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Almost succeeded in doing all the Coniston hills in one day,apart from a slight problem on Dow Crag.
I started from the centre of Coniston.The car park would have been £7 for the day so I found a place to park on the road for nothing.
The first hill of the day, and the biggest climb, was Wetherlam.You take the road signposted for 'Coppermines Youth Hostel' and then the path goes off to the right just after a waterfall.From here there are two paths up to Wetherlam.Wainright's book recommends the path up Red Dell, which turned out to be like a river of mud, followed by a very steep slog up the hill. I don't know what the other path is like.
- Going up towards Wetherlam
- Coniston Water
- Brim Fell summit looking at the Old Man
It rained onand off all day, but there were enough good spells in between the showers to get some excellent views. My photos probably don't do it justice.
The second hill was Black Sails, a bump on the side of Wetherlam just big enough to be a Hewitt, and then it's a steep scrambly cimb up to Swirl How.
- Swirl How from Black Sails
- Top of Swirl How
Great Carrs is a short walk along the ridge.I probably went to Little Carrs as well because I wasn't sure which cairn was the summit.
- Swirl How from Great Carrs
Then it's a straight forward walk down and up to Grey Friar.I didn't get much of a view here because of the clouds.
- Summit of Grey Friar
Then back down to the col, and there's a narrow path which contours round the side of Swirl How towards Brim Fell.
- Brim Fell and Dow Crag
- Seathwaite Tarn
From Brim Fell it's only a short walk to the highest point of the day, the Old Man of Coniston.
- Old Man trig point
- Dow Crag from the Old Man
Then it's along the ridge down to Goat's Hawse,and up the last climb of the day to Dow Crag.
At the top of Dow Crag you have to scramble up some rocks.I was a little apprehensive about this because it was misty and I didn't know how close I was to the edge of a 500 foot cliff.Anyway I climbed as high as I dared to.I'm not sure if I had my hands on the actual summit or if I was a few inches short of it.Either way I wasn't willing to climb any higher.
The rest of the walk was an uneventful descent over Brown Pike and down the walna Scar Road into Coniston.
- Down towards Coniston
I don't know what the rules are about hill bagging. If you've done 99.9% of a hill is it ok to claim it, or would that be cheating?