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Scandale 24 Peaks and Harry

Date & start time: Sunday 19th September 2010, 4.30 am start.

Location of Start : Kirkstone Pass, Cumbria, Uk ( NY 401 082 )

Places visited : Red Screes, Scandale Pass, Little Hart Crag, Dove Crag, Hart Crag, Fairfield, Grisedale Hause, Dunmail Rise.

Walk details : 7.25 mls, 2625 ft of ascent, 3325 ft of descent, 8 hrs including breakfast.

Highest point : Fairfield Summit 2863 ft - 873 m.

Walked with : Our dog Bethan, three colleagues plus ten Challenge teams.

Weather : Low cloud, misty, in creasing rain and wind as we reached Fairfield, fortunately not cold.

 Scandale 24 Peaks at EveryTrail

[ Alter the settings to zoom or change the Map, use Everytrail to download the Gps route ]

 

Another opportunity to catch a sunrise as I turn out to marshal for another Mountain Challenge.

This one is slightly different as it involves 24 Lake District Peaks over the two days of last weekend.

Unfortunately the forecast is not good and we set off into the rain in a big way.

4.15 am . . . meet Steve at Dunmail Rise in order to share cars round to Kirkstone.

We'll walk back across the fells to this point and use my car to collect his later.

The weather's no better as we set off from the Kirkstone car park at 4.30.

This is Steve settling in to the summit shelter of Red Screes.

Was there a chance of a nice sunrise ? . . . I think I had given hope of that when I read the forecast a few days ago.

Guess the fell ??

A clue . . . Bethan is no more than five yards from the last picture ( Can you spot the give-away trig point clue ? )

The teams had been instructed to set off into oblivion at 300 degrees on the compass, find a wall

go left about 100 yds to a wall junction and follow the Scandale wall at 90 degrees down the fell . . . so far so good.

[ Technical point . . . I just grabbed the Gps and went for it . . . so much easier ]

" Please remind me why I'm here ! "

Do I cross the ladder stile here at Scandale Pass ?

Not today . . . continue up the wall and cross it later when we get to our checkpoint.

Safely located where we should be, we're in position to check the first teams through.

This is Team Hotel (or maybe Echo) at 7.20 in the morning just as first light breaks.

Bethan wisely chooses the shelter in preference to full time "meet and greet" of every individual team members.

My checkpoint was at the point where the teams have to leave the security of the wall and navigate the old fence line up to Little Hart Crag.

A timely prod in the right direction at this point will pay dividends as it will ensure they stay on course for the next top.

This is the steep climb up to Dove Crag where we will join the major path on towards the summit of Fairfield.

   
Reaching Little Hart Scar.
Dove Crag in the cloud.
   

   
Hartside much the same.
Fairfield, same only wetter and windier.

- - - o o o - - -

Hey Bethan . . . do you think anyone will notice I've used the same picture four times ?

Should be okay . . . all the same conditions up there . . . the photo could apply to any one of them.

Only the wind changed and the rain increased as we got higher and photos won't really show that . . . I think we'll get away with it !

- - - o o o - - -

From the top of Fairfield we found the track down towards Seat Sandal.

The zig-zags down and the loose path made it difficult in the wet.

The next section of the walk would involve climbing up Seat Sandal then across the valley to the steep path up Dollywagon Pike.

From there, along the length of the Helvellyn Ridge and over to Dockray at the eastern end of the Old Coach Road.

- - - o o o - - -

In view of the conditions and the extended nature of the final section of the walk

five of the teams wisely decided to cut their walk short and divert down to Dunmail Rise.

We walk 19 team members safely off the fells.

This was our only view of Grisedale Tarn, seen briefly for a minute or two as we passed.

Paul and John who had started from Dunmail stayed back to check final team off Seat Sandal.

They would sweep through to Helvellyn Summit and pass responsibility over to the northern marshals before returning to Dunmail.

   
Steve and I took the remaining teams down to Dunmail . . .
. . . where the waterfalls were in full spate today.

Safely back down at the car, we radio for the team transport and our job is nearly over.

The final team wait for their minibus back to the Hostel in Ambleside and the end of the event.

After collecting the second car we drive round to Dockray . . . and hey . . . the sun came out !

This event is normally a tough event, made more so this weekend by the poor weather conditions.

Congratulations to all those that took part and raised so much money for their chosen charities.

- - - o o o - - -

Post script :

Those of you that have been following our exploits will have noticed the lack of Harry on our recent walks.

Suffice to say that his leg injury, now diagnosed as cruciate ligament damage, has improved considerably due to his enforced rest.

Part of the treatment will be several sessions in a local canine hydro-therapy pool.

The first one was today . . . anyone for a hot bath ?

   

If he continues to improve, as he has done in recent weeks, he should be back on the fells soon.

- - - o o o - - -

 

Technical note: Pictures taken with either Ann's Canon 75 or my Canon G10 digital camera.

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

This site best viewed with . . . a camera with windscreen wipers.

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© RmH.2010 # Email me here # or leave me a Guest Book Entry

Previous walk - 16th September 2010 Wet and Dry Scale Hill Walks

A previous time up here - 13th Sept 2007 Dove Crag and Priest's Hole Cave

For other pictures of the area, noteably in the sunshine a few days earlier - click on David Hall's or Terry Gargrave's photo sites.

Next walk - 23rd September 2010 Blencathra with George Fisher