Charmer’s Grave

Despite the BBC’s promise that Saturday’s weather would be “dry for most” we woke to this summer’s usual situation, torrential rain! However, a day indoors wasn’t appealing so we decided to embark on a mountain-day with loads of different activities and objectives:

Have some fun and exercise in the great outdoors!
Find the elusive Charmer’s Grave and the lakeland letterbox thereabouts.
Climb an easy rock climb in the rain – the classic Giant’s Crawl.
Bag a mountain top or two – Dow Crag and the Old Man of Coniston.

charmer's grave stone — Charmer’s Gave, RIP 1911.
(ref. Wainwright’s Southern Fells)

Thankfully we seemed to time our adventure perfectly. Just as we arrived at the parking area on the Walna Scar Road the rain slowed to nothing but a light Cumbrian-mist. After locating the letterbox the tops had even started to shed their cloudy cloaks. Then, as we climbed Giant’s Crawl, although the rock was running with water making the going quite exciting at times for a mere Diff, the sun came out! And so when we reached the summit of Dow Crag we were able to sit in the sun and eat our sandwiches while admiring the view out to the Isle of Man, down in to the Duddon Valley, and across to Scafell in comfort while our equipment dried in the warming sunshine.

giants crawl — Pete on the long first pitch of *Giant’s Crawl*. The rock was streaming with water despite the rain having stopped.

Pete emerging from the dark and damp north-east facing Dow Crag into the sunshine.

P1010124 — Laetitia laughing at having got so cold that she had had hot-aches in her hands (in August!).

After that we headed over to the top of the Old Man of Coniston and eventually back to the car. It was nearly 8PM by the time we drove off – not bad for what had started off looking like another wash-out…