Hard Tarn wildcamp

[vghikers]

Quite a transition there, waking up to fresh snowfall is one of the delights of winter pitching. Sometimes it can only just be heard on the flysheet, unlike rain which is like a drum!.
That spot was on my list for a while but I think it's too well known now - I've seen it  mentioned several times.

[amnesiacjimmy]

Here you go     -http://www.karlswalks.co.uk/hardtarn.gpx might have to right click and "save target as"
Karl

Top man 

[docpaul]

Great report Karl and quite an eerie ending with all that snow out of nowhere. Pictures really capture the flavour too. 

[wildCAMPER]

Thanks for the post - I came across it while searching around for places to do my first wild camp in the Helvellyn area - and I decided upon Hard Tarn, due to its remoteness off the beaten track. It was in August 2012 that i done it - so not much chance of waking up to snow, although the way the weather has went this year I guess you couldn't rule it out!

This is my first post on this forum - and will be sure to search around the place to find out some more about walks & wild camps.

I decided to blog my wild camp at Hard Tarn for anyone interested - and you can check out more here - to save me duplicating content.

http://stuarthodgson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/wild-camp-at-hard-tarn-below-nethermost.html


As I'm an amateur photographer too - highlights of this place for me where being able to photograph in the golden hour at sunset and sunrise from Nethermost Pike, but perhaps the biggest surprise and most awesome sight was the clear night sky and being able to see the milky way with the naked eye, and rather fortunately I was there when this years perseid meteor shower hit earth's atmosphere! Amazing sight! Few pics below - but check out my blog post for more

[Trenchfoot]

Thanks for the post - I came across it while searching around for places to do my first wild camp in the Helvellyn area - and I decided upon Hard Tarn, due to its remoteness off the beaten track. It was in August 2012 that i done it - so not much chance of waking up to snow, although the way the weather has went this year I guess you couldn't rule it out!

This is my first post on this forum - and will be sure to search around the place to find out some more about walks & wild camps.

hello wildcamper - that's a seriously cool photo. 

& welcome to forum! 

[wildCAMPER]

cheers! I've always done a lot of walking - but got the bug for Wild Camping Now! It's a whole new experience and everything (even common places) just seem so much more remote and wild in late evening, night-time & early morning   


This is slightly off-topic (apologies!) but being able to add a profile pic &profile signatures - does that feature come the more posts you do? Can't seem to be able to do it at the moment?

[sparklebug]

Hi wild camper, welcome to the forum, they are stunning photos  

You need to be a junior member (25 posts) before you can add a profile pic and siggy

[Ridge]

Lovely photos 

[wildCAMPER]

Thanks sparklebug - I promise not to post anything else off topic :-)


A couple more pics from my hard tarn wild camp trip to try and make up for it! First one in the background you can see St Sunday Crag - it's a similar view to the first postings on this thread. Second one - a warm glow of the setting sun just hitting the surrounding peaks. Like I said - definitely recommend this spot as a wild camp - if you know what you are doing! If anyone else has any good Wild Camping spots in the Lake District (where you might get a glimpse of a cracking sunset or sunrise) please share :-) next on my list is Fleetwith Pike...

[vghikers]

A fine spot and great conditions for photos (and welcome).
It seems Hard Tarn is a little too well known as a camp spot now for my liking, but maybe one day well out of season like a weekday in early December!.
Any high spot might immediately overlooking lower ground might produce a gorgeous sunrise under the right conditions. For the Lakes take a look around our Trips section including here and here.

[wildCAMPER]

@vghikers - true Hard Tarn may be becoming more well-known - but it was enough off the beaten track for me for my first real Wild Camp. I guess if you want to be sure you will be on your own - then yes, mid-week in winter will serve that up :-) Your link to your trips are top notch - some cracking pictures there! Inversions are an awesome sight - and would love to see some as good as what you photographed. Not sure why I love inversions so much - maybe because it makes you seem you are a lot higher than what you are and they are quite a rare thing to see photographed? Do you have a way of predicting when they will happen - and looking at the weather forecast or is it just luck that you are there? Or maybe a bit of both?

[vghikers]

Mainly the forecast, plus always a certain amount of luck. We've had several really good ones in England and Wales, I'm glad they are rare or they wouldn't be so magical.

[mike knipe]

Inversions are an awesome sight - and would love to see some as good as what you photographed. Not sure why I love inversions so much - maybe because it makes you seem you are a lot higher than what you are and they are quite a rare thing to see photographed? Do you have a way of predicting when they will happen - and looking at the weather forecast or is it just luck that you are there? Or maybe a bit of both?

Anti-cylones are the thing - high pressure, very low night time temperatures and a prediction of fog. The fog gets layered into the valleys leaving the tops clear and the warm, still air is stable and holds the cold air in the valleys in place - cos cold air is heavier than warm air. Watch the weather forecast and listen for the three key words - high pressure and fog. (The fog needs to be in the area you're going to visit!) If you turn up at, say, Patterdale on a cold and frosty morning and it's foggy, there's a very high chance that  there'll be a temp inversion going on.

[wildCAMPER]

@mike knipe

thanks for the info - greatly appreciated - you've put it in a simple (laymans way) way which helps :-) I'll be taking a keener interest in the fog & high-pressure forcast now and getting my thermals ready for more walks/wild camps in colder times.....as I'm guessing cold days in late autumn/winter/spring have more chance of these inversions going on.

[wildCAMPER]

@mike knipe - just one more question are the inversions likley to stick around most of the day in say winter time - or are they something which appear early morning around dawn and then get burned off by the sun as the day progresses? maybe it depends on how cold the temperature is in the valleys?

As I live a few hours drive away from the lake district I could plan a last minute walk if the conditions look favourable to an inversion - but it would be good to know if the inversion will likely have gone by the time get there - in which case a wild camp or possibly staying the night before in a b&b/hostel and getting up early may be the better option....