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Regions - Trip reports, destination advice, recommended routes, etc. => Lake District => Topic started by: MarkT on 21:08:24, 15/01/19

Title: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: MarkT on 21:08:24, 15/01/19
Living in the flat lands of Essex I only get to The Lakes twice sometimes 3 times a year and my next adventure will be in March. However I have a dilemma which I know only I can resolve but am interested in reading other peoples opinions.


I'm not Wainwright obsessed but do have the books and keep note of how many (currently 43) and which fells I have summited but due to my infrequent visits realistically I know I won't complete all 214 which isn't an issue but do enjoy adding new fells to my list.


Recently there has been some TR's on fells that I have walked before but in poor weather. However, the photo's (Thanks April) and drone footage (Beefy's fault) has made me wonder whether I should revisit some fells that I have previously walked and hope for better weather and views or should I conquer some different fells and experience new walks and summits and add them to my list.


So in an area that you don't get to visit that often but think is absolutely stunning (wherever that may be), would you walk new fells and experience new surroundings or would you revisit some fells that have previously been walked but didn't get the views?
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: Dazza on 21:38:31, 15/01/19
I'm not that different, I get to the lakes a few weeks a year, but that's all and I'm also not bothered to complete the Wainwrights (unless its beers in the pub lol)

Personally I try and mix it up a bit, walks I didn't get the view (Great Gable was good but no view, so will go back), old favourites (Helvellyn from Dunmail to Thirlmere) and something new. Revisiting old walks is never boring and not having to concentrate on navigation is always welcome.
But a mix is good, Though I'd happily do all old classics when new people are with me.
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: Ridge on 21:54:30, 15/01/19
I generally get to the Lakes once a year but like walking new hills, which is why I completed the Wainwrights last year.
The joy of list ticking is it makes you go to places you may not otherwise venture to, some of my best Lakes memories are hills which are not the popular ones. If you happen to have good weather then there will be great views whatever summit you are on.
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: beefy on 06:26:26, 16/01/19
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Recently there has been some TR's on fells that I have walked before but in poor weather. However, the photo's (Thanks April) and drone footage (Beefy's fault) has made me wonder whether I should revisit some fells that I have previously walked and hope for better weather and views or should I conquer some different fells and experience new walks and summits and add them to my list.
Its Squeakys fault  ;D
We normally use the weather forecast to decide which area to visit, but we all know how reliable that can be :(
Then if we cant decide which fells to do, we use the "glove of fate" to decide,
Throw a glove in the air and if it lands palm up one choice, or palm down another :)
I came up with this one when I didn't have a coin handy, but I've usually got gloves on my pack
For us it's all about the views, however some of our best trips can be unexpected, with clouds or mist adding to the place,
Making for an atmospheric landscape,
Sorry getting a bit carried away with myself,
I think the main thing is like Ridge said, just get out and enjoy it wherever you are,
And if you cant decide where to go, you could always try the "glove of fate" ;D
Hope you get good weather wherever you go, and try not to lose your phone next time, be nice to see some of your pics ;)
Good luck with it Mark
ATB beefy
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: April on 06:51:24, 16/01/19
I would be more tempted to go to places I'd not been to before. It is difficult to decide if you have always wanted to see a particular view. I hope you have great weather wherever you go Mark  O0
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: fernman on 09:05:41, 16/01/19
In my case I only go 235 miles to Snowdonia twice a year for long walks, but I've probably been doing it for longer than you've been going to the Lakes and I've walked all of its areas so it's no longer possible for me to devise a route in a new area. However, I'm now finding I'm just so glad to be back there, simply walking in those hills, that it doesn't matter that I've been to a particular area before. In fact I get a pleasure out of being familiar with some spots: there's that big boulder with a mark like a face, that wall's fallen down more, there's the lake where I camped, and so on.

Added to that, my memory is getting poorer as I get older, with the consequence that a lot of the time I don't recognise much of the paths I've trod before. The same is true of my local(ish) days in the Chilterns where I started walking 40 years ago. I maintain a list of them and only the other day I told my wife that if ever I run out of walks to do, I could start again at the top of my list because I wouldn't remember any of them.
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: vghikers on 09:38:17, 16/01/19
Being rather ASPY, if I do a route - particularly involving summits - and the tops are misted out with no views, I wouldn't feel as though I'd properly done it, the experience would feel incomplete and unsatisfactory.  When we completed the 2000' mountains, there were just a few summits we had climbed in clag and our priority was to reclimb them in good weather and see them at their best.

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Added to that, my memory is getting poorer as I get older, with the consequence that a lot of the time I don't recognise much of the paths I've trod before.

Tell me about it!. We often find now that fragments of routes we've walked before, sometimes more than once, seem totally unknown. That's a good thing actually, over-familiarity can drain the spice out of a walk.
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: fernman on 10:05:19, 16/01/19
ASPY doesn't come up in an acronym search, or is it a typo?
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: vghikers on 10:33:08, 16/01/19
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ASPY doesn't come up in an acronym search, or is it a typo?

