Seat Sandal

[Ibex]

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After yesterdays accidental lie in I got up at 7.20am. Mainly because the others in the hostel woke me up, after keeping me awake all night. Got around 2 hours sleep and just thought 'bugger it' and got up.
Quickly went to Patterdale and parked the car up, then off up Grisedale valley. Set of at 8.50am, and the weather was pretty gloomy, with a lot of low cloud.


Grisedale valley from the car park. Gloomy!

I walked past The White Lion pub and up by the side of the public toilets and to the right and as I turned the corner there was a deer stood on the path looking right at me. i stopped dead in my tracks and we stared at each other for about 20 seconds. About 10 metres apart.
I slowly started to take my bag off, to try and get my camera out so I could get a photo of this moment. Sadly as the bag hit the floor, the deer lept off into the trees. Shame.
This was the first of a few weird animal meetings on this day.

I was taking the path around the North of Birks, and missed the turning right, down to the road. This is a gate in a wall, with a series of ruined old buildings in front of it. I just carried on stupidly and think I ended up on a path that hasn't been used for about 30 or 40 years.
Walked for ages on it, before getting to drop down to the proper path up Grisedale. Note to self, look at the bloody map you prat!

I carried on along the path and as I got opposite of Eagle Crag and turned a corner and suddenly was confronted by a group of cows. Not since the last airing of Loose Women has there been this many moody cows in one place.


Eagle Crag


Moody cows

Maybe it was because it was 9.30am in the morning, or maybe it was because they had two 'teenage' cows with them, but they did not like me being there.
It was like a scene from a zombie film. They all slowly turned and faced me and started to moo. It was a little odd. Some of them even walked onto the path. Then one of them tried to moo with a mouthful of grass, or phlegm or something, and it came out more as a gargle. 'Mwarghagahgahaghagaha'. Odd.

I edged round the cows to stop them getting stressed out and made my way up to the climbing hut. I raced up the last bit, because it started raining quite heavily, so I got in the lee of the building and put on my overtrousers and fetching hat, then took a few quick photos, after some shortbread and water.


Ruthwaite Beck


Climbing hut


Climbing hut plaque

I then made my way up the rest of the valley to Grisedale Tarn. I'm pretty sure its the only path up a valley, to no summit that has a series of false 'summits'. Just seems to keep going up!

I was greated with a view of Seat Sandal over Grisedale Tarn, with its head in the clag.



I decided to go try and go over Seat Sandal by both sides, so I decided coming down the right (West) side would be better, as its a shallower slope. So I headed up the steep East side of the fell. The first 20 - 30 metres of the ascent was a pretty horrible scramble, over what seems to be a broken old wall.
After that it eased out into just a steep climb. I got up to the top at 12.05am and then headed straight down the West flank. On the way down I got this photo of Grisedale Tarn.



You can see the wall going straight up Dollywagon Pike, with a faint path to just the left of it.

I dropped down to the Tarn and decided to ignore the path (again - prat) and walk around the edge of the Tarn. Should have just stuck to the path. At one point I went to put my foot on a rock, in the middle of a deep marshy bit. It wasn't a rock. I ended up ankle deep in the marsh. Luckily I was straight out, so didn't get soaked.
I got the the top of the valley and turned to have one look back at Seat Sandal, now totally clag free. Typical.



I also took a photo of the path leading up to one of my least favourite ascents. The arse end of Fairfield.



I call it the arse end of Fairfield, not because its opposing face, is clearly the front, but rather that scrambling up the extremely steep slope is an arse!

I got back down the valley in pretty quick time. Passed a Polish couple and a few Irish lads. Had a little chat with a couple next to the climbing hut and was offered coffee, which was nice of them.
On the way down I used the proper footpath and got back to the car in five and a half hours. A pretty misserable day in all, but I had some grim satisfaction in the fact that I forced myself up a fell, when I was knackered.

On the way back, the 3rd wierd animal moment happened. Normally sheep just toddle off when you get close, but I stopped and one actual come up to me. Gave him a little stroke on the nose, before carrying on.

It was a good little 3 day jaunt up to the Lakes. Only 6 new fells covered, but two of the days were blummin misserable.

[AJNicholls]

Well done dude. Glad you kept the spirit!

[Ibex]

It was a struggle at times. Epecially when you take the wrong path for ages and then the wildlife starts blocking your way.
I'm nothing if not determined though.
It was a long slog for one more blue balloon, but it beats just sitting on my arse. If the weather had been better I may have gone over Dollywagon Pike and Nethermost Pike too.

I did give the path up Dollywagon Pike a long and ruefull look, before heading back down the valley. I was vaguely tempted to go on up there, but didn't fancy trying to find the path down, the East flank of Nethermost Pike, down and round the side of Eagle Crag in the heavy clag.
If I had someone with me I would have been more happy about tackling a wet ridge, in case something went wrong.

I really need to get my arse in gear and work out how to use my GPS properly as well. Will give me more confidence in the clag.

[stevesey]

I really need to get my arse in gear and work out how to use my GPS properly as well. Will give me more confidence in the clag.

Yep - when I first got my etrex (10 years ago now) I felt much more relaxed in the clag. Now carry that and use ViewRanger on my phone, having maps as well on the phone is another step up - especially in those "where is the path moments" - being able see it's 10 yards to your left (when you can only see 5 yards) really does help (especially if your brain thinks it should be on your left).

[Ibex]

I've always been a very old fashioned kind of person. A map and compass should be fine for 99% of the time really, but when you lose your bearings in the clag, its handy to just be able to call up a grid reference from you GPS to locate yourself on the map.

When AJ and myself did Whin Rigg and illgill Head in the very bad clag and rain, the GPS was invaluable. We just kept on the path, but without the GPS it would have been difficult to be certain that we were indeed on the pretty indistinct summit.

[johnkaysleftleg]

Well done for persevering and bagging a hill. I'm not a fan of cows, moody or otherwise but I've certainly met sheep who aren't scared of people before. Once on the summit of Helvellyn there were two Herdwick sheep wandering around scrounging food from everybody. Never knew sheep liked crisps and sandwiches

[stevesey]

On the cows front I was followed by a herd when out on a local walk - I was skirting the edge of the field when they were near the side - they seemed to take a like/dislike to me and followed me round the edge of the field for a good 100m beofre I reached a stile. A most unsettling experience.