Latrigg Summit

It was mid afternoon on Monday and the weather seemed to be clearing a little. Most of the bad weather seemed to be to the north of Grasmere Village, and so, intelligently, I decided to visit Keswick for a short-ish walk to Latrigg Summit. Both Keswick and Latrigg Summit are about 13 miles and 20 minutes drive away from Grasmere. Crazy.


Rather than use my HTC to navigate along the [albeit easy and straight] road, I set the garmin to road navigation and off I went. On the way I passed Thirlmere, which clearly needs further investigation in the future. The surface of Thirlmere looked more like a choppy sea with wonderful surface waves tearing along the surface; grief it was windy out there!!


The car journey here continually reminded me just how strong the winds were around here; now I only drive a little Ford Fiesta these days [I'm sick and tired of paying through the nose for fuel and car tax when in reality I just need a comfortable little car for poodling around from home to work with only a few long-ish journeys a year], but the gusts were nearly strong enough to turn me upside down and leave me spinning like a top in the middle of the road - not a great prospect when the only thing keeping me stuck to the road was a belittling amount of gravity and four rubber bands. How would my frail human legs and postage stamp footprints do against this wind... we were about to find out...


From Keswick I started my ascent by road, the road to Ormathwaite was apparently blocked by an uprooted tree so I rerouted via Applethwaite just a short distance down the road, meanwhile hoping that I don't get trapped behind two fallen trees... eek!


Rather than park in the car park some way up the hill nearer Latrigg, I elected to park at the end of the road leading to Oxleys Health Spa. As it turned out this was a slightly mad decision; the road to the car park ended up being both longer and steeper than the Latrigg walking route... ho hum!

Reaching the Latrigg car park I was exhausted... and I'd not even started the walk yet... part way up it did occur to me that I should return to the car and bring it to the top car park; I'm glad I didn't otherwise I would never have enjoyed such a level of achievement.


After a little bit of surgery on one of my toe nails - oh come on really you say... well yes... it was an very present discomfort on the way up here. Note to diary... never cut toe nails too square... they'll chaff with other toes... :S


The question now was, which way to go around the route... I reasoned that if I went clockwise I'd end up with the wrath of Thor at my back, which could more easily pick me up and chuck me off the hill; all in the blink of an eye. Instead I thought that if I walked into the wind I may have a better chance of keeping balance - while walking I'd be leaning forward, a somewhat less stable position to be with the wind at ones back!

View to Whinlatter Forest Park from Latrigg

The first part of the route anti-clockwise was reasonably sheltered, which didn't seem to stop my forward motion too much, but as I rounded the hill towards the east, I began to appreciate the strength of this wind and the task I'd taken on; with each step my forward motion was briefly frozen as the wind just held me mid step like a statue. This frontward wind wasn't much help to my Asthma either; I guess most people find it somewhat difficult breathing out while air is being forced down our throats... the experience is even less pleasant when asthma wants to join the party.


As I progressed further around, the easterly wind was beginning to take its toll and I was frequently having to turn and put my back into the wind so that I could breath. Taking photographs was now exceedingly difficult; my outstretched arms were adding additional surface area for the wind to grasp; I was being buffeted around all over the place. In a virtually ineffectual way to overcome this I had to increase the camera's ISO, and use a wide aperture, so that I could achieve a faster shutter speed; otherwise all I'd have for my efforts would be an impressionists blur rather than a photograph.

View towards the southerly tip of Bassenthwaite Lake
across the lowlands

Looking out east, over Applethwaite and Underskiddaw, I could just make out the southern tip of Bassenthwaite Lake in the distance, with Barf Fell in the distance; all somewhat concealed by rain haze.

Further around I was now in receipt of the full force of the wind. I could now just make out the northern tip of Derwent Water the other side of Keswick, with Swinside and Barrow mounts in the distance.


By now it was raining quite hard again and it was here that I realised I wasn't the only mad person out for a walk; four silhouette were were crossing the path a short distance in front of me and trudging directly down the hill from the plateau. No rucksacks so I can only guess they were day walkers... but at least they'd come up here with a full kit of waterproofs, albeit navy blue, rather than my eye aching bright red.

As I reached the summit the earth was only just holding on to me. In the distance I could see a wooden bench; I wouldn't be sitting on this today, but I could see it as a great anchor and shelter to hold me steady while I tried to take some photos of Derwent Water in the distance.


I'm not a bench seat user, typically, and it seems to me that you'd need to be particularly keen to walk up here to use it... I guess I'll get to know about this in years to come...

The view was wonderful and I could only wonder what it would be like with a wonderful sunset or sunrise; perhaps I'll be about to try this in the future.

For now I had to focus on walking the rest of the route; this time with wind behind me. Funny sensation, if i timed my steps just right I felt like I was walking on an alien world and space hopping my way along the path with extra big steps; who needs those snazzy and hugely expensive running stilts [Powerbocks] when all we need is a gale force wind and a medium size hill. This might catch on :)

View towards Latrigg summit,
above Derwent Water, Near Keswick

I've spent so long moving forwards that I'd not looked back as much as I should have... I looked back now... and this is what I saw... the grass covered hill, Derwent Water in the distance, and a figure standing just where I had been a few moments ago. I must have looked similar; leaning into the wind at some impossible angles and throwing my arms sideways to catch a bit more lift... but he couldn't fly either..
He than came running towards me, and kept on running... clearly one of those funny hill runners that go out in all weathers dressed in shorts and t-shirt to run a few dozen miles up and down hills that most of us struggle to walk up at a fair pace... crazy people!

Around the other side of the hill I was protected from the wind and made an easy decent to the car park and onwards down the road to where I'd parked the car.