Lake District Knowledge, Need Some Help Please!

[GEDGEOLA]

Hi Everyone, Thanks in advance for reading.

In 2014 I successfully completed the national 3 peaks. At the end of August I am going to be doing a 3 day walking challenge for charity with my walking partner involving 2 days in the lakes and the final day is the Yorkshire 3 peaks. (50 miles / 5000 metres of ascent over 3 days)

Underneath I have listed the mountains / land marks and routes (in order) I intend to summit / visit over the first 2 days in the lakes.

Please can you look at the routes and be as kind as to give me any info or tips on anything (route wise) you feel I might need to know as I don't know if my routes are the best or if I might do better by traversing some of these landmarks to save driving time. I'm trying to maximise my walking time and minimise my travelling time.

I need the most direct routes up and down mountains (for eg climbing Blencathra via sharp edge, what's the quickest way down?)

Here's my crazy route. Been training hard for this challenge.

Leg 1 - Wed 31st August - 9pm Scafell Pike (from Wasdale head / up and down) 6 hours target.

Travel to Leg 2 (1 hour 15 minutes)

Leg 2 - Thursday 1st September - 4:45am - Pavey Ark via Jacks Rake (from New Dungeon Ghyll) 5 hours target.

Travel to Leg 3 (1 hour )

Leg 3 - 11:30 am Quick trip to Bowder Stone (from tourist route off B5289) 1 hour target

Travel to Leg 4 (15mins)

Leg 4 - 1:00 pm (park in Stonethwaite village) Glaramara via Black Moss Pot (quick dip), Woofs Cave (secret cave, sign the visitors book, any info please) cam crag scramble. 5 hours target

Travel to leg 5 (30 mins)

Leg 5 - 6:30pm Scale Force waterfall trek (park in Buttermere / tourist route) 2.5 hours target

Day 1 finished (sleep in Buttermere)


Leg 6 - Blencathra via Sharp Edge (lay by on A66 near White Horse Inn) 5 hours target

Travel to Leg 7 (40 mins)

Leg 7 - Dove Crag via Priests Hole Cave. (park in Cowbridge car park, Hartsop) 5 hours target

Day 2 finished, head to Chapel le dale for Yorkshire 3 Peaks on Saturday 2nd September.

Thanks peeps, Kev

[Sarah Pitht]

Wow! When you said crazy route you weren't joking!!! Not the routes I was expecting at all :-)

Is there any reason you're not doing some of the horseshoe routes?

Re Blencathra, if you're going up via Sharp Edge, make sure you've got a head for airy ridges! I imagine the quickest descent would be via Scales Fell.

Anyway good luck with it all, especially with the Y3P on day 3. If you're starting from Chaprl le Dale at least you get the Ingleborough slog out of the way while still relatively fresh (although poss not as this is day three!)

[altirando]

Not sure Jack's Rake is the sort of route to incorporate in a time challenge.  And as suggested, does seem to lack some logic over all.

[Ridge]

I don't understand what you are trying to achieve and I don't know where to start in making sense of your route.

My advice would be to find someone who knows the Lakes, tell them what you want and ask them to plan the route for you, but it is a lot of work for someone.

[GEDGEOLA]

Thanks for the replies peeps.

I am trying to fit in as many lake district hot spots in 2 days as I can and am trying to make it a bit of a time challenge as well so it's not a jolly.

I just wanted advice on routes if anyone had any.

[henryb]

Travel to leg 3 - I don't think an hour is enough time. NDG to Ambleside is 30 minutes; Ambleside to Keswick is 45 minutes. Keswick to Borrowdale is 30 minutes. Also, Buttermere to Scales or Threlkeld is on a narrow road

[GEDGEOLA]

Thanks Henry. That's really helpful to know. All my travel times I have just pulled off google maps. Its nice to have some positive feedback.

Ridge - It obvious what I am trying to do as I have explained it in my 1st post? Not hard to understand, The reason I posted for info on here is coz there is a load of people with a heap of experience that I can learn from.

[Ridge]

I understand that you want to walk 50 miles with 500 meters of ascent. If that is what your aim is then you are going about it in a very strange way. I can not work out why you have so many short trips, so many car rides, why you would pick such technical routes.

I don't know how fit you are or how experienced but if you or the weather are not 100% then avoid Jacks Rake and Sharp Edge.

[GEDGEOLA]

Ridge - Yes I am 110% fit and have been training hard since April. I want to do Sharp Edge and Jack's Rake because it makes the challenge harder. I have 3 kids and work ridiculous hours so something like this takes alot of time to plan for someone like me. I dont have time to pop to the lakes for long weekends like some people do.Don't want easy, the only reason I want to know about traversing hiĺls is to save time travelling. of course I know about the exposure and poor visibility that can be encountered on the 2 above but I have safety equipment, first aid and a brain and don't really want to be putting strain on the mountain rescue teams especially at them black spots so if the weather's bad then I won't be doing them.

Please tell me how I am going so wrong as everything I have listed is perfectly possible of doing as long a you are very fit and the weather is favirouble? After all this is why I joined this forum.....

