Thursday 10 August 2017

Overnight Camp on the Summit of Coniston Old Man

Truthfully I suppose we camped approx 25m away from the summit! Ian ( @ianwood2011 ) let me know a couple of days ago that he was thinking of this trip and asked if I'd like to come along...I was thankful of the invite as motivation for a camp has been seriously lacking! We only decided to go  at 4pm, so I quickly packed and met Ian up at the moor carpark at 6pm.
It was a superb evening as we set off up the track past "The Bell"...and into the shade...


As we gained height up the "Tourist" path the views started to open up, its very familiar ground but remains a favourite.

The path passes through several areas of slate quarrying, workplaces of some of my Great uncles and Uncles.

Having stopped at Low Water to fill our bladders/bottles we were soon on the summit. Greeted by a chilly North wind we were quick to get the shelters up.

We found a couple of good pitches, although getting pegs in was a challenge! But we expected that!

Ian getting to grips with his Gatewood Tarp, it was interesting to compare it with my Deschutes.

Watching the sunset, we could just make out the Galloway coastline.

All the pictures in this post were taken with my Sony phone....And this is rather grainy!
Looking East towards Windermere, and a just past full moon

After a decent nights sleep, with barely a breeze the sunrise was nothing special. The lakes all had a blanket of mist over them.

The early sun starting to light up my tarp as I packed up. Ian was to be at work for 9am so we had to get going.


We descended over easy ground to Bursting Stone quarry (I've always known it as "Brossan Stane")
Once below the quarry the old road made for easy progress down to the Walna Scar Road and then back to the cars.

Reflections of the Old Man in the huge car park puddle.
It had been a good overnight trip, probably the best time to be on the Lakes hills at this time of year

6 comments:

  1. Nice photos! I hadn't realised, or had forgotten, you could see Galloway from up there. Sure it wasn't Morecambe Bay? 😉😉😉

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    1. Thanks David, yes I had to give it a bit of thought...but the sun was setting to the Northwest...drawing a line from the summit over Whin Rigg (and to the right of Harter Fell)the first land beyond the Cumbrian coast is the Whithorn area.

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  2. Great stuff. Makes me sick you had good weather and passing The Bell. Ha.

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    1. Cheers Alan...I did think of you! Ian lives in Grange and I'm near Junction 36/M6, so we can weatherwatch for the good stuff! Iwas commited to a short walk at 11am with P. and Ian was at work so it worked out great!
      Dull and drizzly here in Kendal again today...(you're not here are you? :-) !!

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  3. If I was there Al it would be thunder and lightening.

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    1. Haha...if there was even a slim chance of thunder & lightening I definitely wouldn't be there!! :-)

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