Skiddaw 7-7-19
Skiddaw 7-7-19
First of all, I want to say this trip was meticulously planned, but like many of my trips it wasn't. Its something that Ive wanted to do for a long time, and finally got around to it. So in a nutshell, a trip up a mountain, at night to watch the sunrise. Simple. I had considered quite a few summits for this, Snowdon was high on the list, the Llanberis path was pretty much ideal for what I wanted, a nice wide, well marked out path all the way to the top, but its now very common for nighttime climbs, and I wanted to do something a little different. Coniston's old man was another consideration, but Ive climbed that numerous times now, and I wanted a new tick in the box. So, Skiddaw fitted the bill, Ive wanted to climb Skiddaw for a few years now, and it was ideal for an ascent in the dark. Easy access, easy to follow path, and virgin territory for me. Also I would have pretty good views of the sunrise given its location in the Northern Fells.
So on a random Saturday night, I decided to pack my light bag with a bottle of water, rain jacket, head torch and handheld torch, got in the car and set off towards Cumbria at about 23:30. Now this was to be my first climb since August, when I walked some of the Southern Fells, and I wasn't confident about my walking pace. Since this was to be a basic 'up and down' in the dark, I didn't pack heavy, planned no detours, just a straight forward climb to the summit, and back down after watching the sunrise. I had read online that there is a carpark about a third of the way up Skiddaw, near to Latrigg, which is right on the path to the top. As a guide I had read that from this carpark its a rough 2 hour 30 minute climb to the top. So with that in the sat nav, I set off on a completely uneventful 2 hour drive to Keswick.
I arrived at the carpark at exactly 01:30, and besides a car and a camper van, the carpark was empty. I parked up and jumped out and looked around, it wasn't completely pitch black, but it wasn't far off. The moon was out, but it was only a narrow crescent moon, and it was already very low in the sky, so it wasn't reflecting any noticeable light. the sky was a dark shade of blue, and you could just make out the shilouette of the surrounding hills against the night sky.
One massive benefit of the dark skies was the amount of stars that were visible, the last time I saw so many stars was on a cruise while passing across the Bay of Biscay between France and Spain. The sky was clear, with the odd small cloud, and visibility was very good. I changed my boots, and grabbed my bag, put on my head torch and set off up the car park towards the gate that would lead me onto the path that would take me to the top. Once through the gate to take a sharp left and follow the wall along the very distinct path. It took me 5 minutes to adjust my head torch, I use it for work and have found that if I use it on the highest setting, it drains the batteries within a few hours. I had put new batteries in before I left home, and had a set of spares, but I didn't want to be fiddling about changing them if they died on the way up. I set the head torch on a low setting, it was so dark, that I didn't need a massive amount of light to see the ground infant of me. I knew I wouldn't need the head torch on my descent as the sun would be high enough to see clearly.
After around 50 meters you arrive at a gate, and the path splits in 2, the right hand fork takes you along the Cumbria Way towards Skiddaw House, but I took the left hand path, which leads towards the summit of Skiddaw. I couldn't see them, but I could hear plenty of Sheep, bleating around me, the fence to my left was covered in sheeps wool, so I imagined in the darkness that that field was full of grazing sheep. My head torch wasn't shining far enough, so I got my other torch out of my bag, its a big heavy duty Maglite, and shines for miles, I clicked it on to see where the sheep were, and I froze when I saw what looked like a tombstone light up in my torch light. I honestly didn't know what to make of it, and it certainly wasn't expected, I have to admit it creeped me out a little bit, and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
One massive benefit of the dark skies was the amount of stars that were visible, the last time I saw so many stars was on a cruise while passing across the Bay of Biscay between France and Spain. The sky was clear, with the odd small cloud, and visibility was very good. I changed my boots, and grabbed my bag, put on my head torch and set off up the car park towards the gate that would lead me onto the path that would take me to the top. Once through the gate to take a sharp left and follow the wall along the very distinct path. It took me 5 minutes to adjust my head torch, I use it for work and have found that if I use it on the highest setting, it drains the batteries within a few hours. I had put new batteries in before I left home, and had a set of spares, but I didn't want to be fiddling about changing them if they died on the way up. I set the head torch on a low setting, it was so dark, that I didn't need a massive amount of light to see the ground infant of me. I knew I wouldn't need the head torch on my descent as the sun would be high enough to see clearly.
