The Weather forecast wasn't great for the weekend So me and Mr Tear decided to do a low level camp locally, Ennerdale water is only a stones throw away from where we live so we decided to do a quick overnighter somewhere along the shoreline.
We parked up at Bowness Knott carpark around 4pm, secured the car and then set off down along the lake at a leisurely pace.
Our route and Camping spot
As I said although the weather forecast wasn't great at the moment the sun was shining and there wasn't much in the way of wind, it felt like a proper spring day.....for the moment.
As we arrived at our spot we saw what looked like the remains of a campfire, Im not against campfires but the rule of the wildcamper is "leave no trace" or similar sayings anyways....you get the jist, so it always irks me to see signs of others that haven't followed this simple rule.
The fire was piled high with wood and only half burnt so I guess whoever it was that had the fire couldn't keep it going, and then couldn't be bothered to take away or clean up what was left.
Anyways we kicked down the remains and threw the half burnt wood onto the shore and kicked away what ashes remain as we cursed the unknown person/s, the unsightly scar that was left behind can be seen in the image below.
Fire scar
I think the thing that confused us the most was that the shore is literally 6 foot away and with the water being fairly low at the moment theres lots of shoreline to place a fire on which would leave no trace.
Standing on the shore we could now feel the strengthening wind coming across the water towards us, the clouds started rolling in and so we decided to pitch despite it still being quite early around 5pm.
Not only was our pitch open to the elements but it was also very close to the coast to coast path that runs along Ennerdale waters southern shore, we had already seen a local dog walker and a guy from...(I forgets but think* it was Devon area) who was visiting a friend in Seascale and was heading over to Honister despite the weather closing in and it being around 5pm and he was still several miles off his target, after a few minutes exchanging pleasantries we wished him well and set about pitching camp.
Camp set up on the shore of Ennerdale water
I was again in my Zephyros 1, Its a very small tent but still spacious enough to store all my gear and just large enough for me to sit up in while weighing only around 1.4Kg although I have replaced the pegs and bags that came with the tent saving 100g or so on the normal weight.
I should say at this point that i'm not a super lightweight fanatic, the main reason for the weight saving on the tent is that I wanted to replace the poor standard pegs and bags the tent came with, the side effect of this was the newer pegs and bags just happened to weigh less.
It wasnt long after we pitched when the rain started, only fine spits at first, but soon it turned to drizzle and we quickly retired into our tents.
I put the jetboil on made a brew and some food......packet mash and pepperoni mixed in IIRC.....and after a craic we settled down and I watched a movie on my phone.
I drifted off to sleep around 10pm and then awoke around 1am to my tent mashing me in the face.
The wind had picked up something fiercely heading from east to west and hitting the tent from the rear, Apparantly this is how you are supposed to pitch these tents for the best stability but I wasnt convinced as the ridge pole was buckling and I could see the Fly lifting.
For the next 5 hours I lay with my back bracing the inner (and fly) as the winds tore around us, I must have eventually dropped off again as I awoke around 6am to the wind still blowing along with heavy sounding rain, but now it was coming across the water from the west to the east right and lashing into my porch.
The door and the porch either side of the tents ridge pole was now nearly touching the inner door.
'Weather' heading up the valley
I shouted of Mr Tear to see if he was awake but there was no response, or I just couldn't hear him, so I got out of my bag, Put on my waterproofs and started packing my gear away, I was nearly packed when the weather suddenly calmed and I heard Mr Tear mumbling something, I got out the tent while it was still fairly calm and declared I was packing while it held off.
Within 20 minutes we both had shelters down and packed and we laughed about the nights weather, we guessed 40 mph winds with gusts of 50, but we later found out that it was nearer 50mph with gusts up to 70
We also noticed it was considerably colder this morning and the local hills were covered in a topping of snow, though we didn't feel cold during the night.
Looking upto Haycick with its head in the cloud covered in snow
Quite an experience and tbh quite glad we decided to do a low level camp rather than risk the intended Crag fell we were originally going to camp on.
Heading home
Thanks for reading,
Until next time....