[Sarah Pitht]

I'm not 100% confident in the travel time between Wasdale Head and NDG. Having checked out Google maps which you have used I can see it says 1h18 so I see where you have the figure from. I imagine google maps uses an algorithm whereby they use the speed limit to calculate route duration, The speed limit is likely to be national (60) on much of that route. The suggested route is over Hard Knott and Wryness Passes - this provides an amazing drive - but I doubt you will be able to drive at 60mph due to the steepness, bends and occasional risk of dropping off the edge of the narrow road. (Apols if you are a rally driver and I'm underestimating you!) I'd suggest adding a little but more time to the journey just in case - or else get off Scafell Pike quickly!!
I hope you have good weather.
A tip - don't be late getting to Cowbridge car park. It's not terribly big and it can fill up quickly during the summer weekends.

[Percy]

I think what people are struggling with is spending so much time driving about. You could achieve your goal of miles & metres ascent over the two days without using the car. How about doing the old 3 counties tops - Coniston Old Man, Scafell and Helvellyn. It would dovetail quite nicely with the Y3P.

[GEDGEOLA]

Thanks again Sarah and Percy.

I won't be driving like a rally car driver as I respect the locals far to much for that. If cowbridge car park gets busy then don't quite know what I'm gonna do there as Dove Crag we were doing last b4 travelling to Yorkshire.?

My trouble is that these are the landmarks that interest me and are what I want to achieve. Fitting them all in to the 2 days is a logistical nightmare I know however it can be done I'm sure of it. What are these routes you are talking about Percy? I have looked at some of Wainwrights routes but they seem to traverse so much stuff I'm not bothered so much about doing of I know what I mean.

[Percy]

I didn't have any particular routes in mind but there are probably 101 different ways you could do those 3 peaks with the mileage and ascent you are looking for.


But if the stuff you've listed is what interests you then go for it! 

[J0J0]

Hi GEDGEOLA, did you complete your personal challenge? If so did you complete as listed? Would be really interested in an update.

[GEDGEOLA]

Hi JOJO, hope you are well? Unfortunately the weather really got in the way for our challenge last week with a lot of what I had planned. Wednesday night we got to Scafell late as my friend couldn't get the time off work and I don't remember before the 40 odd miles of goats and cows in the road we had to keep stopping for.(lol) At midnight we arrived, paid for parking and kitted up and attempted Scafell Pike but no one was up there at all and we just couldn't see the crossing at Lingmell Gill in the dark (even with head torches) so after 2 hours of going up and down the wrong side of Lingmell crossing we came down and slept in the van till dawn.

At 1st light we set off and could then clearly see the stepping stones across Lingmell Gill and we were on our way, we summited at 8.15am and didn't see anyone in sight until getting back down to the Lingmell crossing where people had started to come up. Bit strange having a whole mountain to ourselves as I have never experienced that before but I suppose it is getting to the end of the season. Weather on the summit by the way was Baltic.

Got down and the heavens opened so got drowned a bit trying to cook some bacon rolls and I by then had decided Jacks Rake was out of the question so we went straight to Buttermere and did Scaleforce.

We completed Scaleforce by about 4:00pm with the weather chucking it down so we just called it a day in Buttermere and spent the night near The Fish Inn.

Woke early the following day to went damp conditions so again Sharp Edge and Jacks Rake were starting to become an issue to attempt (as I aint going to kill myself for anyone) so we drove to Stonethwaite and set off to see Black Moss Pot and hunt for the hidden cave. We had a hell of a scramble up the slippery grass hill side and through the fern to get to the bottom of the correct crag but when we found the cave it made it all worth while.

We came down after that and didn't sumit Glaramara via Cam Crag as the weather just kicked off again in the same way it fininshed the previous day and Black Moss Pot was like a ragging torrent and a dip was well out of the question.

after spending 5 1/2 hours in Borrowdale valley we returned and headed for Priests Hole and Dove Crag. (wasn't expecting to loose all that time looking for the cave).

We set off from Cowbridge to Priests Hole but didn't bother summiting Dove Crag as we were soaked and just wanted to get out of our wet shoes and socks but well worth going as the views were amazing and photos we took tell the story well of the days weather.

We got back to the van at nearly 8pm and then spent an hour having some food and a change of clothes before driving down to Chapel le Dale for Saturdays Y3P's challenge.

Up early and out of the car park by 7am I finished just before 4:30pm (9 HOURS AND 22 MINS) and came 5th out of 145 people and my friend came 6th 4 minutes behind me in what was again another day of 7 hours+ non stop rain and wind. The rain wasn't hard but just constant but the wind on Whernside (which we did last) was awful and blowing a gale.

All in all not a bad few days but I have no regrets in missing out the scrambles as it was just not practical weather wise and just gives me another excuse now to go back to such a beautiful part of the country again next year.

None of my phone tracking worked through apps that well but my friend had a bit  Fit thing with a whrist band and Bluetooth to his eye phone and that worked well. Day 1 we did 24km - Day 2 we did 22km and Day 3 we did 40km. Ive just googled it and it works out to be 53.5 miles so we got our target there but I don't think we hit the 5000 metres of accent but I wouldn't have thought we were that far off in metres of accent.

Thanks and all my best, Kev