Over The Contours

It was a sunny and mild April morning as we drove along the A66 towards Threlkeld. My legs were still a little beaten from the Manchester Marathon and from the Loughrigg Fell race the evening before, but nevertheless, I was keen to make the most of the weather and the time in the Lakes to do a recce of leg 2 of the Bob Graham round. When I plotted the route I’d come to consider leg 2 as one of the easier sections of the round; a long slog of a climb up to Clough Head from Threlkeld and then a long, but steady, ridge run over the Dodds, Helvellyn and down to the Grisedale Tarn. In a way this is exactly what leg 2 is, however, what I hadn’t accounted for was the amount of relative elevation loss and gain whilst on the ridge. Leg 2 “officially” begins in Threlkeld, heading south by the disused quarry and then onto Hausewell Brow. For convenience, Abigail dropped me off just south of Threlkeld so that I could begin the route along the Old Coach Road beneath the Threlkeld Knott...

Heading up Whiteless Pike Sitting at my desk at some point in early summer I'd plotted a speculative fell running route from Buttermere via Whiteless Pike and Crag Hill, all the way over to Causey Pike and Barrow. If I'm perfectly honest, I saved it and then never looked at it again until we arrived in the Lakes on our next trip. The route was around 12 miles, not huge, but there was a hefty amount of ups and downs. I saw it as a greedy run in that the route deliberately did lots of out and backs and criss-crossing to pack in as my Wainwrights as possible. Regardless, I loaded the route onto my watch, plotted the route on my OS map and set off very early on a Sunday morning in late August. I parked next to the church in Buttermere. The sun had only really just risen and, looking up towards Whiteless Pike and beyond, most of my route appeared to be in the clouds. I ran down into Buttermere village, crossed the bridge opposite the Bridge Hotel and took a sharp right followi...

This was something of an undertaking; I’d been planning a long fell run for months and had selected the far eastern fells as a good location as I’d be able to ridge-run whilst hoovering up a collection of new Wainwrights. After a long-ish drive, I parked near The Coombs at Howtown. There was a fine rain in the air and visibility wasn’t great. My route started with a quick dart up Hallin Fell. Standing at 388 metres, I should have had a good view over Ullswater…I didn’t. The only moderately impressive aspect was the large cairn. Anyway, onwards. Re-crossing the road near where I parked, I followed the path to the right of the church before heading up the steep and rough path over Steel Knotts and Pikeawassa. After Pikeawassa I had ended up getting soaked by dense bracken as I followed the wall towards Brownthwaite Crag. At this point I took a left and passed the remains of an old hunting lodge overlooking Ullswater. The cloud was clearing a little, so I was took in some views. ...

Looking down into Ennerdale whilst descending from Starling Dodd. A bit of unfinished business this one. I'd intended to run Great Borne and Starling Dodd earlier this week as part of my loop around Mellbreak and Hen Comb. As I mentioned, the tail end of Storm Brian was still lingering and it made for quite a challenging run, hence why it was cut short. So, with much improved weather conditions, I re-plotted the route and headed out early to bag another two Wainwrights. Parking at the National Trust car park beneath Bowness Knott at Ennerdale Water, I ran briefly up the road before taking a sharp right and heading up the steep path to the Knott and Rake Beck. The path is relatively comfortable to run, minus a few steep sections where I had to slow down to avoid large patches of mud and/or bog. At 230m I reached Brown How, where the path takes a sharp left and becomes unrelentingly steep and considerably more challenging. I followed the path over the narrow contours, keeping...

I've long been fascinated by the outlying and less frequented Wainwrights. I fancied doing a run that didn't require a long drive early in the morning and one that was a little more forgiving given that my legs were still suffering after the previous day's activities. Fellbarrow and Low Fell stand alone next to Loweswater. To me they've always looked a bit geographically isolated and not as attractive as their larger cousins across Lorton Vale. Nonetheless, they're there to be climbed/run. I parked the car at Waterend at the head of Loweswater. There's a decent little car park by the roadside there. Immediately opposite the car park I began my run heading up Grange Lane, a little tarmac road leading to a public bridleway. I headed north on the bridleway. The bridleway is flat and relatively mud-free for the time of year. After approximately a mile, I took a sharp right to the east, following a steep, but clear path up Smithy Fell. The path gets a little lost...

Mellbreak - photo by Michael Graham This was a tricky and frustrating bugger of a run. I'd originally planned to run over Mellbreak, up to Starling Dodd, along to Great Borne and then down and over Hen Comb. Annoyingly, the arse end of Storm Brian was still loitering and the visibility was quite poor. The journey started badly as I hit a rock the size of a football and dragged it beneath the car. In the dark and pissing rain, I used the torch on my phone to check for damage underneath the car. All looked OK, but it still put me in a bad mood. I parked in Loweswater next to a farm gate at Church Bridge. Following a cobbled track south, I was soon heading up Raven Crag and White Crag. The wind was a shock to the system, taking my breath a few times. In fact, as the path up Raven Crag became narrower and steeper, and the gusts got stronger, I did wonder about aborting. I carried on and the ascent soon became easier as the path flattened and the northern summit of Mellbreak app...