Wild camping in the Lakes, 13th & 14th July 2009

The Mountain Leader consolidation activity between training and assessment requires Quality Mountain Days and several wild camps. So, in preparation for a ML assessment before the year is out, this week saw Rich hitting the hills to get a couple of QMD’s and a solo night under the stars.
My plan was to grab a hill I had not done before along with camping somewhere away from the masses at Sty Head tarn. On a recent trip over to Pillar I stumbled across a nice little spot suitable for a nights camping near the foot of Pillar Rock and only hill I had not done in that area was Kirk Fell so a route was planned to take me from Seathwaite and around the back of Great Gable.
On the day the weather was bright and sunny which, on any other day, would be a pleasure but today with my heavy pack, a little breeze would be more welcome. On my way around the back of Great Gable on the climbers traverse I stopped at Napes Needle to watch a party climbing Needle Ridge and dug into my bag to get out the camera only to find that I’d brought the video camera instead. Hey ho, I thought, I’ll get some film of the route and their progress on the climb only to find I had 3 minutes of tape left!! Numpty, only the camera on my phone for this trip then!
The climb up to Kirk Fell was quite pleasant but the route down was difficult due to the steep rocky path and heavy pack.
As I arrived at the cairn marking the climber’s path on Pillar, large, dark clouds started building with a distant rumble of thunder. By the time I reached Robinsons Cairn, the cloud was low and the thunder was loud. A spot was selected for the tent and I got inside just as the rain started to fall.

The following morning I packed the tent and set off for the summit of Pillar via the Shamrock Traverse. The rain had stopped but the low cloud had left visibility down to 50 metres at times. The traverse is an enjoyable route which allows close inspection of Pillar Rock and the climbing and scrambling routes that cover it. Before reaching the top of Pillar, several steep scrambles are required which again would be more pleasurable without a large pack.

My route home took a gentler route around both Kirk Fell and Great Gable this time on the North side and over Brandreth and Grey Knotts. Heavy rain put a dampener on proceedings for an hour but then the sun came out in time for lunch on Brandreth. The only difficult section was the decent from Grey Knotts on the steep scree slope which, for my tired legs, seemed to go on forever.
Sorry about the photo’s, next time I’ll remember to check the camera bag before I depart. Or I’ll get a better phone!