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The gremlins were at work when I did this report and they put some of my photo's out of sequence, they prey on the ones who are not computer savvy, the little sods.
We hoped for decent weather to-day as it was promised, the weather gods came up trumps, it really could'nt have been better.
Our plan was three Wainwrights from Hartsop, Brock Crags, Angletarn Pikes and Beda Fell.
To-day we had our youngest son Richard with us, he likes the mountains as we do but work prevents him from getting out as much as he would like.
This part of Lakeland is easy for us to get to and it offers plenty of variety from little 'un's to big'uns.
We parked in the little car park at the end of the lane in Hartsop and got underway. We headed initially to the filterhouse on the left hand bank of Hayeswater Gill, just shy of this building there's a track on the left doing a raising traverse travelling back on yourself. After a km or so there's a large boulder marking the start of the path heading NE up the slopes of Brock Crags, once on this we headed up the steep slope and then, near a line of wooden fence posts, took a direct line up the slopes towards the summit.
- Some of the views we had on the way up before the clouds blew in, Hart Crag to the left, Fairfield on the right.
- Hartsop Dodd.
- Gray Crag with Highstreet behind on the left, Cauldale Moor to the right
- Hartsop down below, just out of view.
- Local residents.
The clouds were down at this point so a bit of careful navigation was needed, I knew there was a cairn on the top, we found what I thought was the summit but it had no cairn, looked at the map and saw there were two lumps to this hill, we found the right lump and quite a large cairn, then, as if someone had opened the curtains, the clouds parted and the views were stunning.
- Denise and Richard on the summit of Brock Crags the clouds were gone by now and the views were great.
- Helvellyn, right, Dollywagen pike, middle, Fairfield, right
The clouds remained parted for the rest of the day.
From Brock Crags we saw our next objective, Angletarn Pikes, under a bit of snow the path was a bit sketchy so we made a beline for Angle Tarn as we could see the main path above it and, once on this, it was straight forward to the top of the Pikes.
There are two tops to Angletarn Pikes, the lower one is the southern one and has a large cairn,
- Southern Angletarn Pike, Rest Dodd behind and High Raise behind that, Angle Tarn below.
- Angle Tarn.
- Red Screes at the back, with Dove Crag and Hart Crag to the right.
- From left to rt, Hart Crag, Fairfield, St Sunday crag, Dollywagen Pike, Nethermost Pike and Helvellyn.
the northern top is, according to the map, the higher one and this has a microscopic cairn that doesn't do it justice.
- Denise and Richard on the northern top of Angletarn pikes.
- Rest Dodd and the Nab in the middle, High Raise, right and Wether Hill, left, at the back.
- Frozen Angle Tarn with late afternoon sun on the way back to Hartsop.
The weather was good and we had plenty of time so we set off at a steady pace just enjoying the fine conditions and clear views that were dominated by Place fell to the north
- Place Fell.
and a line of mountains from NW to SW including Helvellyn, St Sunday Crag, Fairfield, Hart Crag and Red Screes.
From E to SE Red Crag, High Raise, The Nab, Rest Dodd, the northern Lakes were under a cloud inversion so we could'nt see too much.
At Beda Head we stopped a while to take advantage of the views and then retraced the route back to Angletarn Pikes.
- Denise on Beda Head.
- Inversion in the Northern Lakes.
- Richard on Beda Head
- Zoomed St Sunday Crag.
- Pano from Beda Head towards the whole Helvellyn range.
- Great Views.
We decided to return to Hartsop from here instead of from Boredale Hause, the plan was to take in Place Fell if we had time but decided to save on the rushing about and take our time to get to Hartsop, which we did, and enjoyed every minute.
- Frozen Angle Tarn with late afternoon sun on the way back to Hartsop.
- The now drained Hayeswater, it was only to-day we were told that the dam was dismantled for why we were not told.
A good day out for us, the weather was a real bonus and we had fantastic conditions. With loads planned for 2015 here's hoping it continues.