28/1/12 - The Fairfield Horseshoe

Distance - 10.5 Miles
Ascent - 3656ft
Wainwrights - 8 (Low Pike, High Pike, Dove Crag, Hart Crag, Fairfield, Great Rigg, Heron Pike, Nab Scar)
Greatest Extravagance - Costa Coffee Medium Americano - £2.99

Fairfield Horseshoe

This trip was booked before Xmas, when Rocket announced that he had new boots and needed to test them out.  He has subsequently cleared out the rest of the shop by purchasing everything else going, including Yaktrax.

Sometimes, you have to think that the gods are smiling on you.  After a week looking at weather reports and seeing big black clouds over Ambleside, we have been rewarded with the most beautful weather you could hope for.  When we get to the hotel, we manage to squeeze into the last parking space available and then this happens when I check in.

Mere Mortals have to make do without slippers

We leave at 6:30am and stop off at the last service station on the M6 before the turnoff.  Hopefully tonights beer is going to be cheaper than the liquid gold that they hawk here.  Usual conversations comparing who has the best lunch.... my two types of cob, malt loaf and punnet of sausages get high marks, but Gav has brought scratchings.  Get to the hotel, park up to let the boys layer up on all their newly purchased layers.

We can start the walk from the hotel and head North West through the grounds of Rydall House.  We can see what we are going to walk and navigation is not going to be an issue.  The skies are blue and the sun is out and after admiring the camping pods in the grounds, people start having to stop to disrobe.  Hats, gloves and eventually jackets are all discarded.

Just before the snowline

The first ascent is a steep one up Nab Scar, where we very rapidly climb to 1500ft.  I pretend that I am interested in taking a lot of photos and admiring the view behind us to Ambleside to disguise my fatigue.

But at one point I was in front

Once getting on Nab Scar, the route (in all its glory) is laid out to us.  We have a succession of peaks to attain, drop down a bit and then moving on to the next.  All in a perfect horseshoe shape.  Its really just a question of how much the snow will hinder us and how much of a drop there is between the peaks.

Heron Pike is pretty easy, a long gradual climb.  Great Rigg gains its height over a much shorter distance.  We keep following the traffic up and a lot of people are taking advantage of the glorious weather.  Conversations reveal that yesterday was all hail, snow and winds, so we have stuck lucky.

Gav conquers Great Rigg

We can stop for lunch here, or get to the top of Fairfield - which is our highest point of the day.  We decide that Fairfield makes the most sense.  The snow is getting deeper, reaching knee height in the drifts.  Through science, I am able to prove that I am the fattest bloke on the hills.  Whenever I tread in someone elses footprint, the snow goes down just that little bit deeper.

Fairfield at 2850ft is the high point.  Loads of people are here.  We all have a chat over lunch.  Rocket pulls faces at the people who are delighing at their macadamia flapjacks.  He thinks they are too posh for the hills and their twin ice axe lashed to their rucksacks proves this. 

We are then confused by the request from a middle aged gent who asks us if we have any suncream.  We have compeed, whisky and fine pork related products but cannot oblige his request.

Just about to share my punnet

The amount of other diners also stops me from looking for my geocaches.  The nut flapjackers are sat on it.

Three at the top

All the pausing going uphill kind of distracts you.  On the way down, its becomes apparent how relentless it is as we dont stop as much with gravity on our side.  It seems to go on and on forever.  To make things even crueller, we can see civilisation and the pubs. 

Follow the wall all the way down

After checking football results, having an unplanned scramble down high brock craggs and meeting a 70 year old bloke who seemed rather too confused to be going up at 4pm, we leave the snow and follow the stream at Low Sweden Bridge to the town.

The weather, views and impending night out put us all in good spirits.

First stop for entertainment is the Spa.  The jacuzzi is a nice starter.  The steam room gives Gav his first opportunity to insult the geordies and in an unexpected brave move from yours truely, the three of us find ourselves in an outdoor hot tub with a couple on a romantic break.  She was quite chatty, he scowled.

Change and get the second guide book of the day out.  50 more great pub crawls has a route in ambleside.  Having ticked off 8 wainwrights, we then do 6 Camras - The salutation, royal oak, unicorn, golden rule, queens hotel and white lion leads to Ambleside's only club, the cellar bar.

Salutations, my fiends.

Food is taken on board at the Unicorn.  Only minor confusion about whether the pie comes with salad and vegetables.  The golden rule has both a one eyed pirate and then provides us with evidence that this is a university town, as a group of students in golfing gear come in.  Somehow, I have managed to lose the photo that Rocket secretly took. 

Hang your head, camera thief

After all the pubs, where much to Gav's paranoia we have been followed by the steamy geordies, we try out the Cellar Bar.  Its nicely laid out and we enjoy the muscial accompaniment of "Riverside Mofo" to the tune of the Harry Hill dance music.  We only hope there are more people than the three of us in there.  Our prayers are eventually answered when the staff from the local chinese finish their shift.  Its around this point that we call it a day.

King of the Cellar

Special walking, lucky with the weather, great company and after a breakfast from the gods, we realise that we have had a bargain hotel as well.

49 more great mountain days in the lakes left to do.