A Central spine walk,with a wild camp on Randerside March 2019

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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    




Links to video i took 



https://youtu.be/zNz4zheo0t0

Thanks for looking and Safe travels 

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