BB1501 : Tongues a-Wagging

Thursday 8th January 2015

First outing of the year and where to go?  John and Terry are on the Wainwright trail but John has covered all the easily reached ones and the days are too short for travelling long distances.

"Ah" I thought.  "Terry hasn't done the Troutbeck Tongue.  That's the place to go."  Then Stan reminded me that we did the same thing at the same time last year for similar purpose for John.  See BB1402.  However, that was no reason not to go.

Once again, the Mortal Man was closed for its winter break so no parking there. This time, however, there was not the option of parking at the Queen's Head as it is still closed after its fire and, according to this week's Westmorland Gazette, it is not expected to open for another six months at least.

Consequently we parked by the Church and, as per last year, made our way through the village and up the valley to the south face of The Tongue.

The Tongue across the flooded fields

On the way up the climb there was a brief bust of hail and the odd strong gust of wind but by and large it was a good day for a smallish hill.

A silly team picture was taken at the top with all Tongues visible, wagging away! Moaris would have been proud.

Comitibus :  Tongues

We followed the ridge, dropping gently downwards as we moved north until we reached a decision point.  Should we turn right and return down the Hagg Gill side of the valley as per last year or should we take a chance and head left in the hope that we could cross the Trout Beck without falling in.

The award for bravery goes to Tony who spotted a large rock in the middle of the raging torrent (it has rained a lot recently) and made an heroic leap for it.  It would be not quite accurate to describe it as a clean landing although his water bottle ended up very clean as it fell out and made its way down stream to where John rescued it.  No one saw what happened to his coffee flask but it vanished.

Tony's rock proved more slippery than expected and his next great leap was a triumph (a description of which he would approve being consistent with his tattoo).   

I don't think anyone saw Stan make his leap as the rest of us were scurrying upstream to find a safer crossing place.  Eventually we found somewhere with a high bank from which to jump and a pebbly shore on which to land.

One of us, who shall remain nameless, decided on the "keep on running" technique on landing and came rather a cropper, albeit on dry land.  The lack of photos (and my sore hip) gives a clue as to whom this refers.

Once across and regrouped we stopped for lunch.  Amazingly Tony had waited for us to return.  I say this because it was then ten minutes past noon and he had resisted the temptation to listen to his body.  Or maybe the glory stayed his appetite.

Afterwards, I returned to the scene to investigate whether it might have been possible to cross using the pole and gates strung across the raging water.  Had we only tackled it from the other side of the wall it would have been a simple and safe way to reach the other side of the river.

BOOTboys routes are put online in gpx format which should work with most mapping software. You can follow our route in detail by downloading bb1501 .

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 totals of the mileages and heights (ditto) see: BB Log.

Photos have been gleaned from many sources although mostly from me!
Likewise written comment.  
Unless stated otherwise, please feel free to download the material if you wish.
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Wainwrights

To see which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing see Which Wainwright When?
This may or may not be up to date!

For the latest totals of the mileages, heights and Lakeland Fells Books Wainwrights see: Wainwrights.
Ditto warning!

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BOOTboys 2015

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