Have fun and stay safe.
An alarm rang out this afternoon, I knew it was my phone, but it was a sound I haven't heard in a while,
I checked my device to see what it was and found it was an alert from an app, the Aurora UK alerts app to be exact.
The app itself is connected to AuroraWatch UK - http://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/ which is an space weather site and part of Lancashire University which specialises in Aurora alerts and sends out alerts to the phone app when an Aurora is going to be visible in my area.
The corresponding app which I use on my Android device can be found here AuroraWatch UK Alerts
AuroraWatch UK app
The App was warning me of a rare extremely powerful solar storm that was heading to earth with a rating of Kp9
The Kp-index is a global geomagnetic storm index with a scale of 0 to 9. Based on the Kp-index, you can immediately know if there is a chance to see aurora or not.
With a Kp rating of 9 it meant that the Arora should be visible from most of the UK, which it indeed was as many people flooded social media with pictures of the sky from as far south as Manchester and wales.
Anyways I decided to get the camera out and go see what I could see....Around 8 pm saw a huge spike of Kp8, at this time I was unable to get out of my village as the missus was at work and had the car, she wouldn't finish until around 10pm so it was a bit of a waiting (and hoping) game.
I looked out at the sky from my back yard but saw nothing other than the soft orange glow of local street lamps, I'm in a fairly dark area and on clear nights the milky way is clearly visible from my yard despite the local street lamps, but tonight held nothing so far not even a single star......only mist.
The next hour or so was spent with me furiously watching several weather websites and arora alert pages on both my TV android box, my tablet and laptop, my front room was starting to resemble an amature space / terrestrial weather center as I scanned pages of data....and the signs weren't good.
All the reports said that the best of the Solar storm had hit around 8pm with a maximum Kp8 storm peak, the charts were now in decline and worst of all the terrestrial weather indicated a huge mist and fog bank approaching from the west which threatened and hopes of a clear sky.
Around 9:30 pm the terrestrial weather updated to show a nice hole in the clouds above my location in the western coast area of the lakes district, and although the Aurora service indicated a steady decline in the storm I had a glimmer of hope at least of possibly seeing something.
So I decided to take the plunge and got my kit ready.
As well as My camera and tripod I also made up a flask of coffee and took some chocolate biscuits and then waited for my missus to arrive.
At around 10:15pm my missus arrived home and I dove into the car and we set off in search of a suitable spot to take some shots, it needed to be unobstructed and facing north, preferably across the sea as thats the best bet of it being the darkest.
The nearest coastal town to me is my old hometown of Whitehaven and there are several popular spots there for taking photos which overlook the towns historic harbour, but I guessed this would cause a couple of problems.
Firstly those popular spots are indeed just that....popular....if anyone else was on the ball thats the most likely spot they would choose to take photos from and my hunch was right as I found out later their were several people at that location.
Secondly the town and harbour have several brightly lit structures or art installations if you will that although are nice to otherwise photograph at night, weren't really going to be favorable to the misty conditions that we were currently encountering as it magnified the local light pollution and would more than likely drown out any faintly visible Aurora...or so I figured.
On the other hand an image of the Aurora above the town would be spectacular....choices, choices...
I quickly decided against going into town and instead knew of a nice dark place overlooking the sea just on the outskirts of town which had a rough track leading up to it which we could drive right up.
The journey only took about 10 minutes and so we were at the location and getting the camera setup by around 10:30 pm....but alas the weather wasn't looking great, we were encountering freezing mist so as the sky was clearing and the temps were dropping rapidly now, the 1 degree C temps meant after the past few wet days of milder weather the atmosphere wasn't playing ball.
I took a few test snaps and although I was excited to see some signs of the Aurora through the camera the combined effect of the declining storm and the mist was obvious.
Declining storm and low mist gave poor results
I was a little disheartened but at the same time this was my first time seeing the Aurora 'live' so also felt quite excited and I continued to snap away regardless.
Soon there was another alert from my phone, I looked at it and saw that the storm was beginning to ramp up again...