After around 50 meters you arrive at a gate, and the path splits in 2, the right hand fork takes you along the Cumbria Way towards Skiddaw House, but I took the left hand path, which leads towards the summit of Skiddaw. I couldn't see them, but I could hear plenty of Sheep, bleating around me, the fence to my left was covered in sheeps wool, so I imagined in the darkness that that field was full of grazing sheep. My head torch wasn't shining far enough, so I got my other torch out of my bag, its a big heavy duty Maglite, and shines for miles, I clicked it on to see where the sheep were, and I froze when I saw what looked like a tombstone light up in my torch light. I honestly didn't know what to make of it, and it certainly wasn't expected, I have to admit it creeped me out a little bit, and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
I continued on, the path dropped down a little bit, and I passed through another gate, before the path started to climb steeply. When I was planning my route I had read that from the carpark, the first mile or so was the hardest part of the journey to the summit, and it was. Walking at night is completely new to me, and I found that only being able to see 10-20 meters ahead of me, actually benefitted me, I could make out the outline of the hill in front of me, but I couldn't make out the direction or steepness of the path more than a few yards ahead, and not knowing what lay ahead really spurred me on. Normally on walks, especially on steep gradients, I give myself a target, and rest when I reach that target, so that could be a turn in the path, or a rocky outcrop, but in the dark I couldn't see anything, so I just carried on, and on. I had read that on a good day, in decent weather, its a 2 and a half hour walk to the top of Skiddaw from my starting point, but I had allowed myself 3 hours 45 to reach the top because I was out of practice, and was expecting to stop and rest quite a lot. As I say, the path climbs very steeply, and I was already beginning to build up a sweat, and was breathing pretty heavy, so I stopped to take a drink of water. I turned round to see my progress, but couldn't see anything of my route. I could see Keswick though, or more accurately, the street lights of Keswick.
In the distance, I could see torch light. Somebody else was out walking in the darkness, but it looked like they were miles away, but they were walking towards me. I didn't fancy being caught up, so I turned round and set off again. The path started to zig zag up the steep slope, and it wasn't long before it started to level out, my pace quickened as I realised I had done the hard work, and from now on, the slopes would be much more gentle. I could see the outline of the Little Man hill as the path swept around the right of it, and soon enough I was stood at the bottom of the climb to the summit of Little Man. At this point, you are stood at yet another gate, if you turn left before the gate, that path will take you straight up the Little Man, but if you go through the gate and follow the path beyond, it leads you around the back of Little Man, and on to the final climb to the summit of Skiddaw. I took the path through the gate, ignoring the Little Man this time. Dawn had started to break, the sky was turning a lighter shade of Blue as each minute passed, it still wasn't light enough to turn my torch off, but I could now make out the difference between Sheep and Cairns. Over to my right I could see Blencathra, and spotted a torch light on the top, I wondered if it was the same person as I saw climbing up Scales Fell as I passed it on my drive towards Keswick earlier in the night. I rounded Little Man and came upon the final gate before the summit, when I suddenly heard voices behind me. I turned round and saw what I originally thought was a horse and rider coming up the path behind me, but as they got closer I realised it was 2 men walking at pace. I stopped at the gate and dropped my bag, and took a quick drink of water before the final climb, and to allow the 2 walkers coming up behind me to over take, the usually "morning" pleasantries were said as they continued their speed through the gate and off up the final climb. I followed, much, much slowly, following the marker cairns up the path, over a few crests until I spotted the Trig Point that signalled the end of my climb.
I took a few photos, and settled down behind a windbreaker, out of the cool breeze. I had been sweating heavily and my Tshirt and over layers where wet, especially where my bag had been on my back. I had considered before leaving the house bringing a dry top and fleece, but had decided against it. I regretted this decision now. I put my water proof coat on, as an extra layer against the breeze, but I was still very cold while I waited. I watched the torch light on Blencathra, as it desended and eventually went out of sight. It was while I was waiting that a thought occurred to me, at that moment in time, it was highly probable, that I was the highest person in England, sat in the cold waiting for the sun to come up. Skiddaw is the 6th highest peak in England, standing at 931 meters.
Sunrise was at 04:46, and at 04:40 I set up my camera to record a time-lapse video of day break, it was at this point I realised although the sky was clear over the Lake District, over the the East, it was very, very cloudy, especially with low cloud. My confidence was dwindling of getting a decent video/photo of the sunrise, and my fears were realised when after 10 minutes after sunrise, I still hadn't seen the sun. Gutted.
I took a few photos, before I realised the clouds were drawing in from the Southwest, and I thought it was time to make my way back down.
The journey down was a lot easier. Both torches where back in my bag, and I could see everything around me, including all the sheep. The walk around the Little Man was straight forward and fairly quick, it was only when I reached the top of the steep path, that I actually realised just how steep it was. it was unbelievably steep, and it wasn't long before my knee's started to hurt as I descended.
A quick photo of Keswick in the daylight.
As I made my way down, I passed walkers making their way up, again the pleasantries were made as we passed one another. I ended up having to walk on the grassy verges at the side of the path as my knees were not taking the impact of the stone path particularly well, but it wasn't long before I was back at the bottom, looking back up the path I made my way up in the dark.
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