Issue #61 The Misc Adventures Digest
A mountain milestone in the clouds
Hello there! A mostly photographic account of a couple of recent hikes this week. We have had to snatch the few good weather days between bouts of wind and rain, but the days are slightly longer now and mountain days feel much more doable, despite the presence of snow on the tops and swirling clouds never far away.
We had planned to attempt another Wainwright on Saturday, making it Benji’s twentieth - in case you don’t know, Wainwrights are a list of 214 mountains here in the Lake District, mapped, described and beautifully illustrated in a series of books written by Alfred Wainwright between 1955 and 1966. We are generally not interested in bagging summits or ticking things off lists, but the idea of summiting all 214 is a good motivator for Benji and besides, a day in the hills is never a day spent badly, whatever the motivation.
We only had a small window of weather unfortunately, and as we headed up the valley dark, ominous clouds loomed ahead. We changed plans, opting instead to amble along the beck, stopping to drink coffee and scramble down into ghylls in search of waterfalls and deep pools.
The following day, we were up early, headed for a different Wainwright for Benji to claim as his twentieth: Illgill Head above Wastwater and the Wasdale screes.
Clouds came and went as we climbed the lower slopes. The view was better behind us than in front, we stopped frequently to look back at the snow capped peaks and blue skies and wondered if we had picked the right mountain to climb.
The going was steep, but gradually levelled off as we approached the summit. By then we were trudging through slippery snow and the cloud had descended turning our whole world white. With snow covering any signs of a track, mist hiding cairns and sky blending into land we followed map and compass carefully; just to our right lay a sheer drop down the scree slopes towards the lake below, down which we did not want to tumble.
The summit cairn appeared out of the fog and Benji eagerly marched towards it to claim his twentieth Wainwright.
We hadn’t planned on lingering at the top, but just as we started back down the cloud lifted enough to give us grand views of the mountains in every direction. This is the third time in as many hikes that thick fog has cleared for us just as we reached the summit - I don’t believe in signals from the universe, but I’m happy to take that as a sign that spending time in the mountains will always be rewarded in some way or another.
P.S there are 2 videos of our weekend wanders over on our Instagram here and here.
Well, that’s all for this week. Spring is starting to make its presence felt in the woods and hedgerows - birch sap is on the rise, willow catkins are in flower and buzzing with bees on (still rare) sunny days, and I’m not quite sure but I think I felt some warmth from the sun for a brief moment on Tuesday. We hope that wherever you are, signs of spring are helping to melt away the hardness of winter…
With warmest wishes,
Andrew, Emma and Benjj
x
Stunning scenery and an awesome adventure!
Gorgeous photos! What a lovely adventure!