Wetherlam in the rain and cloud

[gld73]

Had perfect weather when doing some of Wetherlam's neighbours 2 days earlier (Old Man, Brim Fell, Dow Crag) and regretted not doing a longer walk then, taking in some or all of the other Coniston Wainwrights. Rained the next day, and then was raining this day, but I decided not to go for 2 days without walking and hoped things would clear up (they didn't).

Anyway, was in no rush to set off from Merlewood as I wasn't planning a long walk given the weather. Parked on a side street in Coniston village (street parking restrictions ended 31st Oct until Good Friday), donned full waterproofs and set off at noon. There were several routes I'd looked at, but with the weather the way it was, and minimal visibility, I decided to do the relatively straightforward route up Coppermines valley to Levers Water and up to Swirl Hawse, then over to Wetherlam's summit. Church Back had a fair torrent of water coming down, and the drizzle and low cloud stayed present all the walk. Good track up to Levers Water past the Youth Hostel and old mine workings, couldn't see Old Man of Coniston etc as visibility was about 50m most of the way. Once at Levers Water, the good track ends, but there's a clear enough path to follow around the edge of the tarn and onwards, couple of very boggy patches in this weather, but takes you up to the big cairn at the col of Swirl Hawse. On a better day I'd have liked to turned left up the steep rocky ascent to Swirl How too, but I could barely see the ascent route and had no great desire to scramble over wet rocks with no views, so stuck to turning right and just heading along the worn route to Wetherlam summit. With visibility so poor I had no idea how far away I was from the summit, and by the time I saw the summit cairn on the rocky summit plateau, I was about 20m from it. As that was as far as the view extended, I just stayed at the summit for a minute before retracing my steps and heading back down the same route, rather than wander around trying to find one of the other routes down. Met 3 guys heading to the summit as I headed down, so I wasn't the last walker of the day (hadn't seen anyone past Levers Water, not a day for hill walking!) ... I thought they looked pretty wet and bedraggled, then realised they probably thought the same about me.

The descent didn't take long, and although the walk had been wet all the way, with no views, it hadn't been windy, it hadn't been cold, and I hadn't got lost, so it wasn't a bad day at all. Though I did put my wet hat on top of my car whilst getting out of my waterproofs and boots, then forgot about it and drove away. Ah well.

Left car 1200, got to Levers Water at 1252, Swirl Hawse at 1331, Wetherlam summit 1355, back to the car at 1523.