Aurora forecast for March 17th 2015
At this time I had been snapping away for some 20 minutes and noticed that the mist had almost now fully dissapated and the aforementioned terrstrial forecast had come true and the skies cleared beuitifully.
Soon we could see colums of faint light rising up from the horizon and into the sky and I again began to snap away with the camera....
Over the next 25 minutes we were treat to the most spectacular sight I have ever witnessed, the sky at the storms peak at around 11:15pm was lit up with huge columns of light that danced around each other, before it gave a huge majestic finale in the form of massive pulses and shockwaves of light that resembled something from a science fiction movie like huge shockwaves on a spaceships shields or massive ripples on a pond but these were ripple of light that danced across the sky.
And then almost as soon as it had arrived, it stopped...we waited for around 10 minutes to see if it would escalate again but then we began to see the cloud cover approach and knew that the show was over.
It seems that at that moment we had encountered the storms highest point where it reached Kp9, the mist had settled and that hole in the cloud cover had all come together at just the right time to make this a perfect storm of conditions to see this spectacular light show, its definitely something both me and my missus will remember for the rest of our days.
Its been a little while since the last blog update, but to be honest I haven't had much to write about really.
I've done a few camps since the last update, all at campsites..
The first was in Keswick, nothing really notable about that camp, just out to test some gear, the second camp was in Wasdale and again nothing much of note happened as we were just scoping out
some sites for the warmer weather.
The Wasdale camp was at the National Trust campsite, a nice enough place that sits at the head of Wast Water.
Wasdale National Trust Campsite
We set off mid afternoon from home and arrived around 3pm at the site,
I love the trip to Wasdale by car, once past Gosforth the scenery changes so abruptly and dramatically as you come past Greendale, it quickly turns from typical english villages and farmers fields into an almost fantasy landscape like something from a dark ages sword and sorcery....if I dare say it....Lord of the rings Fantasy world.
Moorland grasses peppered by huge rocky outcrops, like tiny micro mountains in their own right, just walking a hundred yards or so from the road here makes you feel like your in a distant lonely land.
The winding twisting road that snakes through this epic valley is flanked on either side by mighty mountain ranges, Middle fell and Yewbarrow and their collective range on the western side, and the mighty Wasdale Screes and Scafells to the east which tower so high that you have to crane your neck uncomfortably to see their summits.
A truly fantastic place to behold.
Once at the site we had a look around, the place seems well kept, there isn't much here really, just a shower block and toilets and a small overpriced camp shop (aren't they all), we paid our dues and looked for a nice place to settle.
Most of the site is nicely flat so we picked a place with unobstructed views of Scafell pike and setup our shelters.
Great Gable
The weather forecast said that heavy rain and winds of around 40 mph were due at low level and 40-60 mph gusts were expected higher up, so we decided on a campsite before we even set off.
The main aim of the trip was to test some bit of kit, nothing of note just a new mat and sleeping bag to see how it would handle near 0 temps.
Once settled I cracked open the old Trangia storm cooker and made a brew, I'm a big fan of Trangias, although they (the storm cooker variant) seem to be a bit Marmite in the wild camping community with some disliking them saying they are too heavy and bulky and others like myself that swear by them and are happy to forego their 'IMO' minor quibbles.
I think as an all in one system they are hard to beat, sure they are a little on the heavy side depending on which model you choose or which accessories you take, but the upside is a well rounded complete cooking system that can handle anything from boiling water to cooking steaks.
Speaking of which it wasn't long before I set about making some supper, Tonight I decided on making something a little more adventurous than the norm.... mexican style beef wraps....
Heres the recipe.
CragScramblers Mild* Mexican Style Wasdale Wraps (*Only as mild as you want them to be)
Ingredients
400g cheapo thin frying steak
1 bell pepper (up to you what colour you want)
60ml dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic granules
½ teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper
½ teaspoon of chilli flakes (add more if you like it hot)
dash of worcestershire sauce
2 Ziplock bags
Soft tortilla wraps
To prepare
Simply slice the beef into strips (I slice against its grain to help it become more tender during cooking and give a softer bite) and place into a ziplock bag.
