Just come back from an interesting couple of weeks in Austria.

Day 1: flew to München, took the train to Imst/Pitztal via Würgl and Innsbrück (our train disappeared, nobody knew anything, all good), then the bus down to Tieflehn where we stayed overnight.

Day 2: walked around Mandarfen for the morning, met the rest of the course and walked up to Taschachhaus, which is more of a small hotel than a mountain hut (salad bar!). Talk in the evening to introduce everybody.

Day 3: Walked to Vorderes Köpfle, practising movement on rock, lowered off (!) and walked back down. In the evening, practised some ropework.

Day 4: On the Glacier practising movement on ice across all slopes and techniques.

Day 5: Sexegertenspitze (3350m), glacial approach up to ~40° with a very little rock right at the end. Spent an hour in the sun on the summit! Unfortunately, I’d missed a bit of my chin with the sunscreen… Practising ice-axe braking and buried-axe belays on the descent.

Day 6: Back on the glacier, pitched ice climbing, crevasse rescue practice.

Day 7: Had a go at Wildspitze, didn’t make it. I wasn’t well, so I turned around before the morraine slope, Andrea carried on, but the weather wasn’t good enough – they summited Petersenspitze instead.

Day 8: walked back down to the Valley, got a lift to Ötztal bahnhof, from where we took the bus to Sölden. The weather forecast was grim, so we decided to stay in the valley for a couple of days. Some shopping and pizza :-)

Day 9: Bus to Vent, checked into a B&B, and climbed Wildes Mannle (3000m), but taking the Sesselbahn out of Vent!

Day 10: Walked to Hochjochhospitz (2413m), stayed in a lager of 6 people.

Day 11: Walked to Brandenburger Haus (3277m) in fog over the glacier. Smelled the woodsmoke before we could see the Haus. Stayed in a 4-bed room.

Day 12: Walked via Fluchtkogel (3500m) and the Joch to Breslauer Hütte (2844m). The walk from Vernagthütte to Breslauer Hütte was dull and long. Put up with a room full of tourists with no idea what an early start meant. Everything was very funny at 2330, but considerably less so at 0400 the next morning!

Day 13: The plan was to have another go at Wildspitze, the weather was perfect. Unfortunately, this time Andrea was ill, so we abandoned it before we got to the Mittelberg Joch. Spent the day sitting in the sunshine and drinking Apfelscholer. Got moved into a 2-bed room, and caught up on sleep.

Day 14: two people were helicoptered off from the Joch in the morning, one seriously injured. We walked down to Vent and took the bus to Sölden, where we stayed the night.

Day 15: train to München, flew home.

Just back from two weeks travelling around the Fjord region of Norway, including a session on Jostedalsbreen, with a spot of ice climbing. All good :-)

It’s not really Schadenfreude, but I was amused by those around me – firstly because they had come out without any regard for the weather, and secondly to watch their reactions to the rain. Some accepted their fates, and got wet. Some were running as hard as they could to get out of the rain, despite already being soaked. Those with umbrellas usually tried to carry on for a while, but then realised that their legs were getting wet, and hid.

And then, given a moment’s let-up in the weather, everybody came out from their hiding places in shops, under shelter, in doorways. And walked a few meters up the road, before the next torrential downpour, at which they appeared shocked that the weather had turned, and ran for cover again.

Fascinating to watch.

We walked up from Glenridding to Lanty Tarn, and from there, we took the old path up the side of Birkhouse Moor to the Hole In the Wall, which is pleasant enough until the final trudge up to the hole.

From there, we climbed up to the start of Striding Edge. Helvellyn’s top was in cloud, but the ridge wasn’t at this point, although the cloud did move in just before we climbed down the Awkward Step.

As I was descending the Awkward Step (I went right, which turned out to be more complicated than going left), hanging in a little rock gully, a rather excitable Pointer puppy jumped down from the top, wedging herself in between my legs and the rock, which was somewhat offputting. After surviving that, we rested at High Spying How for a few minutes before beginning the long easy scramble up to the top of Helvellyn, where we stopped for lunch at the shelter.

As we were leaving, the wind really picked up, visibility dropped to a few metres, and it started to hail (!). We navigated to the start of Swirral Edge, just in time to see the ridge through a break in the cloud. The wind was still very strong, but westerly, so as soon as we dropped from the summit down onto the ridge, the wind dropped right away.

After an easy scramble down Swirral Edge, we descended via Red Tarn, and over Birkhouse Moor, before descending down the boring steps by Mires Beck, back to Glenridding.

It took us about 7 hours to do this walk, but we were going slowly; Andrea was practicing navigation, I was taking lots of photos, and we were taking it easy, both being somewhat out of practice at fellwalking. If you’re in reasonable shape, it’ll probably take 5 hours.

The bluebells are out in places – where there’s more sunlight they’re mostly up, although not at full strength yet. I’m going to be away in Brussels next week, which is unfortunate because I think they’ll be perfect for photography then. Oh well, hopefully it’ll still be looking good the week after.

It’s a nice walk nonetheless, but certainly not somewhere to go for some isolation :-)

I would certainly suggest doing the walk in this direction, rather than clockwise – otherwise it’s quite a grind up Cave dale, and that can be pretty slippery.

Start: Castleton (SK151830)
Map: OS Explorer 1:25K OL1 Dark Peak

Head NW out of Castleton, along Hollowford road. At the conference centre (SK148853) follow the footpath NE. From here, you can follow the signposts to “Lose Hill” (SK153854). Then it’s a nice ridge walk along a real path (sometimes with fencing on either side!) to Back Tor (SK146850), Hollins Cross (SK136845) and then along Mam Tor (SK128837). Descend from Mam Tor, then either follow the footpath marked on the map here, across a field, or descend through the car park, then double back along the road for 200 m. Head SSE along the footpath, then follow the big path SE until you can turn L onto the Limestone Way (SK135813). Make sure that you stay on the path that leads to Cave Dale (it’s the main path), and then walk back to Castleton in the dale.

Me looking hardcore on Back Tor

Back Tor

Along to Hollins Cross

Paragliders over Mam Tor

Perevil Castle

The downpours yesterday gave me a decent chance to check out my new jacket, and I’m very happy with it. It’s very light, but extremely breathable, and as one might expect from a waterproof jacket, totally waterproof.
I don’t think that the material is as strong/durable as the XCR on my heavier sprayway Summit Peak, but it is half the weight, and packs down much smaller.

So, there’s a new outdoorsy type store in Cov, just the wrong side of Canley crossing. Called Go Outdoors it is probably one of the largest shops of any type that I’ve ever seen – apparantly it used to be an MFI. The place is huge, and they have got a massive range (much more than on the website), as well as the walking stuff that I’m mostly looking at they’ve got a big camping section, with lots of the tents set up, a cycle section (only Claude Butler bikes from what I could see), lots of travel stuff, caravanning, all sorts really.

More interestingly, their prices are very, very good. I just bought a paclite jacket there, reduced from £160 to £120, there are similar reductions on quite a lot of stuff. They make you get a card (£3 for a year) to get 10% off everything and all the special offers.

I had expected the service to be indifferent at best, but I was impressed – all the guys I talked to really knew their stuff, and were very helpful.

Well worth a visit.