Steven's Blog: Ennerdale Walk Day 2

Distance: 16.9 miles

Wainwrights: 9
Brandreth, Green Gable, Great Gable, Kirk Fell, Pillar, Scoat Fell, Steeple, Haycock, Caw Fell.

I didn't have the best nights sleep, mainly because of condensation. I had read that you should keep all the vents open on my tent and should of taken notice, because I got bad condensation and water droplets kept landing on me and waking me up.

I woke up at 4 and waited for my alarm to go off at 5. Once the alarm went off I put on my headtorch and made some tea and Weetabix. It was still dark outside, but I started packing my stuff and as it started to get a bit lighter, I packed the tent away and set off.

I had decided overnight that I was going to walk the next 2 planned days all in 1 day. Which was going to be a big, hence the early start. Setting off towards Brandreth, the route I had downloaded didn't go to the summit but as I want to walk every Wainwright I diverted to walk the summit. On my way I passed 3 tents, one on the top of Brandreth. The first two tents, there was no sign of anyone but the other tent, 2 people where making breakfast.

Then headed on to Green Gable and on up to Great Gable. I thought I would be the first person up there, but as I neared the top I saw some guy sitting there. I ended up spending 20 minutes or so talking and totally forgot about taking pictures on the top.

The route off Great Gable was steep with quite a bit of shale, hard going. There was a couple of tents down here too. Just before the climb up to Kirk Fell. On way up, I was stopped and asked if there was a route up this side of Great Gable . "Yes, I'd just walked down it" and pointed the route out.

It was quite hard going up Kirk Fell and the sun was now totally out and beating down. Time for the sun cream. After Kirk Fell it was down and then up to Pillar which I'd been looking at the day before from the other side of the valley.

Pillar is one of those tops that keeps eluding you, when you think your at the top, there is more. It was hard going and the weight was starting to take its tole. The planned route for today ended before going up Pillar.

Again I better cut this short. After Pillar I ran out of water and things started to get hard in the heat. Walking off the top of Haycock, I followed the iron posts and didn't look at the GPS or the map. The route I took was very steep and looking now I can see it was the wrong route, it was more like rock climbing at times, lol

I had to keep stopping and trying to get out of the sun, but I was becoming dehydrated and getting slower. I scanned the map for somewhere to get water but there wasn't any on route and started looking at easy ways off the top. I noticed a beck after Haycock on the map and made a detour to it. I got to the top and it was dry but further down there was running water. It was the best water I'd ever tasted.

I was still very tired and decided to cut out the last top and supposedly take a short cut. The shortcut ended up being a difficult steep walk down the side of a beck and then I followed the lake back to the car.

The whole day had been 12 hours of walking in what seemed more like a summers day. I still really enjoyed the walk and learned quite a lot. I'm hoping to get a couple of more over night wildcamps in before I do the West Highland Way.

Here's some pictures from the 2nd day: