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| Our walking group |
Robert Burns once said: “The best laid plans of mice and men
often go awry”.
This proved to be true
about our attempt at climbing the Coledale Horseshoe from Braithwaite near
Keswick.
There were 13 of us and Lassie the dog out on another
Twitter walk, some regulars and some who were joining us for the first time.
Our mission was the Coledale Horseshoe – a
series of six mountains with the potential to add two more if we were feeling
active. Simple!
The first mountain on
our route was Grisedale Pike and we headed off confidently from the car-park
along a low-level path at the foot of the mountain.
I was pleased about this as I had done the
Coledale Horseshoe a few years before and had taken the path on the other side
of the car-park so it was nice to do a different route.
We walked and chatted looking down at a frosty stream and in
front of us a valley stretching out towards Eel Crag and Hopegill Head and
behind us, views of Skiddaw and Blencathra.
The sun was shining, the mountains were snow-capped and I was wearing my
vibrant pink ski trousers and bright white ski jacket. No chance of losing me! All in all it was a perfect
day to be walking the fells.
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| Skiddaw & Blencathra from the wrong path |
After about 30 minutes of walking on a flat path gaining
absolutely no height at all it dawned on us that we were on the wrong path and
the towering summit of Grisedale Pike on our right was not getting any
closer.
We were in fact just skirting around
the bottom of it.
Group walking
mentality at its worse as we had all just been following each other assuming someone
else knew the way!
We toyed briefly with
the idea of scaling the exceptionally steep bracken-covered slope to reach the
ridge we should have been on but I think my face and the face of some of the
others meant that idea was quickly dismissed (but honestly it was so steep I
would probably still be trying to climb it now!)
We decided to head to the ridge at the head of the valley
and then double back to Grisedale Pike.
Good plan! Off we went again
still in high spirits with the view of High Force and Low Force waterfalls and
Force Crag mine (which looked like an abandoned set from an old Western film - you could almost see John Wayne appearing from
one of the buildings).
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| Force Crag Mine |
A tricky river crossing saw me waving my arms around to
balance but I made it safely to the other side although Sian had a tumble (she
was not the only one during the day by any means!) and then we started gaining
height for the first time.
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| Walking in pink with Gina (photo by Phil Corley) |
The snowy mountains all around were just beautiful.
Whilst the shadowy crags looked quite
forbidding at times we could see the sun catching the fells higher up and it
was stunning.
The strange thing was
however that our target of Grisedale Pike was getting further and further away
as the path snaked its way upwards but in the opposite direction to the one we
needed.
The path was starting to get icy
and I confess I slipped and caught myself on the bank (witnessed only by Jim I
am pleased to say) and as we reached the ridge we had another route
discussion.
Given Grisedale Pike looked
like a distant speck on the horizon (well not quite but nearly) we decided to
head straight to Grasmoor instead.
This
was one of the additional mountains not on the official horseshoe.
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| Walking into the sun |
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| Helvellyn range |
With each step we got further into the snow and it was
amazing. Grasmoor sloped up to the right with blue sky overhead and Eel Crag to
the left. Gina and I stopped for a photo
shoot and then after Gina slipped on the ice (earning a score of 10 for elegant
falling) we reached the col (dip) between the two mountains with the sun
pouring over us like custard over brownies (sorry – I was getting hungry by
then) and the silhouettes of the group looked striking. The Buttermere fells and the Scafells came
into view along with the Helvellyn range.
The Helvellyn range from that side looked a gentle and inviting series
of ups and downs whereas the Scafells and surrounding fells looked much more dark,
rugged and forbidding.
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| Climbing Grasmoor |
The final ascent to Grasmoor saw us negotiating snow that
had frozen overnight and was really crunchy and then slippery in places.
Ice-dancing became a new sport of mine but I
scored low points sadly.
As we got to
the first cairn though, we decided it was brownie time.
Hurrah!
Dave handed them around and I took one from
the box and then a potential disaster occurred!
Gina’s iphone in its red case slipped from her hand and started sliding
down the icy slope.
We all thought it
would come to rest in a little dip but it seemed to build up real momentum and
kept going.
Gina looked quite horror-stricken
at the fate that was befalling her phone so Dave started running after it on
the frozen snow with the box of brownies held aloft like a waiter holding a
silver tray
It was reminiscent of a scene
with Manuel in Fawlty Towers.
This led
to calls from all those in the party of “don’t drop the brownies Dave” and we
watched in awe as phone, brownies and Dave disappeared into the distance......
