Lake District

24th Sept 2005

Finally the dream comes true. I had wish when I started exploring the trekking places in UK where I found three National Peak challenge etc articles, where one has to climb all 3 high mountains of UK. That is Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike & Snowdon. The dream came true when our 5 members team of Bhramanti reached Scafell Pike on 24th Sept 2005. Our team was Joseph, Solomon, Girish, Naga & myself.

Our Trek plan was cumulatively decided after the Snowdon climb since Joseph & Girish my two new teammates were very much thrilled to see all Bhramanti activities as well the Rock Climbing practice at Awesome wall, Liverpool. Luckily Joseph has very firm base in Liverpool and having his own car, made our planning very much easy. Adding to the surprise Solomon could not join us in our last unsuccessful plan of Scafell Pike. So without any objection he was the confirmed member of of the team and was supposed to come from London to join us. Girish has some trekking experience in India & he too was interested in the Trek more than Rock Climbing practice. The Last surprise was Naga, the very much questionable part of the team, shown interest in joining the trek. May be he wanted to celebrate his PMP certification as well, want to get instant reduction of his body mass ration.

We shared the responsibilities as Pilot(Joseph), Accounts(Girish), Co-Pilot/Navigator/PRO(Solo), Food Incharg(Naga) & Support to All(Rajan). All had accepted the duties except Naga, since he wanted to make sure whether he needs to carry all food stuff along with him or what? So after confirmation he was bit relaxed but the only question remained in his mind was the climbing since he was doing this activity after a long time. Joseph Girish was very much enthusiastic since it seems they found their new wings to spend their good time in Liverpool. Solomon is a member of Bhramanti, as well his past experience of Ben Nevis, so no doubt about the Scafell Pike summit in his mind. All food stuff & enough drinks(Water & Juice Only) we carried as per our past experience and left the house by 6:00am. Since Joseph has good driving skills, we reached the destination well in time as per schedule at 9:15am. The Destination was Wasdale Head in the Lake District. It was 130miles of journey.

With God's gress weather was very much in favor of us. After having home made sandwiches, we all set to go by 9:45am. We were supposed to follow Lingmell Col route. So after enquiring the route to other trekking teams at National Trust Car Park, we assured ourselves about where to go & how to go. In the beginning we had as per Bhramanti Trek standard the introduction talk. I had given a brief about the route etc with Best luck to the team. Our small 5 member team was having no doubt about our goal and was acting like one team. After initial 20 min walk the gaps between the team members started varying. So this time I myself has decided not to worry about the reaching time since the trek was very much under the control.

After 15 years as per Naga's communication, he was doing the trek. So he was the only worrying part in one of the corner of my mind. And the interesting part is he made it more joyful expression of his tiredness once on the way before entering the bit steep climb. When all were resting in the First major break, Naga was video shooting the moments in his Camcorder and suddenly he asked, whether the object exactly on top of our head at around 10:30am is moon or sun? Since he was under the impression that it was sun. We all had enjoyed his funny statement. In reality it was moon.

The entire route was kind of set one, their are very less chances of missing on the way. We saw many people carrying GPS, Route Map etc navigation devices on the way. For me it was bit overdose seeing all these things for such a trek. Anyway at one point after one and half hour of walk Scafell Pike summit has two approach routes. One goes from the Lingmell Col (Its between Ling mell & Scafell mountain) and other one from the crag which is at right side of the Scafell Pike and left of the Sca Fel mountain. The crag route was bit harder but quickest one. While the Lingmell route is safe but longest among two. We decided to go by the Lingmell Col route since most of our team mate has less experience of trekking though Solo was in the favor of going via that route.

On the way approaching towards the Col we mate an interesting personality whose name was Jhon Mullen. He was around 80 yrs of age and walking on his own route but with good pace. After watching the person, I got some intitution that, he must be the grate fellow. After conversation, I got to knew that he has been to the place 740 times. That too from 1985 onward. I had a doubt about 740 attempts. So as per the calculation, I asked him about the freq. He said this week it was his first attempt, since last 2-4 days it was raining in the area. But also got to knew other info about his less hearing capacity. So my doubt yet continued making my calculating brain some food to churn along with Solo. It seems he used to climb thrice a month atleast. I congratulate him and assured him to write about him and took one photo from my Digicam. He was happy too after the entire interaction with me. Later we followed with him till the Summit.

The Summit was very much cold with chilled wind. Within 5 min our hand started becoming numb. We took some photographs and search some shelter till our other members reached the summit. We had some home made sandwiches till then. We mate some more trekkers on the summit where all had the same joyus moment like us. I was happy, when I first saw Naga at the edge about 150 ft below the summit. It took average 2 and half hours to summit. After quick photo session we descent down since the temp. was 4-5 degree on the summit. It was good climb as compare with Snowdon to me.

While descending we decided to take other route which is towards Lingmell side and then descent to Parking side. Their was a mountain race going on, on that day. Most of the members we found out of them were oldies above 40 yrs of age. This made me think of such activity in Sahyadri mountains. The race was on that same route. I never thought of whether our choice would be better than the traditional route. But surprise to all of us, it was very much scenic route. The sun was playing crucial role in the beauty of the area. I spent more of my camera time on this route as well my teammates.

We reached the Parking site at 4:20pm. After having a cup of tea all we set for our return journey. On the way we spent few minutes at Wast Water which is one of the deepest lake of England. So by this climb I am very much satisfied with my adventure crave. But the enthu shown by our two members Joseph & Girish made me to think of many more such climbs till the time I am here in UK. I dedicate all these good memories of 3 National Peak climb to Bhramanti since Bhramanti completed 3 year on 1st Sept 2005.

Photo Link.....

Written By: Rajan Rikame

Previous Visit

28-29 Aug 2005

This time we had a Lake District tour with 8 members team. The aim was to climb Scafell pike first and then roaming around the Lake district. We traveled from Liverpool to Wasdale Head by the hired vehicle on Saturday 28th Aug 05.

Wasdale Head is in the center of the Lake District geographically. It has Uk's Deepest lake and one of the highest mountain Scafell Pike(987mt). When we reached at the Wasdale Head, rain was pouring heavily. So we decided to cancelled the climbing plan and moved towards the Darwenwater via Keswik. After spending some time in the town center we returned back to Eskdale where YHA hotel is put up. We reached almost in the dark.

Sunday morning, I thought of morning walk around the hostel since breakfast preparation was yet to be started. As soon I came out of the hostel to see the surrounding, I was lost in clicking with my camera. The Hostel location was in the mountain, where a nearby stream make some liveness sound while the background hillocks with greenery made the hostel looks very beautiful. After the Breakfast we went to Coniston another scenic lake. We spent 1 hr. in the lake by 8 person motor boat. It was sunny day. We all tried our driving skills giving some relaxation to our 2 pilots who were driving the cars all the times. But they too didn't wanted to miss the driving opportunity in the motor boat.

Later we went to windermere another but main tourist attraction across the Lake District. Generally people comes to this place as tourist place. There are cruise rides available here to take a round trip across the lake. We spent time in roaming in the near the shore for sometime. Later we returned back towards home(Liverpool).

On the way one of our member suggested to visit Morecambe Bay. We all went to the bay where the city was like in the closing mood like the sunset. We got some good view of the sunset and then we returned to our base in the night.

It was in brief good experience; traveling in the entire Lake District. For my adventure mind, there were plenty of opportunities in this region in terms of treks/climb.