Add in the other ingredients into the beef bag and mix thoroughly and then seal the bag.
Slice pepper into strips and place into a ziplock bag.
Store in fridge overnight to marinade and let the flavours combine.
You can if you wish freeze the beef and marinade after a couple of hours in the fridge if you wish, I find this helps break down the beef somewhat and makes it a little more tender when cooked.
I also like to make multiple batches in ziplock bags and freeze them ready to take them out when needed.
To cook
Place a little oil into a pan over your favorite stove and add the peppers and fry until soft and they gain a little colour.
The peppers will release a lot of liquid this is normal and adds greatly to the flavours, so once the peppers are nicely softened add the beef and marinade.
Give it a good mix and place a lid / plate on top and reduce the heat and carry on simmering for another 10-15 mins.
After 15 or so minutes you'll end up with some nicely lightly spiced tender beef strips in a savory dark sauce,
Now simply scoop some of the meat and peppers into a soft tortilla wrap and enjoy!
If you wish you can add cheese, tomatoes ect which will store nicely for a day or 2 in a ziplock bag wrapped in foil.
CragScamblers Mild Mexican Style Wasdale Wraps
After supper we had a talk for a while about various inconsequential things and then it was soon time to retire.
The wind at this time was quite random, varying strengths and direction but the rain was holding off....just.
Mr Tear 'Chillin'
I cant remember the Movie I tried to watch as I slipped into my sleeping bag because before long the whole tent began to violently shake and what started as a tiny pitter patter of rain drops suddenly sounded like high volume static lashing away at the canvas around me.
This buffeting and rain carried on until the wee small hours were it eventually subsided around 4am.
It was soon 6am and time to pack away, were getting this down to a T now, most everything is packed while in the tent into the backpack and then the tent itself is the last thing to take down and stuffed into a dry bag usually when the wind / rain has calmed down a little.
The new mat and sleeping bag coped admirably and kept me warm, though to be perfectly honest I dont think the tamps dropped much below 1-2 degrees that night.
As usual a good night was had, so until net time.....
Gavel fell is part of a group of smaller fells on the western edge of the lakes district, its sited between Ennerdale and Loweswater and although these fells are far from the biggest, they do still give spectacular sights.
A panorama looking west from Gavel fell its cairne to the right above the tent
Gavel itself sits between Blake fell and Hen Comb, it offers clear surrounding views, to the west the comparatively flat land of the west coast, to the east a commanding view of grasmoor and the peaks of Melbrake, to the north lay Blake fell and Carling knott and to the south gives an alternate views of many greats including, Starling Dodd, Great Borne the High Stile range and in the distance even steeple and Pillar.
For such a short walk from civilization it feels as though you are far deeper into the lakes.
I was once again joined on this trip by Mr Tear who had some new kit to test out, a new inflatable mattress by Multimat and a new tent from a relatively new company named OEX, who are based in the UK.
I picked Mr Tear up at around 12pm and we drove the couple of miles to our start point near the foot of Knock Murton just outside of Kirkland village.
We took the route shown on the map below, the red line being our accent and the green line being our descent.
Route taken
The way up was a lot harder than the way down (as it usually is) but there are 2 paths upto Fothergill head.
Fothergill head is the small ridge which joins several of the small fells in this area, its the place most people will reach first whether its to ascend the popular Blake fell which overlooks Cogra Moss, or to reach any of the others nearby, including Gavel.
The gate to Cogra Moss
The 'hard' way is to follow the fence up as we (and most others do) this takes you over low and high pen little mini mountains in their own right, infact Low pen has its own little mini cairn as its such a steep little hill that obviously many others have also felt it should be awarded one....I wholeheartedly agree.
The crossing point (gate) at the foot of the climb to Low Pen (pictured center right)
The easy way is to bear right at the foot of Low Pen and head towards gavel fell itself after a couple of hundred yards you see a farmers track, this track winds itself around the edge of High Pen and up towards Fothergill Head taking a much more friendly gradual ascent.
