Blea Rigg and Silver How

Silver How overlooking Grasmere and Rydal

Sunday morning started off with a meet up at 8am for a swim in Bassenthwaite.  I'm just getting used to being out in the open water so it was great to have a swim with some others.

I did alright, I managed to do some proper swimming as previously I've found it too cold to keep my head in the water.  A neoprene cap sorted that out.

We swam out to a couple of buoys and I think I went a bit too fast, getting tired and needing a rest when I was out there.  Paul was very kind to hang back with me and we gradually made our way back in with plenty of rests.  I've ordered a swim safety float, it floats behind you and acts to make you very visible to boats.  It can also be used to keep some kit in and as a float aid if needed.  I'm looking forward to getting more practice in over the summer.

Ghyll Scrambling at Stickle Ghyll

After saying bye to my swim mates and warming up a bit, I met up with Dean and we headed to Great Langdale for a run.  The weather was a bit dull, I had planned to go up Stickle Gill from Stickle Barn and then decide whether to head over Harrison Stickle and to the left, coming down Rossett Gill or The Band, or my other idea of going right and navigating to the difficult to find Blea Rigg and then on to Silver How at Grasmere, coming back along the valley.  If you have read the title of this blog post, you probably have an idea which choice we made.

The climb up to Stickle Tarn was a nice warm up.  We passed a bloke carrying a sleeping infant on his back.  We decided to head towards Blea Rigg.  I remembered from my last visit that there are a few different peaks in the area and picking the actual summit out can be a bit difficult.  We enjoyed some navigation practice but did succumb to getting a grid reference from the GPS to be absolutely sure that we were heading to the right peak.

Harrison Stickle across Stickle Tarn

Some good navigation practice despite us resorting to taking a grid reference. We identified the distinct pincer like shape on Stickle Tarn and took a bearing over towards the summit.  We took the top path and then it was a case of estimating the distance to Blea Rigg, which we knew would be a high point.  I was looking out for the steep slope to the north east.  We headed up a little peak near where the paths merge by the two small areas of water.  There was a bit more water about and I couldn't be sure that the water we saw was the water visible on the map.  We took a grid reference at this point and saw that we were still a bit off the true summit.  As soon as we came back down from here, it was pretty obvious which the true summit was.

Dean at Blea Rigg

and me

From Blea Rigg we worked back down to the main track and enjoyed some nice running mostly down to Swinescar Hause, then picking up the track again and enjoying runnable tracks over to Silver How summit.  From here we dropped on a nice track, steep in places with some single track, down to Chapel Stile.  We dropped a bit sooner than I anticipated and came out further up the road than where the track comes down at Harry's Place Farm.  We had a quick check out of the Langdale Boulders, a famous climbing spot and then headed back down the road for a bit before picking up the track back to the Stickle Barn where I once again enjoyed chips and Dean watched me eat them.

Dorking at Silver How