Mountains and stuff Part II

After my first day in the Lakes, I was aching a bit so decided to take things a bit easier on day two.

After a morning wandering round the outdoor shops in Ambleside, having a coffee and then lunch in town, I decided I really ought to do some walking and so I drove over Kirkstone Pass and past Ullswater to tick off two smaller hills to the north, Little Mell Fell and Great Mell Fell. The weather today was far superior to the snow flurries and low cloud of Sunday.

Very different in character to many Lakeland fells, these are two isolated hills, that sit in the broad valley between the Helvellyn range and the Caldbeck Fells to the north although neither are that small at 1657' and 1760' respectively, they are quite easy to climb.

First on the list was Little Mell Fell, this has the advantage of a road running over the hause between it and Gowborrow Fell to the south, in fact called "The Hause" that makes it an easy half hour trip. So once again I engaged in a bit of "motor assisted hill walking".

Yes that's the summit in the background!

Soon "bagged" this one, number 134!

The mountain in the background is Blencathra but the small mound in the foreground is my next objective Great Mell Fell, only a mile and a half away.

Although the two fells are fairly close, combining them in a single walk is not that easy as the ascents up and down Little Mell Fell are on the "wrong" side and the countryside between the two is not open fell but a valley of agricultural land with many fences and no obvious paths.

So after a slightly different descent towards Ullswater and then contouring back round to The Hause, I jumped in the Land Rover and headed off. Instead of the obvious direct route, I first took the unsurfaced road the runs along the Eastern side of Little Mell Fell, just because I could!

As you can see from the Map, the route up Great Mell Fell is a bit longer but still only took me about 45 minutes to reach the top



Blencathra from Great Mell Fell

On the Summit, Great Mell Fell, No. 135

It obviously gets a bit windy up here.

So after the photos, I headed back down to the car, then drove back beside Ullswater, stopping for a photo session on the way.

Looking South along Ullswater

So with 135 Wainwrights under my belt, it was back over the Kirkstone Pass again and down The Struggle to Ambleside where I was soon back at the apartment to start planning the next day, this was going to be a bit more ambitious.....