3 Satellites - Castle Crag - Whinlatter - Great Mell Fell

[Phooooey]

Castle Crag - Whinlatter - Great Mell Fell


Took in a few satellite fells today with my walking partner John and Damson the dog as usual. These were mine and Damsons 118th to 120th Wainwrights.
Following forecasts for the day of high winds on the fell tops we made the decision to cover off 2 or 3 of the smaller climbs covering those without ridges.

Castle Crag was first up from Grange village and tested us on the steep sections towards the top over the few wooden stiles and up the slate path. We had the fell to ourselves only bumping in to another couple when almost back at the car. John's bag came unzipped at some point on our adventure and his coat dropped out which we only found out when returning to the car. We had a quick walk back to the river but couldn't see it anywhere !!

View south of Borrowdale from Castle Crag

Damson on Castle Crag Summit

Gangsta John on Castle Crag

Damson & I on Castle Crag

John on Castle Crag summit

Whinlatter was next following the green trail from the Forest Centre and heading west from the 4 way junction toward the edge of the forest. From the gate we headed up the fence line and then west again towards the fell top. We pushed on to Brown How for a couple of pictures before heading back roughly the way we came up.

Atop Whinlatter

John and Damson on Whinlatter

View from Brown How

Descending through Whinlatter Forest

Last for the day was over to the east and the satellite fell of Great Mell Fell which I have passed many times on my travels and thought it looked fairly small and therefore should be fairly quick. Needless to say (as with most fells) this proved not to be the case and was in fact extremely boggy, energy sapping and at every turn seemed to grow bigger. Its one of those fells that you know you need to knock off the list but probably won't ever bother doing again. It does have some nice views from nearer the top back towards the "Dodds" and St Johns in its favour however. I also swapped cameras from my Nikon D50 to the compact for this fell as we left the packs behind and found that I had no battery power when getting to the top. John got proof of reaching the top on his mobile however and saved the day. Picture to be loaded later.

Second time out this year after Christmas and it told when on Great Mell as we both claimed we should have left it at two summits. 788m up and down spread over 11.5 km with about 4 hrs driving to, from and in between equates to the need for a nice hot bath !!

[SusieThePensioner]

Thoroughly enjoyed reading your 3 reports and some nice photos
Glad Damson wasn't wet today

[Phooooey]

Cheers Susie,
Damson made the most of it on Sunday bombing about all over the place and only getting wet through the boggy patches on top of Whinlatter and Great Mell Fell.
We both lost a few Christmas pounds over the last two weekends and getting back into the swing of it. Helvellyn again this weekend from Glenridding Dodd & Sheffield Pike with a few other additions providing the wind doesn't kick up again and the weather stays reasonable (obviously don't mind a bit of rain or snow ... lol)