Friday 1 June 2012

A Challenge on a Mountain May 16 th pt2 Fairfield

After a great start to the day , finding and shooting my first ever Duke of Burgundy it was now time to climb a mountain!   Fairfield was today's target at 2964 ft and includes a scramble up a scree of loose stone! cant wait :)
I parked up in the Dunmail raise and started to climb up "raise beck" towards Grisedale tarn. the blue sky of the morning had disappeared and replaced with quite thick cloud!  not great for photography but being a lot cooler than the early morning was much better for climbing:)   in fact it was quite cold considering it is May!!   this was taken about halfway up the waterfall section , looking back to Dunmail raise.

       
and looking upwards!


a few quick shots of the waterfall, must come back mid winter when snow on the ground and they are frozen!!!!



                          The path climbs steeply following the waterfalls until it levels out


               eventually i get my first view of Grisedale Tarn , and Fairfield summit on the right


in this image you can clearly see the path winding its way up the scree towards the summit!

This is the beginning of the steep climb towards the scree section!



At the top, just before the very steep climb to the summit , i meet two ladies coming down , they had just come from st Sunday crag and had tried to climb the scree but found it too loose , they said a couple other guys had warned them not too try as it was extremely slippery with loose shale sliding under the feet!      i had already made it this far , so wasn't going to give up now!              i thought!  cant be too difficult could it?    any how , a quick shot looking down towards Grasmere with Coniston in the distance.


here is a phone pic of the scree section, looks quite daunting actually looking up , i was thinking "how the hell do i get up there then?"


starting to climb up the shale, & as already mentioned was sliding from under my feet , so i chose to go off the path on the right hand side , it was a mixture of grass and rock, much steeper but i could get a decent foot hold and i had no trouble climbing up the steepest section of scree before coming to a more normal rocky path!   i said hello to one of the locals :)   but didn't get a reply:D


                                        The view down towards Ullswater was magnificent!



and looking down on Grisedale tarn, with Dollywaggon pike behind and Helvelyn range in the background!  think might climb Dollywagon from Grisedale sometime:)  then over Helvelyn!


                                  looking down to Grasmere with Great Rigg on the left



Finally the summit plateau, a fairly flat top with multiple cairns and two small wind shelters:)
as you can see, very flat with Windermere in the distance!   so when someone says you wont make it, or too dangerous/slippy, ignore them lol   wouldn't have missed this for anything!




Looking towards Helvelyn over to the left, with St Sunday Crag right of centre.  it was while standing by this shelter a person appeared from knowhere and said "Gooday mate, bloody freezin up here! " it was a guy from australia on an annual 3 week holiday in the lakes :)  he was correct, for May it was freezing!!!!!


another view of yet another cairn with st Sunday crag on the left!


a wide view showing Windermere on left, then Esthwaite water and Coniston water. with Great Rigg running down the centre to the right.


Another cairn , this time facing towards Langdales with Easedale tarn just visible near centre of image and Helm crag to the left of it!  as you can see the cloud was really building so i decided to make my way back down.


a view of Seat Sandal on the left of Grisedale tarn, starting to get quite dark now!!  the path back takes me through the gap behind the tarn, so a long way to go!!!


If you would like to read Tanyas account of her funny Fairfield trip and a really good blog of lake district walks.click here   Heelwalker


all images taken with canon 5d2 & 17-40 L

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the recommendation Phil :-)

    Great blog - I haven't climbed Fairfield from that route (although have been up Raise Beck to Seat Sandal and to Dollywagon Pike) so haven't attempted the scree...maybe one day!
    Great photos even though the sun wasn't being kind. I love Fairfield in spite of my experiences on it!!

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