Sunday St. Sunday

One thing I've learned about St. Sunday Crag and Fairfield is that whatever the weather forecast, whether it's provided by the Mountain Weather Info Service, the Met Office, Wincey Willis or a bloke with a pine cone and a faraway look in his eye, ignore it.

It'll do what it's a mind to do, and it changes it's mind whenever it pleases.

Same could be said of many places but in my experience it's always happened to me on this range.

I've leaned over before at a 45 degree angle and been held up by the wind, I've been sunburned in Winter, I've witnessed it raining upwards, but it's such a great place that I always come back for more.

It's a steep pull from Patterdale up towards Birks (that's the name of a mountain, not a collective name for people who would for pleasure go out in stupid weather for the fun of it), but it's steady and despite two days of walking we felt fine. The weather behind us over Ullswater (in this photograph) was blue sky and cloud like a pelmet skirting the upper ridges. The weather ahead was unknown. This big wall of white cloud was in the way so we couldn't see!

So we ascended and the wind got mightier and the cloud got wetter (rain bounces off your waterproofs, cloud goes into them...) but I loved it. I was warm, but it was cold enough so my gear didn't overheat me. We plodded on and as happens on these walks you can go into a kind of meditative state. The lack of scenery was conducive to this and I went into quite a relaxed frame of mind.

If you've never done it, if anyone ever told you that this was one of the best ways to relax, to put things into perspective, to solve problems, you might think they've lost it. But truly, if you can get a bit of fitness and make sure you've got gear enough so you're not stressed by a blister or a wet neck or some such thing, then it really is good for your soul.

St. Sunday Crag reluctantly gave us her peak but we were not for ascending Fairfield today so we headed down to Grisedale Tarn, still shrouded in mist that turned everything silhouette and grey.

Darkness fell as we trekked down back down to Patterdale and the head torches came out. It's a good path but it turns to pavement quite early. Anyone who's ever run in the fells, climbed mountains, spent time over uneven terrain will tell you that one of the worst agonies is walking on pavement after spending hours on rough. Your feet can literally scream!

But not long till we got back to our lodge where we had pork belly and (for me... and still am having...) a single malt :o)

The forecast tomorrow is looking patchy but we hope to get a walk in before heading home.

Thank you for the response to the blip I got on this morning and for Friday's. I so love landscapes and I so love the Lake District and this beautiful green land - with my camera and my rucksack I'm a man in heaven.

I hope to catch up with your journals soon :o)

p.s. If I may gratuitously link to my photo of one year ago... I don't normally do this but this was probably the photo that got me thinking 'Woahhh!!! I can do this with my camera????'