Dow Crag, Swirl How, Great Carrs and Grey Friar 05-08-18

Dow Crag, Swirl How, Great Carrs and Grey Friar 

05-08-18

My alarm went off at half 4 this morning, and I finally got out of bed at 5. Shower and dressed, car packed up and set off for the 2 hour drive to Walna Scar car park. The motorway was very quiet, and I made good time, parking up at 8am. There were a couple of other cars about, and a camper van that had obviously spent the night there, but it was very quiet while I poured myself a brew and changed my shoes. 

Today I had a plan, I was going to attempt my longest walk, taking in 7 Wainwrights summits along the way. Dow Crag, Brim Fell, the Old Man of Coniston, Swirl How, Great Carrs, Grey Friar and Wetherlam. Now this was the plan, but I was in no way confident that I would complete it, in fact I had "walk off" routes already planned incase I began to struggle at any point. 

I set off on my overconfident day of walking, up Walna Scar Road towards Torver Bridge, leaving the carpark behind and starting up the mild incline, passing a couple of wild campers tents along the way I realised how misty it was over Coniston Waters.

The Met Office website had predicted that visibility would be moderate at worst this morning, but they don't always get it right as I would find out in an hour or 2. The walk up Walna Scar Road is lovely, the mild gradient and cool air make for good progress and its not long before I reach Torver Bridge.

It was at this point I became aware of 3 paragliders  coming overhead, so I stopped and watched them gain altitude and then spin and free fall to a height of about 20 meters, they got so close in fact that the blue one waved and smiled, I returned the pleasantry and continued up the path.

Its at this point that the path changes to scree and the gradient gets steeper, its so humid that its not long before Im sweating, but the temperature is still cool, and its not long before my T-shirt is clinging to my body, but the breeze is cooling it off, its still not pleasant though.

I reach the point where the paths cross, and the view is fantastic, and a complete surprise.

 I make a right turn up towards Brown Pike. The path is well trodden, and very easy to follow, and its not long before I reach the Cairn. 

Looking North West from Brown Pike, the visibility was very good, looking South East you couldn't see a thing.

Brown Pike Cairn

Looking towards Dow Crag, the path between the 2 follows the edge of the cliff as it climbs up to the high point. With the mist so thick, you couldn't see just how shear, or high the cliff is, so I kept a safe distance from the edge and carried on to the first Wainwright of the day. It turns out the cliff is vertical, and very high, so it was good judgement to stay away from the edge. I made my way over Buck Pike and onto Dow Crag.

When I reached Dow Crag, I realised its just a rocky outcrop on the top, and after scrambling over the top, I realised I forgot to take a picture.

Its at this point you have to descend a fair way, before making the climb up to Brim Fell. So I made my way down on to Goat Hawse. It was at this point that I saw the first person on my walk since the car park, a fell runner ran past me on his ascent of Dow Crag. I remember thinking he must be mental to run up and down mountains for fun. I though now was a good time to have a break, and as I started my climb up Brim Fell, I found a flat rock to sit on and poured myself a brew and had a sandwich.

As I sat there looking at a rather dry Seathwaite Tarn, I evaluated my walk so far. I was feeling pretty good, I hadn't stopped too many times on the steeper climbs, my legs felt ok, and I had just passed my first "walk off" route, down past Goats Water and back to Walna Scar Road, and not thought about it. I grew confident.

After my sandwich and brew, I continued up the path which was well walked around the edge of Brim Fell, I didn't remember the path being in the direction I was walking, so I checked my route on my phone, and I wasn't on the path I had expected to take, in fact according to OS Maps, I wasn't on a path at all. It was still climbing, and it could only go to the crest of Brim Fell as long as it continued climbing. So I followed the path, and indeed it did bring me to the crest at Levels Hawse between Brim Fell and Swirl How. I looked back at Brim Fell and the Old Man of Coniston, and considered walking back to include them in my walk, but I visited both back in March, so I had already ticked them off my Wainwright list. The mist was totally covering the Old Man, so I decided to not bother, especially if you couldn't see anything from the summit. 

It wasn't long before I was at the summit of Swirl How, I had followed 2 blokes up, and they were taking a drink and having a chat when I arrived. The mist had just started to lift, and the Lake District was starting to become visible in the distance to the East for the first time today.

I didn't fancy hanging about so set off North to tick off my 3rd Wainwright of the day. Its a short walk to Great Carrs, and its pretty much downhill from Swirl How. This part of the walk had gotten much busier, there was a lot of walkers and runners between the Old Man and Great Carrs, and the sun had come out at last.

Looking West towards Grey Friars it looked high, again I had to descend before ascending to the cairn, but for some reason it looked a lot higher than I expected. I set off back to the path passing the War Memorial to a Halifax plane crash in the second world war, which killed 8 of the flight crew.

Despite my initial fears, the climb to Grey Friar wasn't as bad as I expected, and I reached the top with relative ease. It was definitely worth while as the view out towards Scafell is unbelievable.

The view is stunning in all directions, and it was definitely worth the climb to the cairn.

Looking back towards the Old Man and Dow Crag.

I liked the look of this rock, its now the screen saver on my phone.

To get to my final Wainwright of the day, Wetherlam, I had to climb back up Swirl How and down the opposite side, so I walked back down to Fairfield, and started back up to Swirl How cairn, it was at this point my legs went, completely hit the wall. It took me 30 minutes to make the short ascent to the top, and that half hour hurt. I stopped for a breather at the top and assessed my next move. I had quite a few "walk off" options available to me, I could climb up to the top of the Old Man if my legs would take me, and down the tourist route, I could retrace my steps and walk back down past Goats Water, I decided to continue towards Wetherlam, down Prison Band, I had a couple of options at the bottom including continuing up to Wetherlam summit.

I didn't stop on my way down, and took no pictures, every large step hurt, the rocky outcrop that you have to walk down was doing me no favours, I was actually thankful when I reached the enormous cairn at the bottom. I looked up the path towards Wetherlam, and turned right and continued down the path back towards the car.. The path got easier and my legs stopped hurting as much walking on softer ground, and I started feeling relief as I made my way towards Levers Water. By the time I got there I felt much better, my legs were tired, but nowhere near as painful, and I got distracted by the reservoir. What an amazing place, the water was lovely and clear, and I could see people paddling on the beach at the far end.

By the time I reached the beachy bit, everyone had disappeared, so I took the opportunity to wash my hands and face in the water, helped me cool down, and rid myself of any salt tidemarks on my face, which Ive had before after copious amounts of sweating. After 10 minutes of taking in the silence, I walked along the dam, and came up on this hole.

There was actually 2 of them, and they look like a bottomless cave, but I actually think they are mines, as they have been braced at the top, but they were fenced off, and I didn't fancy climbing over a fence. After this I made my way to the the tourist path up the Old Man, passing the Pudding Stone on my way, and eventually back to the car.

All in all I really enjoyed myself, compared to my original plan, I missed Brim Fell, The Old Man, and Wetherlam, but I did manage Dow Crag, Swirl How, Great Carrs and Grey Friar, so another 4 Wainwrights ticked off my list. I think that makes 9 completed now.  

In total 11.2 miles, and a total ascent of 4400ft.