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BB1809
: Men
Of Steel
Thursday
29th March 2018
Each
time I climb Steel Fell from Dunmail Raise I vow "Never
again". It's steep. It's unrelenting. It's
tough.
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Today,
needing his Wainwright tick, it would be Terry's first
visit. My plan was to take him up the south ridge.
Bryan
pooh-poohed the notion. It's a Rite of Passage,
he insisted. Terry has to go up from Dunmail Raise.
It's the only way he can earn the Clerk Kent accolade:
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Again,
it was tough. Previously we have gone up
alongside the fence. However a new path
has emerged somewhat to the south and whilst
it might be appear to be a tiny bit easier
due to it snaking around somewhat, there
is no fence and therefore nothing to hang
on to when needed.
Nevertheless
we all made it to the top and Terry can
now boast that he too has earned the nomenclature
"Man of Steel", as also can Robin
and Martin.
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The
Men of Steel
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The
reward is that of some spectacular views.
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We
saw only one other person who was seeking (and
winning) the accolade. In contrast, as we circled
round the head of the Green Burn valley and beyond to
Calf Crag, we met an increasing flow of folk who had
come up via Helm Crag.
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Being
mean, we sent a text to Tony saying we had stopped for
lunch at noon. I had expected a rather curt and
rude reply. Instead he responded "Finally
got you trained!" In fact he hadn't as in
fact we hadn't. But we soon did stop.
After
Gibson Knott there were quite a lot of folk leaving
and approaching Helm Crag, although no-one was there
as we arrived. Terry considered out-doing Wainwright
and actually climbing the Howitzer to the real summit
then thought better of it. Stan had a go from
the north end whilst Bryan tried from the south. Meanwhile
a youth, seeing these old fogies on the rocks, thought
anything they can do, he could do better. A quite
word in the ear of mother brought him scuttling back
down.
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In
fact, the rock was so greasy that both Bryan and Stan
decided that this was not the day for heroics, even
by Men of Steel. It might not look too difficult
to climb but it is and the getting down is even trickier.
You also have to bear in mind that on the other
side there is an 800 foot drop. There is a reason
why it is the only Wainwright that he never actually
summited! For me: a bragging opportunity. I
have done it! BB0922
!
Helm
Crag may only be a small hill but it has big hill attitude.
Its descent is quite spectacular, steep over at
times rocky ground with a superb vertiginous view down
to the Traveller's Rest, where we had left a car, and
over Grasmere to the south.
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Our
outing had a bit of a surprise once we reached the valley
floor.
There
were lots of signs inviting us to visit the Lancrigg
Hotel by a path that none of us had previously taken.
We accepted the invitation and this led us to a stone
with a Latin inscription. Uncle Google offers a rather
bizarre translation however a website called Open
Plaques gives
a more comprehensible message:
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Dorothy Wordsworth
used to sit at this spot,
writing down the poems
that her brother dictated
as he walked nearby.
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The
track carried on to the Lancrigg Hotel but on this
occasion we invoked steely resistance to calling in
for refreshment. Instead our objective was the
Travellers Rest where the new Man Of Steel treated us
to a birthday pint.
Happy
Birthday, Terry. Man of Steel.
Don,
Thursday 29th March 2018
Roads
and Gateways
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If
the Herdy
Shepherd
were a Dylan buff his blog might have commanded
"Don't park in the gateway, don't
block up the road" as opposed to
saying the more polite "Please don’t
block roads or gateways as we need to access
fields to keep lambs alive."
He
went continued: "And if you ignore
polite request and good sense we might have
to take urgent action like they do up Borrowdale."
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The
Times They Are a'Changing. Or are they?
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