Hot, tired, cold

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I reckon Ambleside is a great place. Surrounded by Lake Windermere and some quality mountains, easy access to some of the best parts of the Lakes. One of the walking advantages is that you can walk from the door of your chosen accomodation into some of the best lakeland scenery.

My favourite walk is the Fairfield horseshoe which I start from Rydal mount but can easily be done in reverse from Ambleside itself.

The route follows the road past the Church at Rydal Mount and heads for Nab Sca. This has both good and bad points. To start with the good, you get a lot of height quickly and at the top of Nab Sca you get great views of Conniston and the Langdale Fells, the downside is that it hurts. Stick with it though it won't hurt for too long.

Ascending up Nab Sca the inevitable leg burn kicked in but the crisp winter views and partical cloud inversion kept the motivation high and I plodded on heroically through the pain barrier and onto Nab Sca.

Nab Sca is a worthy walk on its own and shouldn't be discounted by those who want to avoid the main summit, it can easily be joined with a jaunt into Grasmere and a circuit of the lake. The blue sky and low cloud (partial inversion) meant that the camera was out and i started snapping away madly.

The ridge route from Nab Sca up to Fairfield (873m) taking in Great Rigg (766m) is as clear as it gets, but the leg and lung pain is far from over. The route increases seemingly endlessly, but as compensation you get a wonderfully airy feel, and the sense of adventure increases as you walk away from Ambleside and towards the fells.

The blue sky had decided to do a Houdini act and had been replaced by some heavy cloud. Passing over Great Rigg the pockets of snow increased and on the final ascent to fairfield, the cloud has come to say hello and had brought with it the wind and the cold. Similarly the level of snow increased, in places to about ankle deep.

My planned drink of hot vimto (drink of kings) on the summit in the warm winter sun had entirely vanished and instead I was surrounded by grey, wind and inevitably cold.

The Faifield summit is a right pig to navigate off in bad weather. The top is extremely large and rocky and has several paths leaving the summit in a large number of directions, in addition there are plenty of cairns to get you nice and confused. You either need a good knowledge of the peak of good navigation skills. Failing either of those a big slice of luck should be ordered in advance.

I was confident in both my knowledge of the summit and navigation skills, therefore, it was no surprise when I took the wrong route and headed off to St Sunday Crag (instead of Hart Cragg (822m) and Dove Crag (792m)). I realised after a few minutes and scrambled back up the snowy slope to the summit before, re-reading the map and compass! Sanity prevailed and I headed off again hoping for second time lucky.

All was well and I dipped in and out of the cloud on my way to Dove Crag. The route back into Ambleside is similarly easy to navigate as the ascent on the assumption that you locate the correct wall. Once achieved follow it all the way down soaking up the views in fornt of you. the descent is relatively kind and the dodgy knee brigade shouldn't have too much trouble.

Back into ambleside its a quick jaunt back to Rydal and the car, for those in Ambleside and well deserved pint of decent Cumbrian bitter (flat cap and pipe not included).

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Photos

View across Lake Windermere
Views begin to open up on ascent to nab sca

Coniston Fells
A pain killing view near top of nab Sca