I decided to take Mr Tear up and over the Pens as both a test to my rather (still lacking) fitness and...well....everyone should do it at least once, Sorry Mr Tear, you know for next time. ;)
Mr Tear making the accent of Low Pen
Once we reached Fothergill head we then turned right and made our accent of Gavel, see the video below of the surrounding views (sorry for the wind noise...its not all from my heavy breathing honest!).
After a short breather we scouted the vicinity for a place to pitch, it was around 2pm by this time and we soon found a couple of half descent plots so we pitched camp.
We decided on a spot just below the summit of Gavel behind a little rocky outcrop that sheltered us from the easterly winds.
Camp struck and brews on
As I said earlier Mr Tear had a new tent by the company OEX, the tent in question is the Cougar 2 which i've done a little mini review on further down the page.
I was again using the Wild Country Zephyros 1.
By 3pm we had struck camp and had our stoves on for a brew, the sun was starting to set so I setup my new phone for a time lapse shot.
My old Samsung Galaxy s2 which I use while camping was beginning to look a little old in the tooth so I treat myself to a new Samsung Galaxy s4 zoom, which is basically a small 10x optical zoom pocket camera with an android phone attached, its a little bulky and heavy and reminds most people i've shown it to of a early 2000's device.
I'll perhaps do a mini review on it soon but I was quite impressed with it none the less and all the photos and videos on this post are taken with it so you can judge for yourself if its any good at its target niche (please disregard any operator error).
Sunset looking west from camp
The weather was pretty nice, the sun was out, it was relatively cloud free and the wind was low at around 6 mph with only the odd gust.
The views from here are as great as any within the lakes, all of them are different of course but each as spectacular as each other,
looking south towards Pillar
We has a good crack as we made some food, the sun eventually set around 7:30 pm so i took a few more shots of the now lit up coastline and then we retired to our respective shelters.
The view of the west coast lit up at night
It was still quite early and thusly some entertainment in movie form was needed (as usual), I watched one called "Her" its about a man who falls in love with his computers operating system, and, yes it was as odd as it sounds, still it did help me along to sleep....for a while at least.
I awoke around 3 am to my tent slapping me in the face, the wind had picked up considerably and was around (im guessing) 20 mph with gusts of 40 (later confirmed winds were reaching 45 mph gusts).
The little Zephyros was holding fast, but because we pitched just off the summit just to the west behind an outcrop we should have been protected from the prevailing easterly winds, however the wind had changed direction and was now blowing from the south which meant it was hitting my tent head on along its long axis, oddly enough these single hooped tents prefer to be pitched side on to the winds with the 'front' door facing away from the source of the winds.
due to my pitching place it meant the end where my head was, was getting a battering and hence so was my face.
this continued for around 2 hours before it finally subsided around 5am and I manged another hour of broken sleep.
I awoke at 6am and heard Mr Tear was up (going to the loo) I asked him if he heard the hoolie earlier on but he said no, as he was fast asleep (a testament to his sleeping skills or his new tent I'm unsure) he then declared he wanted another hour to sleep, fair enough I wasn't going to argue with that as at that point I felt I could have slept on a clothes line.
I got up around 7am, started packing and put on a brew, the tents were covered in frost but were otherwise in excellent condition, the ground was only a little frosty in places, the forecast temps were around 4c when we set off on the trip, the post trip temps actually recorded 0c and -10c wind chill.
Morning frost on the tent, notice the sun on the left side melting it.
Let me tell you it definitely felt like it was hovering around 0c that morning.
As we began packing away the shelters the wind picked up again, a nice steady 20 mph not much gusting but the wind was bitingly cold, putting away the last few bits of kit required gloves and out came my Haglofs hard shell to help cut out much of the wind.
After making sure there wasn't any sign of us left behind we started our descent, it only took around an hour to make it back down to the foot of Knock murton and the mini car park.
Heading home
All in all a very good little overnighter.
The OEX Cougar 2 tent
The Cougar 2 is one of several new shelters by the company OEX Outdoors, a link to their website is here http://www.oexoutdoors.com, they also seem to be bringing various other types of outdoors gear including sleep mats and sleeping bags.
