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BB1406
: Happy Birthday, Tony!
Thursday
6th February 2014
Five
years ago on Tony's birthday we celebrated by nearly
reaching the summit of Lang How followed by nearly reaching
the summit of Silver How. ( See BB0906 )
Today,
it again being Tony's birthday, we intended to reach
the summit of both. The forecast for the higher
tops was too wild and time was a little tight Adding
to that the fact that Silver How was a Wainwright that
John needed, it seemed the logical place to celebrate.
The only problem was that Tony was not with us.
He had opted to go and see his granddaughter instead.
Nevertheless,
we started as he would have wished with some splendid
Linthwaite sausages, eaten at our parking place just
outside Grasmere.
x.jpg)
Comitibus
: Linthwaite
sausages to celebrate Tony's birthday
x.jpg)
Car
park panorama
We
made our way up to the Mini
Matterhorn
as I like to call Lang How. It is a shame that
Wainwright did not accord it the honour of being selected
for his Central Fells book as not only does it look
splendid from across the small tarn beneath, it provides
a fun gentle climb to the summit and excellent panoramic
views.
x.jpg)
Lang
How
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At
least I thought they should be excellent
but my eyes were watering up with the cold
strong wind.
Fortunately,
I had my secret weapon for such circumstances.
Others
may deride my appearance (not for the first
time) but I was warm, dry-eyed and happy
in the golden glow provided by my goggles.
This
happy bunny can confirm that the views are
indeed excellent.
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Why
do they mock me?
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x.jpg)
Langdales
from Lang How
Bryan,
whom I had consulted in advance about the route fearing
that visibility might be poor, had advised that I should
take a bearing from the tarn and follow this directly
to the summit of Silver How.
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In
fact visibility was good but I felt that
it should be used as a training exercise.
The
Garmin I now have is much more reliable
that the model I used on BB0906 so
I had logged into the machine the OS coordinates
for the summit.
All
we needed to do was to follow the arrow.
And
pretty accurate it was.
It
brought us to about 10 foot from the Silver
How summit cairn.
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b.gif)
Following
the arrow to Silver How
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x.jpg)
Grasmere
and Rydal Water from Silver How
Incidentally,
the name Silver How has nothing to do with precious
metal (other than possibly Viking hordes). According
to Richard Wilkinson in his 1894 book A
History of Westmorland,
it derives from the "Wiking" Silvarl who may be
resting beneath his "haugr" or tomb-mound.
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b.jpg)
Down
the gully
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The
descent was via the long gully which has
now been gentrfied with stone steps preventing
erosion. It's understandable but sad, though
it should be said that this set of stones
was one of the better ones.
Once
we had crossed the fell and dropped down
to a rocky outcrop, we stopped for lunch,
a little later than Tony would have liked.
The
view, particularly over Grasmere to Dunmail
Raise is quite special.
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x.jpg)
Over
Grasmere to Dunmail Raise
x.jpg)
Looking
back to Silver How and the gully
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Martin
spotted a RAF Typhoon as it wizzed up the
pass followed by a rather slower (and therefore
easier to photograph) Hercules.
It
was then we received a call from James,
who was flying in the Typhoon and had seen
us.
He
has videoed his flight (he was the passenger,
I add, not the pilot) and you can watch
it by clicking on
Typhoon
... a ride with the best.
See
if you can spot us waving.
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b.jpg)
Hercules
over Grasmere village
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The
rest of the walk was gentle and less exciting. We
dropped down between Grasmere and Rydal Water then climbed
past some old quarries to join the Coffin Route back
to Grasmere and the car.
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Feeling
that we hadn't yet sufficiently celebrated
Tony's birthday, Mike invited us back to
the Linthwaite for the most delicious scones
with Damson Jam and cream.
There
was also a little candle-lit birthday cake
over which we sang:
Happy
Birthday, Dear Tony!
Happy
Birthday to You!
Don,
Thursday 6th February 2014
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Bonus
Picture for Margaret
x.jpg)
| STATISTICS:
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BB1406
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| Date:
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Thursday
6th February 2014
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| Distance
in miles
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7.9 Garmin GPS
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| Height
climbed in feet
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1,715
Memory Map / OS
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| Features:
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Lang
How, Silver How
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| Comitibus:
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Don, John Hn,
Martin C, Mike
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BOOTboys
routes are put online in gpx format which
should work with most mapping software. You can follow
our route in detail by downloading bb1406 .
To
discover which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing
- although it may not be that up to date - see: Which
Wainwright When?
For the latest totals of the mileages and heights (ditto) see: BB Log.
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