Dunmail Raise, Seat Sandal, Raise Beck, Cumbria
[ 5.8 km] Wed  26 Aug 2009

Start/finish: NY 3296 1113.
I arrived at the Dunmail Raise lay-bye in pouring rain. It looked like it would continue for most of the day so a delayed my start for a while just in case it didn’t. Eventually I put all my waterproofs on and set off on a very wet a squelchy track by the back of the climbing hut. I followed it through a couple of locked gates until I reached a sheepfold. The trail ended so I had to follow the wall up the steep hillside. There was no path of any kind, just head high ferns which were very difficult to wade through in the pouring rain. The wall line turned to follow the contour for a while before heading straight up the hillside again. The bad ground was taking ages to cross so I kept straight up until I reached the main ridge coming up from Mill Bridge. There was a faint path and the going became so much easier now that I wasn’t wading through ferns. The ridge continued up along an easy line but as I had only thick cloud and rain to look at it wasn’t much fun. On a good day I expect it would be quite impressive.

Raise Beck in spate.

Just after the Seat Sandal summit cairn I came to the main wall over the summit where I was able to find some shelter from the wind and driving rain. I decided to have my lunch and used my one man survival shelter bag which was excellent. Unfortunately it became too comfortable inside and as I finished my sandwiches and flask of coffee I knew I would soon have to brave the wind and rain again. I followed the wall steeply down to the north. Eventually I could see Grisedale Tarn to my right but it was too wet to take the camera out for a photograph. I turned left at the bottom to follow Raise Beck down the steep valley. The path was completely awash and the beck in spate. My feet were now so wet it didn’t matter any more. The beck was a mass of brown raging torrent and incredibly impressive so see. I had to take extra care though and the steep valley was slippery in the conditions and I didn’t want to finish up in the beck. Eventually I approached the Dunmail Raise road and was surprised to meet another walker coming up. He was the only walker I’d seen all day. At the road I soon reached the car.