weather forecast suggested ..
snow all day at height, 30 - 40 mph winds and "feels like" temps of -12C
11.4 miles
4000ft
6 hours elapsed
set off from Coniston up past the Copper Mines towards High Tibberthwaite..
cloud ceiling descended from 650m to 300m and snow started...
got to practice safe river crossings twice.. the water level was just a few inches above 'normal'.. most likely due to the heavy rain the previous day
snow was laying heavy by the time i reached Blake rigg / Hawk rigg around midday.. visibility reduced from several kilometres to 50m.
bit of a squirel around to find the path coming off Hawk rigg.. which disappeared 20 mins later on the Weatherlam edge.. visibility now 20m
took Weatherlam direct as the path was hidden under snow... bit of 'scrambling'
traversing Keld Gill Head towards Swirl Hause involved compass work.. i was further South / higher than the map path... but found the 'proper' path on Prison band.. some more 'scrambling' to reach Swirl How.
compass bearing to locate path to Great Carrs.. passing by the memorial to the aircrew who died in the hlifax bomber crash Oct '44
easy route finding back to Swirl how and then along towards The Old Man.. the cairns helped here, as did the relative narrowness of the ridge.
nobody about all day and only 1 set of footprints (filling in) on Swirl How.
more footprints on the descent down from The Old Man.
Lessons Learnt...
one days rain can make rivers swell dramatically -- more evident on the drive up than on the hill, but still required safe crossing points to be searched for
Met Off Mountain weather is pretty accurate
take sports glasses to keep wind, water, snow out of my eyes
Might have been better tackling this route clockwise given the SE wind direction... although all that 'scrambling' on Swirl How and Weatherlam would not have been pleasant as descents in the snow.
get a waterproof coat ;-)
Area :
Southern Fells (Scafell Pike)
From the Esk Valley all the way across to Kendal and the M6. Includes Coniston area as far north as Little Langdale, Wrynose and Hardknott Pass.
