The Old Man and 1/2 a Mountain Marathon

Sick of getting wet on the bike in this barmy summer weather we're having I've started to do a bit more running.

It started out a few few miles here and there, now I'm going a little further, and higher!

Today Max and I did a run from Dunnerdale.



Max, ready and eager

We set of from the bottom of Walna Scar, the national park weather forecast, which is normally very reliable, was for a nice day 0% chance of rain! Luckily I'm packed a jacket.

Dunnerdale

The sky's were still heavy with cloud when I left home, they looked even more angry as we set of from the car. Climbing up Walna Scar we soon ended up in the cloud and sure enough the rain. We headed over Brown Pike, Buck Pike and then Dow Crag in the damp cloud, dropping down from Dow crag we dropped below the cloud giving good views of Coniston in the distance.




Coniston from the North side of Dow Crag

We soon headed back up into the clouds as we headed for the Old Man (of Coniston).

Climb up to the Old Man from Dow Crag.

Max leaving the summit after causing chaos for 5 mins!

So far we'd covered 3 miles, done 4 summits in about an hour. next we headed North along the ridge to Swirl How, the weather wasn't showing any signs of improving, luckily there is only one path so navigating is pretty simple.

We headed straight over Swirl How and dropped down to Swirl Hawse. Again we dropped below the clouds for more great views.


Stickle Pike in the distance, Wrynose pass road in the lower middle ground, wet side edge in the foreground.

We headed up, again, into the cloud and climbed upto Wetherlam. Heading North off the summit we scrambled down into the Greenburn Valley at the Head of Little Langdale.



Little Langdale.

 

Looking back up the slopes of Wetherlam.

Crossing the wet Greenburn valley floor we headed up again, we'd now covered 8 miles and visited 6 peaks.

Wet side edge is exactly that - wet. grassy and wet but fairly easy to run on after the rocky slopes of Weatherlam. We made short work of the climb back up to Hell Gill Pike and then headed South West to Grey Friar.

 

Finally the cloud had now stared to clear of fantastic views opened up. Hardknott pass with Eskdale in the distance.

 

Hardknott Pass

Looking west to the sea and the Dudden Estuary.




Looking west from Grey Friar

Dow Crag from Grey Friar

And now the crags we'd run over two hours earlier were basking in late afternoon sunshine.

 

Seathwaite Tarn

We headed down from greyfriar to Seathwaite Tarn and then headed along the access track back to Seathwaite bridge where the cars was parked.

 

15 Miles and 5000ft of climbing.

Max and me at the dam on Seathwaite Tarn.