Lake District - Navigation Errors

Events

22 Nov

I had a superb 4 day trek around the Lake District in August, thanks to a route suggested by Peter Dixon (@munro277) on twitter! The circular route started and finished at the Blencathra Centre and seen me walk approximately 80km with 6000m gain.

I started my walk in sunshine but that soon disappeared for most of my trip and I spent a lot of it in cloud, which means I'll have to return again to see the views....Despite the cloud, it was a memorable few days, the scenery is special and the hiking is good. Going at the end of August might have been a mistake as there were plenty of people on the hills!

Being in the cloud gave me plenty of opportunities to practice my navigation skills. I made one error but quickly realised and corrected it. One of my other errors was on choice of route near Scafell Pike. I'd taken the corridor route from Styhead Tarn, which was an excellent suggestion by Peter but my choice of route a km away (NY2150179) from the highest point in England, was not so clever.

I decided to head for the col between Scafell Pike and Broad Crag, although it looked absolutely fine on the map, I ended up with a bit of a scramble up to the col, probably because visibility was so poor and I couldn't see an easier way. The scramble in miserable weather wasn't very nice. I should've stayed on the green dashed route going up the west side, which I'm sure would've been better, although I've never done it, anyone know?

However, after my small scramble and reaching the col, I met a chap who had just come down from the top and he asked me if this was the way to Wasdale, he'd pretty much gone 180deg in the wrong direction. We walked back up to the top together where I spent 15 minutes talking to others having the same dilemma!

After my tour around the tops I camped just below Thunacar Knott, the clouds lifted, the rain stopped and the evening sun started to break through, kettle on, perfect.