guide books describing his favourite 214 fells, and so the challenge has been taken up by Jo, to walk all of the fells in his books and by so doing complete her walk of all the major fells in the English Lake District.

From her 211th top we walked south through the mist

and soon Calfhow Pike appeared ahead of Edmund, out of the gloom of the day.

A gap in the cloud gave us views down to Thirlmere Reservoir

Hey what's this ? Sunshine on Threlkeld Common and a view of Great Mell Fell.

Could the weather forecast be coming true - "possibly clearing after lunchtime" ?

   
Ann walks purposefully on towards Great Dodd . . .
. . . but there's more cloud ahead as we walk this rather boggy area.

Great Dodd is definitely in cloud, so we search out the summit shelter, a short distance from the small summit cairn.

One o'clock now so a good time to stop for lunch. The wind is blowing enthusiastically too and there's not another shelter like this on the rest of the walk . . . so even more reason to head into the round walled shelter. A few mad photos follow of the crowded lunch spot.

   
Terry and Jo
Jo, John and Edmund.
   
   
Angie and Freddy
Jill and David
   
   
Freddy has found space in his rucksack for a special celebration cake.
Be nice or you may not get any ?

The chap behind is certainly licking his lips in anticipation of a few crumbs being left, if only he could find space to get in the shelter !!

Suitably refreshed we continue on and reach Watson's Dodd summit.

Another summit cairn photo. We saw precious little between the two tops, apart from the damp ground and the grey mist.

Sticks Pass crossroads. A brief pause before we start the ascent of Jo's final peak on her challenge.

Smiles all round - she made it - Raise Fell summit.

Beakers, mugs, plastic cups or the top of a thermos.

Who cares how you drink it, a drop of bubbly always tastes great on your 214th summit !

- - - o o o - - -

Click here or on the photos above for a short video

( The 1 min video should open a new window and play in your Windows Media Player)

( It may take a minute or so to download on slower connection speeds - please be patient )

@ 2007 Loweswatercam.co.uk

A rather damp group photo on a rather damp day - thanks to the kind gentleman who took it.

A card from an absent friend - Chris G, a well timed text message from Barrie and a present from Freddy, wrapped in a copy of the Keswick Reminder.

Time to move on before we get too tippled

We make our way across and down to the Ski Tow area, as some of us hadn't been there before.

   
John showing us how to ski
Freddy demonstrating a snow plough move - I think !

The snow fences catch the drifting snow in winter over here on the north western side of the fell

in order to provide a few extra days of winter skiing.

The Lake District Ski Club Ski Hut on the side of Raise Fell.

We continue down the grass covered piste to the Engine House at the bottom of the Ski Tow.

The wind has dropped on this side of the fell and it's not raining either.

Jo has found another celebratory cake in her bag. This is turning out to be a feast not a fell walk !

Sticks Pass Hause has been crossed a second time now as we make our way down towards Stannah in the Thirlmere Valley.

The mist is clearing as we descend but conditions are still very damp and the path slippery.

Most people will have taken a gentle slide or tumble on the slippery stones or wet grass before we reach the bottom of this path.

Still despite the weather and the lack of views it has been a great walk, a successful end to Jo's challenge. A very sociable event too.

After a chance to dry off and change we adjourned to the Horse and Farrier in Threlkeld

to continue the celebrations in the time honoured manner.

 

- - - o o o - - -

Technical note: Pictures taken with a Canon G7 Digital camera.

Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.

This site best viewed with . . . a fully completed wall chart of all those 214 peaks.

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© RmH.2007 # Email me here

Previous walk - 12th Oct 2007 Hen Comb with David, Ros and Douglas

A previous time up here - 24th April 2005 Clough Head and the Dodds via Threlkeld Knott

Next walk - 14th Oct 2007 Dodd Woods and an unexpected Sunset