{"id":150,"date":"2019-04-28T16:34:51","date_gmt":"2019-04-28T16:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/?page_id=150"},"modified":"2021-07-14T16:04:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T16:04:00","slug":"blencathra-skiddaw-2019","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/sota-summits-on-the-air\/english-summits\/blencathra-skiddaw-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Blencathra & Skiddaw 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day two of our Lake District 50 point tour.\u00a0 With 32 points in the bag on Saturday today we aimed to bag Blencathra and Skiddaw to complete the tour.<\/p>\n

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Although these two mountains are right next to each other there is no obvious route between the two. Possibly because both are on the large size they are not often walked as a pair.\u00a0 They both have their own good parking but neither is easily reachable from the other providing many hours of debate and pouring over the maps before the trip.<\/p>\n

In the end we decided to do Skiddaw first as it was worth more points and so rather than leaving us with the problem of getting back to Skiddaw at the end of a long day we parked in the Blencathra car park and tackled the route over to Skiddaw first thing.\u00a0 This gave us the option to walk out down the path from Skiddaw house if we felt we couldn\u2019t manage Blencathra after all.\u00a0 We were certainly glad we did it this way by the time we got back to the car.<\/p>\n

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The Route across to the Skiddaw path is not at all clear and will take some very careful navigating.\u00a0 It also involves a fairly major river crossing so shouldn\u2019t be attempted unless you are confident the river is not in flood.\u00a0 I have included a zoomed in map here showing how we did it.\u00a0 With hindsight, where we turned South after the river crossing I think I would next time try heading straight up the hill to join the path above.<\/p>\n

G\/LD-004, Skiddaw \u2013 931m, 10 Points<\/h2>\n
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The path at last<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once across the river and onto the path around Lonscale fell the rest is easy.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good path over to White Beck and then it\u2019s a motorway up to the summit.\u00a0 For a bit of extra spice take in Little Man on the way up for another Wainwright, although we didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Skiddaw summit is pleasant enough with plenty of room to set up.\u00a0 We found a spot next to the shelter and soon set up our stations.\u00a0 It was my turn to operate this time but I found it quite quiet despite putting out a spot on APRS2SOTA.\u00a0 I eventually had six contacts in the log including more from the Blackpool rally and a summit to summit (S2S) contact with Rob G3YTS over on Helvelyn, it was enough so we decided to have lunch and then pack up and make our way over to Blencathra.\u00a0 It was as this point that I realised my lunch was still in the bot of the car so instead I sat and watched the others eat their lunch.\u00a0 Then just as we were leaving the summit I heard a call from David M0YDH activating a WOTA summit so I quickly worked him barefoot to give him a WOTA S2S contact and making it seven in my log.<\/p>\n

G\/LD-004 Log.<\/h2>\n

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G\/LD-008, Blencathra \u2013 Hallsfell Top \u2013 868m, 8 Points<\/h2>\n
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The route over to Blencathra from Skiddaw<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Leaving Skiddaw summit by the same route we arrived we soon reached the junction with the path down to Skiddaw house.\u00a0 This is youth hostel out in the middle of nowhere.\u00a0 We were still debating the best route over to Blencathra as there is no path marked on the map.\u00a0 After much discussion we decided that it was quite likely that there would be both a path from Skiddaw down to the hostel and also a path from there up to Blencathra so we went for it.\u00a0 On reaching the youth hostel I realised that there must be someone looking after all good SOTA activators as on the wall outside the deserted looking hostel was a sign saying \u201copen at 5pm\u201d and next to that, a small lunch box with a sign saying \u201cFlapjacks, \u00a31.50 each\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Path upto Sharp Edge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were four inside so we scraped around and managed to find \u00a33.00 for two of them.\u00a0 They were the most delicious flapjacks I have ever eaten, thick with butter and sugar, probably make you sick on a normal day but after no lunch they couldn\u2019t have been better or more welcome.\u00a0 They powered me straight up the side of Blencathra all the way to the top.<\/p>\n

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Unmistakable Sharp Edge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the hostel follow the track SouthWest for 1\/2 a Km until you come to a sharp bend and a fence line.\u00a0 \u00a0Turn East here, there is a path of sorts heading in roughly the right direction.\u00a0 At the boundary fence you could take a bearing on the summit and head off cross country but we opted to stick with the path which although a bit further was much easier going.\u00a0 Follow the path up past the Cloven Stone, a fairly obvious landmark, and on up past the cairn to a crossroads where we turned right, heading back towards the path over Sharp Edge.<\/p>\n

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Blencathra summit marker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If there is any visibility at all this is an extremely obvious landmark well deserving of it\u2019s name.\u00a0 Turning South below Sharp Edge, there is a path from here taking you across the small scree slope and on up-to the ridge leading onto Blencathra summit itself.<\/p>\n

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The route back down<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The summit is fairly compact with steep drops but there was room for the three of us to set up with some spacing.\u00a0 We soon had five contacts in the log and all to soon it was time to head back down to the car and the long drive back home to Wiltshire.\u00a0 Mission accomplished.<\/p>\n

G\/LD-008 Log<\/h2>\n

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Journey Details<\/h2>\n

Date \u2013 28th April 2019<\/p>\n

Postcode \u2013 CA12 4SG<\/p>\n

Parking \u2013 NY 302 256<\/p>\n

Radio \u2013 Kenwood TH-D74<\/p>\n

Antenna \u2013 Long Ranger<\/p>\n

Band \u2013 144 FM<\/p>\n

Contacts \u2013 7 + 5<\/p>\n

SOTA points \u2013 10 + 8 = 18<\/p>\n

Group \u2013 Myself M1CJE, Peter M6XPE & Richard M1HAX<\/p>\n

Walking Route Summary<\/h2>\n

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Profile<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day two of our Lake District 50 point tour.\u00a0 With 32 points in the bag on Saturday today we aimed to bag Blencathra and Skiddaw to complete the tour. Although these two mountains are right next to each other there is no obvious route between the two. Possibly because both are on the large size … Continue reading Blencathra & Skiddaw 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":23,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,6,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-english-summits","category-lake-district-summits","category-summits-on-the-air"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":786,"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/150\/revisions\/786"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.m1cje.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}