Busy, Busy

This Weeks Stats & Diary

30/01/11 Fell Run - The Loweswater Fells (see below); 9 miles & 2,500 feet of ascent
28/01/11 Run, Solway Beaches - 7 miles on a fine cold afternoon, another special sunset
28/01/11 Teaching SRT - full day of ropework with R&R, very cold! Then out for the above run
26/01/11 Caving - Bull Pot of the Witches
25/01/11 Bike - 7 miles


Solway Coast

24/01/11 Seathwaite Wad Mine (again!)  
23/01/11 Static Bike - 12 mile

	Run	Bike	Walk	(all in miles)
This week	16	19	2	37
This year	27	35	11	73
		Ascent (run/walk) this week		3500
	This Year			7200

Its been a really good week, back caving / mining plus a full day of SRT on the surface; plus great running in the Loweswater Fells & on the Solway Coast. I must admit that body, mind & spirit are ready for the couple of days of activity rest that are now planned.

Fell Run (30/01/11)

With: on my own

Weather: still, quiet & cold (zero degC at Loweswater) but a keen north westerly made fell top conditions very cold; summits were cloud free

I followed one of Andrew Leaney's routes (http://www.leaney.org/) in reverse with a minor modification between Gavel Fell & Hen Comb which extended the route very slightly:





Attempt to show photo overview of area from just outside Loweswater

 Set off from NT car park & ran on track towards a flat calm Loweswater before ascending steadily through Holme Wood, a section that 6 months ago I would never have ran all the way. On to the track & around under the rocky buttress end of Burnbank Fell. At the stile I went off-piste, still ascending all the way before a pleasant run to the corner post at Burnbank Fell summit, it was freezing so no photo stop, just on with the (new) Montane jacket - a Litespeed H2O & a brisk run to Blake Fell summit (below):

Another short section with a frustrating loss of height brought me to Gavel Fell from where I deviated slightly from the Leaney route shown in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid the bog between Gavel & Hen Comb. However, the frozen ground once again did help to alleviate "bog issues" to some extent.

Its worth mentioning that this is new new territory for me & I was well impressed with the area, the fells themselves are yet another area of Lakeland that could be described as slightly more "Pennine" in character.

Anyway out of the bog & after having surrendered most of my height I began the ascent of Hen Comb - tussock grass; part frozen ground & steep ascent prevented me from running much of this section. The summit of Hen Comb yielded excellent views into the heart of the Lake District. I then once again descended to the West to pick up the miners / drovers (?) track above the beck - good fluid running back to the car.

 Gavel Fell summit & below views into the Lake District from Hen Comb.

Todays Run: 

9 miles

2,500 feet ascent

2 hours 45 min (pleased with this)

Wainwrights - four

Caving (26/01/11)

Venue: Bull Pot of Witches

With: Kevin Marsh; Ferg & Ian Wallace

BPOW is a bit of a bimble really but on a cold night with frequent heavy showers & four cavers returning after a long lay-off it was a good venue. Four pitches: starting from the tree down to the sump & back by SRT



Kev's Back



Me & Ian



Ferg



Centre Life     (http://www.blaithwaite.co.uk/)

Beware - Men at Work:!

Other Stuff

Kay & I went out for a drive around Buttermere this afternoon, mocha at the Bridge Hotel can be recommended. Kay took her camera - a bit of a photo tour: