St Sunday Crag
Day 2 of the trip was a wash out as far as photography is concerned, other than a successful test of my new Fastpack 350 camera rucksack (and additional Gelert waterproopf cover). Duncan and I did a great low level walk around the Langdale valley - lots of photographic potential but probably better without the rain!
Day 3 was much better - after watching England grind out a win in the Rugby World Cup and a hearty cooked breakfast, we decided to climb St Sunday Crag. Our walks on the Sunday are always shorter, because of the drive home, and St Sunday Crag is the perfect straight up and down climb that meets our requirements.
Almost exactly a year before (almost to the day) we had attempted the same climb. On that occasion the weather was against us. On the way up I got some very pleasing rainbow shots (see Ullswater gallery) but then the weather closed in, so much so that we didn't know how close we got to the top. We reached cairn after cairn with practically zero visibilty, and no idea of where the summit was, and so had decided to turn back.
Our second attempt was far more successful. Whilst the light was poor on the way up, on reaching the summit the sky started to clear. It never completely cleared, but swirling mist and cloud added to the atmosphere. And having reached the summit we realised how close to the top we had been the year before - just one cairn away - the one in the distance as we turned back!!
All these images are hand held. I struggle to keep up with Duncan anyway, let alone carrying a tripod! The first image looks along the summit of St Sunday Crag. The summit of Fairfield is in the cloud off to the left.
The second image shows the summit cairn, and looks back the other way, in the general direction that we have come from.
The next three images show the cloud swirling over Deepdale. Fairfield summit is off to the right.
The final two images show the view back to Ullswater, the first from near the summit, the second just below the summit, on the route down.
For images from St Sunday Crag please click here