Snowy Lonscale Fell

at the car park

The roads were treacherous this morning, I nearly slid right onto Cockermouth roundabout in my brand new car so our proposed starting point of Peter House Farm was off limits due to the fact that the road up there would be very dodgy.  Instead we parked at Spooney Green Lane and headed up the Latrigg Path.  It was snowing heavily as we went up, I was pleased to be able to make it all the way to the car park and thought I had made good time but when I got home, Strava told me I had previously done the same stretch almost five minutes quicker.  Oh well.  We headed steadily up to the turn off point.  Enough snow on the ground to make the going soft and difficult.  It was when we turned off to head towards Lonscale Fell that we experienced the worst conditions of day.  To start with, the snow was very deep and we were not able to see the path.  As we got higher, we were going straight into the wind and snow was whipping into our faces.  As we got to the fence and walked up the final stretch to Lonscale Fell, it got a bit better but this was our highest point of the day and the wind was very strong.  We took a few snaps at the top and then headed back to the wall which would guide us down to the lovely Burnt Horse ridge.  As we got to the steeper part, the snow had really banked up and was very deep.  I was able to jump onto my front and slide down, kind of swimming across the top.  There was deep snow on Burnt Horse too.  Usually a really nice little ridge run, it was unrunnable.  A few times I got stuck up to my waist in snow and needed to roll and climb out.  The run down to the Cumbria Way path was nicer.  There was less snow here and the snow made the, usually rocky, path much nicer to run on.  We crossed over the valley to the track which runs along the base of Blencathra to the Blencathra Centre then we went back along lovely rolling trails through Brundholme Wood.

Paul and Dean pressing on up to Lonscale Fell

Dean having a "is that it?" moment on top of Lonscale Fell

coming down was more fun

Dean striding out

looking across the valley to Lonscale Fell/Lonscale Pike

looking back to Lonscale Fell, becoming a favourite.

Rannerdale Knotts after work

top of Rannerdale Knotts

It was a full moon tonight so we went to, what we thought would be a dark, low light pollution Buttermere valley, thinking we would have a lovely moonlit run.  There seemed to be quite a bit of cloud cover but we still had a nice run.  Very nice night, no wind.

We parked at the corner just by the wall before the road bends and then ran a little way up the road before climbing steeply up to the summit.  From here we ran along the ridge and down Rannerdale Valley, back around to the car adding a tiny little road section to make it up to 5k.

It was dark, very dark on top of Rannerdale Knotts.  We turned our headtorches off for a while and there was no way you could have made your way down without light.  Even though I had a spare battery and a separate spare headtorch, I was still glad to get back to the car.

looking down from the top of Rannerdale Valley

at the summit

Jonathan and man leg catalogue pose

Skiddaw

looking back down to Little Man and the lights of Skiddaw

On Tuesday, I was planning on an easy five mile road run.  Tuesday was day 30 of my challenge to run every day in December.  My mate Jonny sent a text asking if I fancied going up Skiddaw.  I said yes.  We parked at the Latrigg car park and just went straight up and down.  Pretty cold on top and I was pleased when we had dropped down to the fence.  Nice gentle jog back down the main track to the car.

from the car park, outline of Skiddaw just visible along with some stars

there was a thin icy snow layer from the gate at the top of Jenkin Hill

frozen summit

playing around with my phone capturing Jonny in a motion shot

Skiddaw Loop

across the frozen top of Skiddaw

I got off to a pretty late start today so just headed to Keswick and up Spooneygreen Lane towards Skiddaw.  I took one of my favourite routes, heading off from the main track up Skiddaw towards Lonscale Fell and down over Burnt Horse.  I then headed to Skiddaw House and climbed up Sale How to Skiddaw.  I came back via Carlside and through Dodd Woods across the fields back to Keswick.  A good 14 miles, timed just right with the daylight fading as I was near the end of the run.

Skiddaw fell group from the climb up to Latrigg

on the main track up SKiddaw looking back over Derwent Water

turned off now towards Lonscale Fell

from the very edge of Lonscale Pike looking over with Burnt Horse on the left and the Cumbria Way track visible below

running along Burnt Horse.  One of my favourite ridge runs

from the climb up Sale How.  Lonscale Pike is visible centre right with the little fluffy cloud above it.  Blencathra to the left.

the top of Skiddaw was frozen.  Here looking back down to Little Man.  The fence over Little Man carries on pretty much to the summit of Lonscale Fell.  A much easier way than the way I had just come but not as much fun.

very lucky with the cloud today, just experiencing a bit of whiteout on top of Skiddaw

even that soon cleared.

at the summit.  Turn around point.

the steep track down to Carlside.  Carlside Tarn is just visible with only a small climb back up to the top of Carlside

steep run down from Carlside to Long Doors.  I did plan to go up and down Dodd (the little fell below left) but time was a bit tight in terms of daylight.

heading across the fields, looking back towards the Skiddaw group.

route and elevation