The tent is an 2 person semi geodesic design that has 2 cross poles that run in an offset configuration almost parallel to each other and a central cross pole that combines to create a sturdy freestanding dome shape.
The cougar 2 Pitched in the wild (albeit on uneven ground)
Heres the tents specs
OEX Cougar 2
Berth:2
Bedrooms:1
Doors:1
Height (cm):105.00
Length (cm):310.00
Width (cm):230.00
Flysheet Hydrostatic Head (mm):5000
Groundsheet Hydrostatic Head (mm):6000
Weight (kg):3.65
Pack Size (cm):44 x 18 x 18
Pole Style:Aluminium 7075
Number of Poles:3
Fire Retardant:Fire Retardant
Flysheet Fabric:68D 185T PU Coated Polyester Shell
Inner fabric:68D 185T Breathable Polyester
Groundsheet Fabric:210D Oxford Polyester
Vents:2
It seems OEX are aiming for the upper mid range of the market with these tents, as they are going up against the likes of Vango and Wild Country in terms of specs, price and weight of their products.
Its far too early to tell you anything of their resilience but we were both impressed with the quality of materials and ease of pitching.
The weight is perhaps a bit on the heavy side if its to be used by one person alone, but this is a 2 person shelter and a little weight is to be expected at this price point, but considering the added extras such as built in porch ground sheet and separate 'roll top dry bag' style carry bags for both the inner and outer (effectively halving the weight if carried by 2 people as per its design), the added heft is to be expected, and to be honest it isn't out of line with the competitions weight for similar style tents, the Vango Halo for example has a weight 3.52Kg but foregoes the built in porch groundsheet and uses the arguably less durable 7001 t6 alloy poles.
Pitching was pretty painless, the poles went in with out snagging inside their pole sleeves and they went into their seating eyelets without too much of a wrestle, although attaching the inner to the outer was a little frustrating for Mr Tear as there was so many of them, "Thats a good thing though isn't it, nice and solid?" I asked, I didn't hear his mumbled reply but it sounded a bit like whinging, anyways it didn't take long for him to complete this task and it seems the tent can be pitched "all in one" if desired and lets face it, it was his first time pitching it.
The Cougar 2 has a large porch and roomy interior
The Cougar 2 has bags of space and great ventilation having vents at the front and back which can be propped open with the built in 'props', this is a proper 2 man tent with more than enough room inside for 2 plus gear and a porch which could easily handle a couple of packs and boots and yet still have room to cook in with the door open Mr Tear had lots of room to sit up straight in the tent and cook in the porch with his Trangia 25 while being sheltered from the wind.
The tent also features a nice bathtub groundsheet and a couple of internal pockets for storage, the tent also held up to some blustery winds of around 40-45 mph without fault, it was that stable in fact that while I was woken up by my Wild country Zephyros slapping me in the face due to the wind, Mr Tear slept soundly in the Cougar 2, surely a good sign of its ability to handle the weather in its stride.
Packing away was simple too, we left the Inner attached, took out all the pegs apart from a couple on the prevailing wind side, removed the poles and then folded the whole lot in half and rolled it up, we then removed the remaining pegs and it went into its larger carrying bag all in one with minimal fuss.
Packing away, a perspective size of the generous porch
All in all, it seems that OEX are bringing some nice high quality shelters to the market and at very reasonable prices too, at the time of writing the Cougar 2 is available for £129, a bargain!
So there you have it, a nice start from a new outdoors company which well be keeping a close eye on as it seems so far their products are great value for money.
Looking towards Ennerdale water from Low Gillerthwaite Field Center, Crag fell covered in snow
So my first real camp of 2015 came today although not strictly a wild camp as such.
Rather a friend of mine decided he wanted to get into this "wild camping" lark after listening to me waffle on about it for years and also as a means to get out and shoot more astrophotography, so after talking him into spending a few hundred pounds on some basic (but solid) gear we decided on a camping trip in a relatively safe place to test his gear.
