BB2134 : You Pays Your Money.....

Thursday 16th September 2021

..... and you takes your choice.

Tech warning.  The secondary theme of this report is about Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite navigation units used on our walks and might seem a bit tekkie.  I will try to keep that brief.  Ish!

If it's all a bit too much for you, you could just say "Oh, it's the same as BB1017 so I have no need to read it, I'll just look at the pictures."

You wouldn't be far wrong in terms of route but that was a somewhat different day when we were all a lot younger.  11 years younger in fact.  Apart from Holly who wasn't even born then.

The objective, apart from having a good day out in what might the last of the late summer sunshine, was to finish off the Southern Fells for this round of Wainwright bagging for Stan and me.  Plus to lower Robin's (and Holly's) number of outstandings.

The money to which the title refers partly to the cost of the SatMap gps device that I bought recently, only that was more like "You takes your choice and pays your money".  

The good news, moneywise, is that we didn't have to pay to park at Seatoller in Borrowdale.  Or put another way, we had paid in advance thanks to our National Trust memberships.

Target number one was the intriguingly named Bessyboot, less prosaically called Rosthwaite Fell.  "It is steep and uneventful, lightened only by the view back down Borrowdale toward Keswick and Skiddaw."

That is what I said in 2010 and it remains true.  The summit however is satisfyingly rocky and a great way to see Derwentwater.

After passing The Tarn at Leaves (yes, that is its proper name though it sounds more like a pretentious restaurant) we continued on towards the Glaramara summit.  Great Gable was peering ominously to the west

Stan took the diretissimo rock climb (as per BB1017).  Robin and I used Holly as the excuse for a more roundabout route to the summit.  From our lofty viewpoint we watched Stan's head pop up in the distance.  Having enjoyed his triumph to what he thought was the top, he spotted us sat some distance away and wandered over. He rather pooh-poohed our suggestion that his climb had been unnecessary.

Shamed, I decided that I too should visit the "other place" albeit that from this side it was still rocky but far less of a challenge.  Even so, Holly was very worried about me.  She sobbed and whimpered all the time I was on the rocks, finally being allowed to bound over to me once I was back on terra not quite so firma.

I knew it was only a short climb to Allen Crags and it only took a few minutes.

Then we realised it wasn't Allen Crags- that lay some distance away and several hundred feet higher.  Having reached it, I realised the "only a short climb" was from the other side.  Today it was only a short descent to the Esk Hause Junction.

There had been fine views over the Langdales to Windermere....

..... and over Sprinkling Tarn to Great Gable.

Our memories of BB1017, or at least mine, were a bit vague from hereon. Fortunately Stan has much better recall.  We needed to head round to Sprinkling Tarn then turn right to make our way over to Seathwaite Fell.  

Then I became still vaguer and even Stan needed to think about how we were to descend 500 feet in a quarter of a mile.  Of course, he found a steep but safe way through the crags down to Styhead Gill.

All that was left to do was a long but pleasant stroll down to Stockley Bridge and on to Seathwaite followed by a long and increasingly weary road slog back to Seatoller.

Beers had been well and truly earned but sadly it was now rather later in the day than envisaged.  Just time for a swifty whilst sat outside the still grand Swiss Lodore hotel.  Robin and I made our choices, Stan paid the money.  Thank you Stan.

So what's all the "You pays your money" technical bit about?  

Well, here it comes.  I won't be offended if you skip over the rest of this report.

I'd Paid My Money.....

Using mapping software was thought to be more reliable, although different programs produced somewhat, but not wildly, different results.

The SatMap has the option to use air pressure to give height climbed but also to use mapping data which to my mind ought to be the more accurate.  What has surprised me is that it is giving far greater heights climbed than that shown when the log of where I have been is put into the mapping software on my PC.  

I have been back to the vendors, GPS Training who are probably the UK's leading experts, to ask them why.  Their explanation is that the height data used by SatMap is from a fairly recent NASA survey.  They do find that discrepancies crop up on OS maps as some of the OS height data can be quite old and not always as accurate as we might think, hence we will always see differences when compared with paper maps.

In addition to using the SatMap to calculate the height climbed, I have run its data through two different mapping systems.  GPS training have also run it through two systems that they use and Bryan has run it through his two favourites.

Here is the remarkable range of results for feet climbed in today's outing:

I've paid my money.  Now you take your choice.  I know what mine is!

Don, Thursday, 17th September 2021

STATISTICS

BB2134 : You Pays Your Money.....

Date:

16th September 2021

Features:

Bessyboot, Glaramara, Allen Crags, Seathwaite Fell

Comitibus:

Don, Robin (+ Holly), Stan

Distance in miles (SatMap):

11.3

Height climbed in feet:

4,035 if you believe it!

GPX track

BB2134.gpx

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