The Old Man of Coniston and Dow Crag

Tuesday 13 June

Start point: Coniston

Distance and ascent: 13km, 875m

Weather: wall-to-wall sunshine. 18 to 24 degrees whilst out (hotter later).

Whilst doing an out-and-back to Walna Scar from Coniston on Monday Mick & I talked about previous visits to The Old Man of Coniston. In February 2014 we had two aborted visits to its summit on consecutive days, but I remember having previously been to the top, probably sometime between 2003 and 2006*. It is, however, one of the few hills for which I have no record of the date of ascent, and, as we were unexpectedly sitting in Coniston with no plans during a spell of fantastic weather, that seemed a good reason to go up there again.

Tuesday’s forecast was a little cooler than Monday’s, so we had a lie-in until 6. At quarter past seven we strode off up the road.

Our ascent route through the remains of mining infrastructure was exactly as I remembered from descending that path 20-ish years ago. Mick had no memory of it at all, even though it’s quite distinctive and I’m sure he was with me.

After a couple of hard weeks, in the heat and on the back of the previous day’s efforts (he’d done a second circuit in the heat of the day, whilst I sat around in the shade) Mick clearly wasn’t enjoying this outing as much as he’d have liked. It was a fine day to break the ascent with some pauses to admire our surroundings and I felt sure (having had many a day that I’ve miserably hauled an unwilling body up the first significant incline of the day) that he would rally as soon as we started descending.

Remains of mining activities

Low water (and Mick)

Nearly there! 

Contrary to appearances, someone hasn’t just speared me in the shoulder with a javelin!

The expected rally didn’t come and Mick didn’t hesitate in agreeing when I suggested that he would prefer a more direct descent via Goats Water, whilst I went via Dow Crags.  

Over there next

After the relatively still conditions of the last day and a half, it was breezy on the top of Dow Crags. The reversal of my hat is to stop it blowing away, rather than a misguided attempt at fashion, and I had to be careful on the rocky high point.

Just as I stood atop the rock utcrop of a summit, Mick had stopped alongside Goats Water and (I assumed) was looking up. I raised my arm, but that didn’t provoke a response in kind; I now know that he just wasn’t looking at the right moment.

At the start of the outing, at the junction where we took the path up The Old Man, we had met a runner on his way down; a few paces later we overtook a chap who we didn’t see again. The next people I saw were a few minutes after I left the summit of Dow Crags, when I met a singleton and a couple. I saw no-one else until part way down the Walna Scar Road, where I hit rush hour.

As the car park at the foot of the Walna Scar Road came into view, so did Mick, and I caught him at the gate, from where I slowed down to walk down the road with him.

Back in Coniston, Mick was all for going straight out for second breakfast but I thought that if we were going to sit in an enclosed space alongside others, then politeness demanded us to at least have some semblance of a wash first. Not long later we were to be found suitably refuelling ourselves:

 

(*Since getting home I’ve even pulled out our digital photo archive and painstakingly gone through all of our photos taken between those dates. It turns out that back then we didn’t feel the need to take a camera along on our walks. We’ve got a few photos of holidays, lots covering house renovations, but nothing of hilly walks.)