I saw a route very similar to this posted by others a few years ago, so as my friend Lee needed these Munros we hatched a plan to complete it over 3 days and 2 nights After a night in a B&B in Dumbarton we left the car at Victoria bridge at 8-30 am under blue skies,it was to be a hot wknd with 23-24c in the valleys and even 18c on some of the summits We had two great high camps one 20 ft below the summit of Beinn nan Aighenan and the other on top of Meall nan Eun,the weather was very warm and held mostly. We had a little rain the 2 nd night and some strong winds and clag on the last 2 Munros .....a great return to these hills which i did first just over 20 yrs ago As theres so many pics,even after much editing,for this trip ive just put a link up to my Google Album https://photos.app.goo.gl/KYYPQLXvTvYNNi3S9 There were another two blokes out on Ben Starav when we go to the summit,he kindly let me use these four pics he took of me and Lee,thanks to David Main
Ive picked just a few off my Album that i really liked and posted those
Heres a video i did of the trip,ive left music off as im sick of Youtube removing it....its a bit long as ive done all 3 days in the one video
The Holiday season makes the Lakes busy,so i decided on visiting some new ground,so ended up making a loop from Garsdale in the North Yorks...
I was there early so that i could check out some parking,Lee arrived at 7 pm and we were soon following the sun up the valley as it headed downwards,taking the temprature with it
The ground was really rough and it took some finding to get a flattish area to pitch up,but we found one in the shape of a quad bike track
The night brought a good frost of 3.7c and the shelters had a heavy coverign of frost in the morning..i should mention that the wid was with us from the off...so that we were constantly in a minus windchill,for all of the 3 days we were here
Even with the biting wind we had some great views in all directions as we packed our gear away
Having not been to this area before i was keen to grab a few peaks,this being the case my route had a big "Dog leg" as we headed right out to Great Shunner Fell
The wind had been at us all day so when we reached High Seat we decided to head round to the West side to try and get out of the wind,we partly managed this and it was nice to sit in the shelters and brew up
It looked like we would get a belting sunset but cloud swallowed up the sun,a bit of nice glow but a no show, the temperature dropped quickly
A Summit to Eat meal in two wraps made an excellent filling meal,chased down with a few more brews and some Lakeland Toffee Vodka
The night brought another nip down to -3.8c and with no sunshine at camp we packed quickly and went to hunt for a way down the cliffs so we could cross the valley.The church at Outhgill had some lovely Yew trees at its entrance
We climbed up to Little Fell and then, into a strong wind,gusts at times too 50 mph , onto Wild Boar fell
From there we just followed the ridge along to Swarth Fell,hiding behind the wall for dinner
Although I chat online with Matt often I had not seen him for two years,and that was as he rushed to get on his train home after a trip we all did too Sweden,so it was good to have a catch up
Luckily he had a wknd off so I plotted us a rough route out and we met around 7-30 am at the top of Dunmail riase
Unfortunately we walked up into a thick clag,which did at times promise of inverting or even clearing but sadly didn't till we were well past Hellvellyns summit area
It had been a cold walk along the tops but we at least got some clearing out of the clag and by the time we dropped of the main ridge it had cleared out to give some views
Matt had brought his MLD Duomid while I had brought its big brother the XL with the new prototype solid walled inner i was testing out
Both were soon pitched and instantly cut off the cold windchill as we sorted gear and had a few brews
Sadly we didn't get a sunset as the clag came back and apart from a lost walker,who I tried to help ! we never saw a soul which was nice
My tea came was consumed speadily and as I lay back on my matt I heard the start of the rain,which stopped after an hour or so,but left us still in clag
Luckily a venture out to drain fluids some time after 10 pm revealed a nice sky,so we were both out taking pics as the cloud covered and revealed the cloudy starry night
Advert ! Food supplied by the excellent Basecamp foods as normal
The wind was a still fresh and gave abiting windchill but we did get a bit of nice light,even if a distant bank of cloud tried to deny us any colour
The wind still had its bite but it was lovely day to be up high in the mountains
Credit to Matt Holland for this pic
It was a nice walk back the same way,thankfully clear this time so Matt could see the views he had missed the day before
Picture above showing the short section at the top of Swirals and the snow free ridge behind,but one slip here would end nastily
Swiral and Striding edge ridges
Mr Holland enjoying the excellent views we were treated to on Sunday
We took the path down towards Wythburn church then back up to the cars.. a good stroll out
