Author Topic: Request for easy Lakedistrict fells for very overweight hiker  (Read 27934 times)

ninthace

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For comparison and very much a back of a fag packet calculation; the Loughrigg Steps are a height gain of 185m in 770m.  The steep way up Gowbarrow from Dockray side is around 190m in 820m. The route I suggest is 278m in around 3.5km.
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Mel

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How do you tell that? Is it because it crosses less contour lines pretty much following one on the eastern side of the walk?

Sort of, yes.  When a route is following parallel along a contour line it will be (fairly) level - a few gentle undulations perhaps but nowt to write home about.  The route on the west of the hill crosses the contour lines at pretty much right-angles (90 degrees) which tells me that's straight up hill (or downhill, depending on direction of travel).  The closer the contour lines - the steeper the gradient.  The route on the SE side of the hill takes you diagonally down (or up) the contour lines meaning the gradient will be more gentle as it's crossing the contour lines at a 45 degree angle.  (Not sure how your map reading skills are so sorry if that's teaching you to suck eggs!) 





Personally I prefer to do any steep bits in an uphill direction rather than face the yawning abyss of nothingness going steeply downhill  ;D


Rob Goes Walking

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The steep way up Gowbarrow from Dockray side is around 190m in 820m. The route I suggest is 278m in around 3.5km.
I'd love to be able to calculate that, how did you do it (or is that too much to explain)? Did you measure across the map and look at the contour lines or is there a better way of doing it?

Let me get this right, you're saying the way down if I follow it anti-clockwise I have to go down a bit almost as steep as the steps from Loughrigg Terrace? But if I don't I have to go up a bit almost as steep? That's a tough choice!

(Not sure how your map reading skills are so sorry if that's teaching you to suck eggs!)
It's what I thought but it's nice to have it confirmed. My map reading skills aren't great regarding working out how steep the hill is from the contour lines.

Personally I prefer to do any steep bits in an uphill direction rather than face the yawning abyss of nothingness going steeply downhill  ;D
Me too! Do you think it will be steeper going down than Hallin Fell? I saw some people run down the hill but I felt like I was going to fall and slide unless I inched by way down it!

ninthace

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In no particular order.
The route down is nowhere near as bad as the Loughrigg descent.  You have more choice of line for a start and it is wider. I don't like descents either but this one does not stick in the memory so it must be ok.  :)


There are ways of calculating ascent.  Knowing the scale of the map you could calculate the distance.  Alternatively you can do what I did and user the ruler tool in GoogleEarth to measure the distance. The height gain is just mental arithmetic; the height of the summit is on the map, the contour lines on the 1:25000 maps of the Lake District are one every 10m so you can just count them.  The thicker lines are every 50m to save time.  (Check the map though, sometimes the contour lines are every 5m and it can change on the map).  Start at the top, find the first contour and count down to the bottom in 10s.  For the route, I walked I called up the gps trace in GoogleEarth and looked at the elevation profile.


I would not say it is anywhere as steep as than Hallin Fell - look at the contour spacing.  I was surprised by your choice of line from the trace you posted.  Next time have a look at the route on Google Earth.  If you look at Hallin Fell there are well walked routes on and off the top visible on the imagery - these are probably the easiest to negotiate.
« Last Edit: 21:31:32, 23/10/18 by ninthace »
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Rob Goes Walking

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Thanks ninthace.

I would not say it is anywhere as steep as than Hallin Fell - look at the contour spacing.  I was surprised by your choice of line from the trace you posted.  Next time have a look at the route on Google Earth.  If you look at Hallin Fell there are well walked routes on and off the top visible on the imagery - these are probably the easiest to negotiate.

I had Google Earth Pro installed but didn't know what it could do. What a useful program! I just looked at my Hallin Fell route on Google Earth and can see that it's been mapped out on something rather than via a GPS trace. I got the route from Where2Walk. Next time I will definitely check my route on Google Earth, in fact I'm off to load in your route to see what to expect!

ninthace

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Thanks ninthace.

I had Google Earth Pro installed but didn't know what it could do. What a useful program! I just looked at my Hallin Fell route on Google Earth and can see that it's been mapped out on something rather than via a GPS trace. I got the route from Where2Walk. Next time I will definitely check my route on Google Earth, in fact I'm off to load in your route to see what to expect!
If you have your route as a gpx file you can use the file menu to open the gps file in GE. GE will look for kml files when you select file/open but you can tell it to open a gpx file. Select the kml string option and it will lay the trace on the imagery. When you do you can see the descent towards Dockray jiggles about indicating it is flatter than is seems on paper. Also going down gives you a good view of the lne ahead so you can select the best one for you.
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Rob Goes Walking

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Gowbarrow fell. It was less strenuous than Latrigg (from Keswick) and Hallin Fell probably a bit more strenuous than Walla Crag (although only on the final approach to Airy Crag). I don't use the term easier though as the path was close to the edge of a very steep slope on the ascent which made me a little nervous and this bit:





gave me some pause on how to get down, although once I started it actually wasn't that hard. I did ninthace's route anti-clockwise like ninthace himself did it. Mel I recommend doing it anti-clockwise too now I've done it, the descent is actually not bad, the hardest and steepest bit is the bit I pictured. Most of the descent is easy. Thanks guys another winning walk.

ninthace

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Glad you enjoyed it.
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Slowcoach

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Castle Crag from Rosthwaite...on a bus route. Rosthwaite to Grange and then onto Seatoller and back to Rosthwaite. Great walk.
It's all uphill from here.

Mel

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Glad you had a good walk Rob.  Is that bit in your picture taken from the top/near the trig point?




Rob Goes Walking

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Glad you had a good walk Rob.  Is that bit in your picture taken from the top/near the trig point?
Nope, it's some way down. According to the EXIF data in the photograph (the one on my Flickr, there isn't any in the photo above) it's taken from 54.58699,-2.927319 or NY 4017021706 or here to view on Bing's OS map.

EDIT: Fixed bing maps link. The forum URL thing broke it :(.
« Last Edit: 11:58:09, 26/10/18 by Rob Goes Walking »

Mel

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Ahh, right.  Cheers for that.  Goes to show though that something unassuming looking on a map can have a sting in it's tail!

ninthace

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Ahh, right.  Cheers for that.  Goes to show though that something unassuming looking on a map can have a sting in it's tail!
  According to my trace the gradient on that section is around 25- 27%.
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Rob Goes Walking

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According to my trace the gradient on that section is around 25- 27%.


How did you work that out? I looked up what a percentage gradient is and discovered it's 100(rise/run) and looked up how to calculate it from a map but I'm guessing you did something clever with Google Earth or something else rather than that?

ninthace

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How did you work that out? I looked up what a percentage gradient is and discovered it's 100(rise/run) and looked up how to calculate it from a map but I'm guessing you did something clever with Google Earth or something else rather than that?
You can do it from the map but if you have a trace in Places in GE you can right click on the trace name and it opens a window which includes Show Elevation Profile as an option.  Left click on Show Elevation Profile and a speed/elevation graph opens across the bottom of the screen.  If you run your cursor along the graph a red arrow runs along the trace showing where you are and the elevation profile shows you height and gradient for that point.  If you want to know the gradient for a section, click on the start and drag the cursor to the end of the section.  GE will tell you the maximum and average gradient for the section.
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