A Wet Weekend in Wasdale - Day 2

Date:                   Saturday, 13th August 2011
Start/Finish:         Wasdale Green Car Park
Distance:              4.5 miles
Time Taken:          4.5 hours
Companion(s):       Dibble and Lexi, Catbells and Harris, Yamyam (Easy)
                            Amnesiacjimmy, Humperlumper, Yorksgal, Yeti, Swampy, Strider (Hard)

Route Map:           Easy Walk

Following a reasonable night's sleep at the Youth Hostel, the day began with a 7.30am breakfast before we were met by Dibble and Lexi and Catbells and Harris.  With everyone ready to go, we set off to today's meet-up point at the Wasdale Green Car Park with the weather just as bad as it was yesterday.  However, we had high hopes that the clouds might lift later in the day and it was a real shame that our hopefulness wasn't rewarded.

Again it had been planned that there would be 2 groups walking today, one doing a hard route including Pillar, Red Pike and Yewbarrow and one doing an easier route to be decided on the day.  Once we had all gathered together, discussions took place about the routes and finally a decision was made that we would all set out together on the Black Sail Pass route and once up on the ridge near Looking Stead we would all decide how best to proceed.  The weather conditions were playing a big part in interfering with our plans unfortunately!

Nevertheless, it was nice for us all to begin the walk together and at least spend some of our time as one group.  A few photos were taken en-route .....

We all finally made it to the top of the ridge and, as weather conditions hadn't improved, we split into our 2 groups at this point.  I decided to stick to the easy route as the cloud was still very low, the rocky paths were wet and slippery and I didn't feel confident about being able to complete the harder route - especially the steep scree descent they had planned down from Wind Gap!

Whilst on the ridge, we stopped for snacks and were rewarded with some fine views....

Having enjoyed our snacks and strolled along the ridge a bit, we headed back down Black Sail Pass in a fairly steep and slippery descent.....

.....and arrived back at Wasdale Head Inn for a refreshing drink at the end of our walk.

Another enjoyable day out in the hills, in good company - shame about the weather!

I spent the rest of the afternoon at the youth hostel waiting for the others to return from their walk and, yes, you guessed it - I took some more photos....

Such a beautfiul area and I can only imagine how stunning it will be to see in good weather - a good reason to return on another occasion I think! :-)