ASPY (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Aspy)

I'm not very far up the scale but definitely on it, many matching traits.
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: fernman on 10:39:54, 16/01/19
Thank you. DuckDuckGo failed on that one.
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: taxino8 on 18:31:09, 16/01/19
I’m not bothered about ticking hills off a list and I go where my urge takes me.
I’ve been on Maiden Moor and Dale Head more times than I can remember but just love the place.
I’ve been up Scaffel Pike out of Seathwaite six times and only got a view once but again it’s just a walk I enjoy.
Same with Blencathra, I must have been up there seven or eight times and got a mixture of views/no views.
Only been up Skiddaw once and got an amazing view.
What I’m trying to say is I am glad when I do get a view but it’s not the main reason I go, I just love being out on a hill away from everyday, mundane life.

Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: MarkT on 08:37:21, 17/01/19
Thanks for your replies. I think I will just see what the weather is like once I'm up there and go from there but a mix of new and old walks is probably what I'll go for. I'll be in The Lakes for about 10 days and would like to be able to tick off my 50th Wainwright (7 to do) so I reckon I will have plenty of opportunity to do a bit of both, new & old :)
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: Skip on 10:38:55, 17/01/19
...I'll be in The Lakes for about 10 days and would like to be able to tick off my 50th Wainwright (7 to do) ...

If you walk the Fairfield Horseshoe that'll be 8 in one day; the classic Coledale round has 9 or 10;  the Kentmere circuit is 8 or 9; the full Coniston round has 8; the Langdale Pikes offers 5 (or 7 if you venture further to Sergeant Man and High Raise; and so on.

Have a look through these walks by Forum member Dave:
http://allthegearbutnoidea.blogspot.com/p/walks-in-lake-district.html (http://allthegearbutnoidea.blogspot.com/p/walks-in-lake-district.html)

As Ridge says, ticking off lists encourages you to explore places you would otherwise not see. For example, it's hard to imagine anyone searching out the featureless 'summit' of Mungrisedale Common except to bag it as a Wainwright  :)

As to revisiting fells you have previously walked, try walking circuits the other way round - the views will be very different. Or find an alternative route - many fells can be approached from different directions.

Hope you enjoy your trip to the Lake District


Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: forgotmyoldpassword on 10:48:59, 17/01/19
I wouldn't discount notching up plenty of Wainwrights - in a weekend it's certainly possible to do 8+ each time! But for me, even as a self-confessed 'bagger', I don't really consider a peak properly 'bagged' unless I get to see something from the top.  Perhaps it is just me, but arriving in horrible weather - full on clag, just to kick a summit cairn does a disservice to the experience, and I'm sure there are many amazing views from peaks I've discounted as rubbish which are worth a revisit.


As I get older I've found myself walking more for the experience than the 'achievement' of ticking off various peaks, and have found interesting historical paths (usually in valleys) have a lot to offer more casual walkers too.  There is something about knowing you're walking a path which has bee used for hundreds if not thousands of years which makes the mind wander to the people who have used it before me, whether they were traders, raiders, Romans, etc. 
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: ninthace on 13:51:38, 17/01/19


As Ridge says, ticking off lists encourages you to explore places you would otherwise not see. For example, it's hard to imagine anyone searching out the featureless 'summit' of Mungrisedale Common except to bag it as a Wainwright  :)



Mungrisedale Common is on the Glendermackin Round which bags 5 Wainwrights plus assorted other peaks. http://www.haroldstreet.org.uk/routes/download/?walk=78
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: pdstsp on 16:36:02, 17/01/19
The views as you walk across towards the "peak" of Mungrisedale Common are quite nice, if, that is, you don't have to look constantly at ones feet to check they haven't disappeared into the mud.  O0


However, I agree with many others - climbing the Wainwrights has made me seek out areas I do not think I would ever have gone to otherwise, and many of which I will return to time and time again, fitness permitting.  One example which comes to mind is walking from Fellbarrow to Low Fell - the view of Crummock Water and Buttermere and the surrounding fells is, IMHO one of the greatest views in the Lakes.  But - I would have to drive past many more famous names to get there, and maybe would have stopped at one of them were it not for the goal!
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: Skip on 10:44:41, 27/01/19
Mungrisedale Common is on the Glendermackin Round which bags 5 Wainwrights ...

That reinforces my point. If you wanted to walk from Bannerdale Crags to Blencathra, you wouldn't take an unnecessary diversion over featureless grass to the 'summit' of Mungrisdale Common except to tick it off.
Title: Re: A Lake District Dilema
Post by: Bigfoot_Mike on 17:00:49, 27/01/19
It doesn’t bother me too much if I don’t get a view from the top. I still count it as an ascent. Some of my most memorable walks have been in appalling visibility. Being in a whiteout being blasted by horizontal snow can make for an epic day ( in the right circumstances).