I have been asked to take some photographs for a client of Currock fell which is located to the eastern edge of the Lake District National Park. I did my research planned a route up to the summit, reviewed the weather forecast and set off, woken by a 2 am alarm is never a pleasant experience, but needs must, car loaded and off I set.
I arrived at my starting location at 3.13 am, in total darkness, there was very light drizzle in the air, but the forecast was for this to clear towards 4.50 am which was sunrise time. Having never visited this area before, I had no idea what the journey entailed that i was embarking on, so off I set, my backpack was has light has I could make it, but i was wearing a padded jacket, hat and gloves has it was decidedly chilly at the car park.
Head torch switched on, I soon found the path which began to rise quite quickly, and didn't stop rising for a long, long time. The hike up was in all honestly hard work, once I reached the first scree, the path entered a small gully and followed this up the fell side, I had to stop on several occasions to regain my breath from the effort, and to ditch layers of clothing has I began to overheat quite quickly.
The steepness of the path was not reducing and hand carrying my large tripod in one hand was not helping, but it did come in handy has a hiking pole on several occasions. Has I gained height, and the light began to increase as it got nearer to sunrise, worryingly, the low cloud became visible. The density of it was unexpected, I was hoping it to be light and fluffy ready to be dispersed once the sun rose over the horizon, but first I had to get on to the summit !. I fell for the false summit trick again, having got out of the gully and the steepness reduced, i was hoping to soon be over the worst, but no, another 200 feet of climbing still to do.
I read that it should take about 1 hour to reach the summit, even allowing for me starting off in darkness, it still took me 1.5 hours to finally get there.
The views were non-existent, a total pea souper, I hung around for 30 minutes or so in the hope of the cloud clearing but nothing changed, whilst i was waiting I was pleased that I had brought the additional layers has the temperature was substantially lower and I was please to don hat, gloves, thermal top and puffer jacket to keep me warm and dry. Eventually I had no option other that consult the map, there was no way I was descending via the path that I had used to climb up, to me this would be far to dangerous, so I identified a route down using a long but not as steep a route along the back of the fell and off I set, being very careful not to turn an ankle or worse on the boulders around the summit. Total time taken to descend was about 1.5 hours which meant that I had taken 3 hours to hike to the top and back. The video below shows the conditions that i encountered on this morning.
Having got home, the disappointment hit me, the planning, time taken to travel to and from the location, time taken to hike up to the summit, all for nothing.
So I decided, I would re-visit Currock Fell with the aim of securing a set of suitable sunrise photos, so the planning began again, weather forecasts sought, checked and re-checked. The day after tomorrow looked to be ideal, low winds, clear sky's the night before and for sunrise, so the plans were sown, changes made being, the heavy tripod was staying at home and my lightweight travel tripod being strapped to my backpack, further weight saving was made by ditching anything (camera lenses) that I did not need, but any safety stuff stayed in the bag. The temperatures showing were quite a degree higher than my first visit so several base layers were used in place of base, and mid layer clothing, again to save some weight.
What was coming this time though was my walking poles and what a good choice this turned out to be.
I must admit the thought of walking up that path again filled me with dread, but it had to be done.
Same process has before, 2 am alarm, travel to the same car park, this time no hat or gloves needed at this point, 3. 15 am and off I set re-tracing my original route, now I dont know if it was my mind playing tricks on me or the walking poles assisted me in the hike up, I reached the summit in 50 minutes this time, assisted by less stops to remove hat, gloves clothing and drinks breaks. I reached the summit by 4.15 am leaving about 30 minutes to sunrise.
The conditions could not have been more different, clear skies, with a scattering of clouds, no, or very little wind, all I had to do was find my compositions, I say all I had to do. I ended up running around like a mad-man, the speed that the sun rose was very surprising, 30 minutes after sunrise the light was becoming harsh already.
I spent a very pleasurable 2 hours on and around the summit of Carrock Fell picking out detail within the large vistas in front of me, and trying to capture the summit cairn with some interesting backgrounds. The mist in the Eden Valley created natural layers exaggerating the distances, and the rising sun creating lovely warm lighting across the meadows.
Once the sun was high, I had time for a leisurely drink, packed up and set off on the same return route that I had used the day before, the only difference being that I could see where I was going and could admire the views.
On reflection the decision to revisit the fell so quickly was the right approach, I got the photos that I wanted, and faced my dread of hiking up the steep path again, albeit with a sore pair of legs!
A selfie photo showing the sunrise conditions looking east over the Eden Valley.
Comments