July 2021: Lake District: Kendal

Very brief notes from a short week's holiday. With abroad iffy, we wanted to go somewhere, and having considered the North Pennines, Wales, Scotland and some elsewhere's, we ended up in the lakes; specifically, Kendal: partly because it had places to stay, partly because it seemed large enough to wander around for books and coffee, and partly because it was reasonably well connected. We did, however, find ourselves driving through Windermere and Ambleside most days, so perhaps next time I'd consider one of those as a base. Kendal itself looks somewhat sorry for itself. Whether that is generic, or whether Covid has been unkind, is unclear. It has a reasonable number of restos, most of which were shut on Monday and Tuesday.

Links are to GPS traces, where you'll find pix.

Sunday: pack am; drive up; arrive about 5. Find the place once we realise Kendal has a one-way system. The car park is in a "yard" behind; the appt itself will do us fine: downstairs has been tarted up in the modern taste; upstairs the bedrooms are OK (except they forgot sheets on D's bed, and a towel for him, and soap in the bathroom, and any spare bog paper).

Monday: wait out the early morning rain; then walk out of town off to Staveley along the Kent, which is about 10 km away. This turns out to be a nice walk, but importantly a fairly easy one, as M and I are finding our feet.

Tuesday: drive to Coniston, walk up the Old Man. M was unsure of her legs on this much ascent, so we dropped D+E in the village to slog up 200 m, and drove to the Walna Scar car park, which is up a fairly scary road. We joined up with D+E at 310 m, at the pass connecting The Bell. pm: walk quietly from Coniston to the lake, but the path takes a while to get to the lake if you want a lake walk, may be better to start elsewhere.

Wednesday: to Great Langdale, to Raven Crag, which is just behind the Old Dungeon Ghyll. This was our sunniest day, and was sunny, so we had great views from the climbs. M rested at the foot of the crag; I lead Middlefell Buttress (Diff, with the chimney start S, apparently; D did the VS 4c direct start) with D+E; then we did Original Route, having seen a couple of other parties do it. From the side it looks quite extreme, as it appears to be overhanging; but it isn't. We did have some route finding issues above the pinnacle; see my UKC logbook for both.

Thursday: Helvellyn via Striding Edge from Glenridding: good. D zoomed off into the distance early on; ME+I stayed together. We (I) got a little lost on the top, which was in cloud: Squirrel edge really isn't far along from the summit.

Friday: was leave-at-11 day, and we did. First M and I "did" the castle, which E had run to on her first morning; it has a bleak beauty. Then coffee in Brew Bros, which is just over the road. Then, since we could, we left via "the sea side" at Arnside and Silverdale. Both are pleasant enough to stop at, but unexciting.