Ski Club of Manchester Cumbria Weekend 2023, Optional extra walk — Place Fell — Monday 15th May

Leader: David Shepherd

Reporter: Brian Beardsall

Walkers were; Brian & Helen, Paul & Liz, Christine with Freddie and Fossie, Brian & Catherine with Peddar, Tosh & Ruth.

Owing to the Royal at Dockray not starting to serve breakfast until 8.30 it was a bit of a rush to make the Cricket Club car park at Patterdale by 10am. However by 10:15 we were on the road towards Rooking. We turned north towards Ullswater and a very early photo pause at the memorial to JMWTurner et al while Ruth and Tosh disappeared into a field looking for buried treasure. The weather was sunny but a keen wind was blowing and we appreciated the shelter of the valley and decided on a coffee stop before we reached the open ground alongside Ullswater.

Soon after we resumed the walk Tosh and Ruth left us to continue their quest to unearth more caches. We continued northwards taking the higher path along the side of Place Fell, with spectacular views over the lake, until we reached Long Crag where our path turned eastwards going below the Scalehow waterfall and joining another track running south. Here we took another short coffee break before continuing upwards around High Dodd and then taking a short detour to make the summit. We carried on towards Hart Crag but at this point the party split. Christine, accompanied by Fossie and Freddie and with Brian R in support, took the direct route while the remainder of the party went to the west via Mortar Crag and Knight and round to meet the others at the summit.

Dropping off the summit we managed to find shelter from the wind and stopped for lunch. From the top, the journey was a pleasant stroll down over Place Fell and Round How, to Boredale and Side Farm then back to the car park.

Thanks are due to Dave for organising and leading this very pleasant day out. We were very lucky with the weather, which was better than forecast, and we had fantastic views all day.

Stats. Distance 14.7km : Time 4hrs 9m : Height gained 724m