He's also been influenced by several modern wild camping heros and their associated youtube channels, and I don't blame him, they are all very good and so he couldn't wait to get to it.
We decided on camping at Low Gillerthwaite Field Center its campsite facilities are basic with a toilet and a small kitchen which campers have limited used of, but its more than we needed.
(apparently the website states that for a small fee the kitchen facilities can be used, theres cooking equipment and a range.)
I believe there is usually hot water available but for some reason at this time it wasn't available.
So we set off around lunchtime, Mr Tear picked me up from my house and we headed to bowness knott car park.
Low Gillerthwaite Field Center is about 2 miles or so from Bowness Knott car park along a gentle if somewhat twisty gravel track, Car access is limited as we found out because as we arrived we promptly opened the gate to the track, drove down to the field center and was promptly (but nicely) told by the warden that car access is not allowed unless prior arrangement with the ranger is made , so we hastily unpacked our packs and drove back to the carpark and then walked back to the field center, a nice amble that took about 35 minutes.
OS map of area we visited
The current warden was away on holiday so a stand in was present, a nice enough chap who somehow guessed we were dark sky photographers (which was weird as other than a tripod we didn't say what we were up to in the area) and he made us aware that the center caters for dark sky enthusiasts from time to time and a couple of weekends were coming up at the end of february and march.
After the warden showed us the basic facilities, we set about making camp, the ground was quite boggy with a little snow here and there in areas so we set up behind a wall on a bit of raised ground that was fairly flat.
Mr Tears Vango Pulsar 300 in the back
My Zephyros 1
It took about 15 minutes to clear our little areas and setup the tents, another 10 to setup our sleeping kits and then it was time to get the kettle on and take stock of our surroundings.
The weather at this point ( 2pm )seemed quite mild, there was a little snow on the ground as I previously mentioned and as seen in the pictures and the surrounding hills were topped with it too giving a chocolate box appearance to them, a proper mini mountain range.
To our west lay Ennerdale water and Crag fell, the south is obscured by the relatively unimpressive Ennerdale fell.
But to our east lay Pillar which at the time of arrival lay with its head covered in a snow shower now this is an impressive beast of a mountain, if not in size but in form, craggy, angular menacing yet beautiful.
Pillar with its head in a snow cloud
We could see snow coming down on Pillar and the surrounding fells, little flurries that came barreling down the valley from the lake, obscuring the view, the flurries slowly grew closer and closer until we were engulfed in a short hail shower which painted the surrounding land white again for a short while.
This was a common theme for the trip, small short flurries of hail or snow which we watched approaching from the 'lake' and either ran up along Ennerdale fell and across to Pillar or came at us...sometimes both.
After a while the warden approached and told us we were welcome to stay in the field center room if it got to cold for us (we heard a lot this weekend from people telling us it was too cold to camp or we were crazy for doing it, family, friends, my neighbor who collared me at my front door as we were setting off "You're never going campin in this?" she asked.."ohh haha, you want your head looked at!" she said with a smile.) and now the centers warden couldn't quite grasp what we were doing either. "well if it does get too cold for you the field centers rec room is open to use, i'll wish you well as were off early in the morning, enjoy!" he proclaimed.
But as I said we were here to test kit, and although I was confident in my own gear as I have used it many times in the cold I wasnt sure how Mr Tear's would hold up in the upcoming minus temps the night would bring.
Darkness started to fall and so we decided to have some food, I usually carry a Jetboil and some form of dehydrated food stuff, purely as I see food on such trips as fuel and with weight concerns when hiking ill go for dehydrated meals, noodles, pot mash and protein comes in the form of pouched tuna or salami.
This time however seeing as it was only an overnighter and I wasn't too far from home I took out the old Trangia and did a bit of gourmet cooking..
I say gourmet, it was a pack of uncle bens ready cooked risotto and some steak :)
Not long after finishing cooking the hail started again and with point to prove as it came down hard for about 30 minutes....time to retreat into ours shelters, climb in our bags and..well....keep warm and entertain ourselves somehow.
Short video of me escaping from the hail after cooking supper
As in most cases in winter when the weather closes in there really isnt much to do other than shelter, the weather set in around 5pm along with the darkness, and so long nights spent in the tents are the norm.
I always find it hard sleeping early especially on the first night of a wild camp, I usually take a few movies/ Tv shows /Podcasts loaded onto my phone to pass away a few hours, tonights matinee was a movie I got from Google play "The Grey" with Liam Neeson, I wont spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it but its basically about some men being hunted through a winter landscape by wolves....quite an apt movie considering, because around the time the movie was ending the local dogs started howling and barking in the darkness and the hail had started again, I'm not sure if they are the wardens or the centers dogs but something was spooking them as they barked for half the night.
After a few hours of kip I awoke around 1 am and had a look outside, by this time the temps had fallen dramatically, Im guessing it was at least -4 (that was the forecast) and my tent was iced up both inside and out.
Opening the door was akin to folding a piece of cardboard, but a quick look to the skies revealed it was mostly clear.
I put on my boots and unpacked my down jacket and gloves, got out my tripod and camera and placed its battery in my pocket to warm up a little.
I had to shout of Mr Tear a couple of times who responded with an "uhh?", "The stars are out marra!" I said, and he promptly joined me outside.
"It's bloody freezing!" he said before diving back into the tent to put the kettle on :)
We then got the camera's setup and started taking a few images.
I have to say LGFC and Ennerdale in general is a great place to see the night sky in all its glory, the light pollution is minimal and the surrounding mountains and woodland make great foreground pieces.
The sky above Low Gillerthwaite Field Center
Orion hidden amongst the cloud over Ennerdale Fell
The orange glow of the Sellafield nuclear plant is the only light pollution to be seen from this location
Looking West, the Pleiades (Severn Sisters) and below and to the right Comet LoveJoy
5 minute exposure over Pillar
We managed a few dozen shots before we started feeling the cold, My camera shut itself off a few times it was so cold, that's despite letting it acclimatise for several hours in its dry bag, next trip I will take a temp probe to see how low it gets.
So after an hour and a half we called it a night and returned to our tents, had a quick brew and a snack to keep us warm and grabbed a few more hours sleep.
After a restless night I awoke around 7am, I spent the usual 10 minute winter wild camping ritual of 'contemplating getting out of my bag but really wanting to stay in its warm embrace' before rousing myself and seeing how fast I could get my over clothes, boots and jacket on.....2 minutes flat if your interested :)
I put the stove on for a brew and shouted to see if Mr Tear was awake, he was.
"You dont want to get out of your bag do you!" he said, "It's bloody freezing like hah!" he added,
"worst part of winter camping marra" I replied, "Did you sleep all right like? not too cold?" I asked,
"No I was alright once I got in my bag, them bloody dogs though, barked all night....then that owl started hooting then that bloody cockerel at half four..." he said as he made a cup of tea.
It was quite a noisy night I will admit, it seemed we pitched camp right next to an owls nest im sure of it, and then the center has a cockerel that seemed to be stuck on repeat from about half four until six am....must remember ear plugs the next time we visit.
It had snowed fairly hard through the night but the temps had rose a little and the tents were no longer frozen solid and what snow was left laying around was pretty slushy, so I made my coffee and had a couple of biscuits before packing away the gear and dropping the tent.
Usually after a nights camping your pack weight a bit less, you've ate most of the food you have taken with you, you've also shed a little from using fuel on the stoves, but sometimes, like today your tent is wet and has ice on it and i'm sure it weighed a kilo more, no matter how hard I shook it.
And to make matters worse it now started to snow again which just added to the weight as it stuck to our packs and gear as we packed.
It took about half an hour to pack everything away, we made sure we didn't leave anything behind but our tracks in the snow and some flattened grass and then after a last look down the valley we headed back to the carpark via the now slippery icy rangers track back to Bowness Knott car park.
Overall it was an enjoyable start to what will hopefully be a trip filled 2015, our kits 'mostly' handled the conditions well and we got some nice wide angle astrophotography shots.
