Field Walking and Mountain Walking

So it’s been a long while since my last update but once again that has been because I have been so busy lately. I am rocketing to the end of my second term of university and as I do my workload has increased by about 4 times! On Thursday and Friday we went out to the site of the new campus to do some fieldwalking. For the uninitiated this involves sectioning off a field into 10 by 10 meter grids and then methodically walking it and picking up the different things you see. This may sound a little boring and it can be but it also all becomes worth it when you fin a bit of Neolithic flint or a piece of Roman Samian ware pottery. The weather for both days was amazing so it was two days in the sun and was really worth doing. By the second day I really had my eye in and I was finding a lot more things, even if a fair amount of it was brick and ceramic derbies.

Tired from all of this hard work, and it’s more taxing on the body than you might think, it was time for the last Ben Lairig trip of the term, back to the Lakes again for what promised to be a hard but amazing trip. It was a small weekend trip, only 5 people going on it including me. We are all pretty fit and the weather forecast was very good so we knew we had to get something decent done. We settled on the Kentmere Horseshoe for the first day, a 12 mile stretch of 8 peaks dotted around a lake. The weather when we arrived on the Friday night was abysmal, wind and rain that made putting up the tents unpleasant and during the night kept us awake with the noise and the fear that the tents might actually fail. They did not and we awoke to a drizzly morning at 7.30 to get the most out of the day. After a quick breakfast of couscous we set off and by the time we had peaks our first mountain the rain had stopped. We knocked off another 4 before we stopped for a well earned lunch break after about 4 hours on the hill and then polished off the remaining 3 and dropped back to Bance’s car. The hills climbed that day were:

Shipman Knotts

Kentmere Pike

Harter fell (Eskdale)

Mardale Ill Bell

Thornthwaite Crag

Froswick

Ill Bell

Yoke
(12.2 miles, 1127m climb)

The whole thing only took us 7 hours so we returned back to the campsite in windy conditions and watched a few of the tents around us blow away! After a quick meal of pasta and some beer we ran to the pub that owns the campsite and settled in for the night.

While we were there we saw the weather forecast for the next ay and the view outside the pub windows cleared considerably. It was decided, in a slightly drunken haze, that we would get up at a similar time and then do the Fairfield Horseshoe the next day, same number of peaks but knocking in at about 10 miles, also if climbed from Rydal then all the major ascent is in the first part of the day. As we left the pub the night was warm and totally clear, so much so that Bance decided to bivvy, leaving me with a lot of room in the tent!
The weather the next ay was absolutely amazing, warm and clear so we set off. As we left the car park and started our ascent of Nab Scar we lost the path an soon found ourselves hacking our way up a 45 degree slope to get to the top, I won’t lie here it was a brutal climb that left us all beat and hurting but the plus side of it was that by not following the path we had peaked our first mountain in 30 minutes, leaving us a lot of time in the day. We made our way round the horseshoe in glorious weather; I was in a T shirt for 2 thirds of the day except when we peaked Fairfield itself and Carrig stayed in shorts the whole day. A great day was had by all and we decided at the end of the horseshoe that as we hadn’t come up on the path there was no need to go down on it and as we could actually see the car we would just aim straight for it. So we ran down a slope into the valley of the horseshoe and then hopped over a waterfall and down a path back to the car. Mountains climbed on day 2;

Nab Scar

Heron Pike

Great Rigg

Fairfield

Hart Crag

Dove Crag

High Pike (Scandale)

Many power ballads and ELO songs followed on a quick and uneventfull trip back to York and after the customary pint and Ultimate burger in the pub I slept for about 11 hours.

Happy Birthday Ben Lairig!

Last weekend I went to the Lake District, Langdale Valley to be exact, to help celebrate Ben Lairig (the universities walking club as I’m sure you have gathered by now from reading my blog) turning 25 years old. We left York at about 4pm on the Friday evening and after a nice journey to the lakes while listening to the Juno soundtrack arrived at the campsite around 7pm. We pitched a few of the tents that we had as only two cars had set off at 4 and then decamped to the ODG pub, famous among walkers for its friendly atmosphere and good beer. I had sausage and mash and a fair few pints of cider and over the evening people began to arrive, not just the other current members of the club but many of the people there for the reunion as well. Ben Lairg’s original captain even brought me a pint of cider while he told me all about the first few trips; it seems that not much changes over the years, even if the kit gets updated!

After 6 pints of cheap and powerful cider, good conversation and good food I stumbled back to my tent and had the best night’s sleep I have ever had in a tent.

The next morning I felt a wee bit fragile but we were up at 7.30 and on the hills at 8.30. As there will be a large shift out of the club next year due to a fair amount of graduation it was decided that all the people that would be left next year should walk as a group over the weekend, away from the committee so that we could bond and check our navigations skills, fitness and other things we will need to know when it comes to running the club next year. It was decided that we would climb Pavey Ark via the popular scramble of Jack’s Rake. This is a decent and steep scramble and I got to lead most of it, this involves more than simply going first, it involves picking out a route you know all your group can do an shouting out the instructions for it when it when needed, you have to be speedy without being to quick and very aware of the rest of your group, I very much enjoyed it. We were then up round the Langdale Pikes and knocked off Thunacar Knott, Harrison Stickle, Pike O'Stickle and High Raise. And then back down Pavey Ark towards the campsite. I got a bit dehydrated as the weather at the start of the day, and especially during the scramble was so hot that I drunk most of my water and the spring I was going to refill at had a dead sheep in it, but it wasn’t a huge deal as I had 6 pints of water in the pub before I had any beer at all.

It was back to the pub for the Rugby and the Reunion. My knee had swollen up to ludicrous proportions due to what it was decided was a trapped nerve as I was fine right till the last descent and was fine to walk 3 peaks the next day so don’t worry about me, so I had my leg up most of the night with an ice pack on it while I enjoyed my steak and ale pie. This severely limited my getting to the bar which was probably a good thing as it meant I walked the next day feeling fresh, even if we did stay up in the campsite drying room drinking beer after the pub had closed till 2 in the morning!

The next morning was a much slower start and a small group of us (all of us who were going back in jack’s car) decided to do Swirl How and its satellite peaks of Great Carr and Grey Friar. This is a long walk without too much ascent or descent once you get up the first peak and we had it all done and back at the car by 3pm, even with a one hour lunch break, however as we had been so busy the day before we felt that this was enough and high tailed it back to York, stopping at the Charles for a nice meal to end a lovely weekend.

I got back to discover that I am through the first part of an application process for field work in the alps and then passed out from exhaustion on my bed!