Wickerman, Friday 24th-Saturday 25th July 2009

No mountains this weekend, just music, beer and dancing at the Wickerman Festival near Dundrennan (near Kircudbright).

First time at Wicker for myself and Lorna, plus Ben and his pal Chris. We all enjoyed almost everything; even stuff your'e not into is worth a listen and some polite applause :)

In no paticular order of "jumping around on the spot-abilty" were;

Zion Train Human League

More from Jim (twice)

UK Subs (not a single swear word - that i noticed - fair play)

Counterfiet Clash

Bad Manners

Billy Bragg (more a sitting thing)

Burn the negative

Idlewild

Utah Saints

and everynight finished in the Headphone Disco!!!

If we had a gripe, and I know you shouldn't expect much sleep, but maybe swapping the Acoustic Tent with The Bass Camp would keep the noise over by the young folks in their field, and a little less noise for us slightly older persons???

Prices? Well £3.20 for a pint isn't over the top but a little less would go a long way. Maybe that would stop people bringing their own, which shouldn't be a problem anyway.

Food was also on the "ok we're on holiday type thing, but could easily be on the cheaper side", and I'm sure the traders will still survive!

However, all in all we had a great time and hope to be back next year :)

Making something to drink?

Main stage, bar and Headphone disco tent.

The jobby truck doing his rounds!

Idlewild on the main stage.

Uk Subs in the Scooter tent, with Charlie on fine form and enjoying himself!

A rather blurry Human League.

Three handsome young men!

The Wickerman himself before his burning.

Everybody dancing to the Utah Saints.

Ben and Chris trying to look cool in the Headphone Disco.

Lorna (left) and the rest of the tent doing their thing in the Headphone Disco.

The Wickerman finally "gets it!"

Ben, the lightweight, clearly breaching road safety laws on the way home.

Coniston; Raven Tor, Thursday 9th July 2009

With a reasonable forecast for the day, we opted for climbing the grade 4 scramble of Raven Tor, which lies just south east of Levers Water, rather than Easy Terrace on Dow Crag as we 'd been there before.

As usual the Cicerone guides can be difficult to interptret sometimes, with things like "obvious red scree shute" and "a small (non existant to us) cairn marks the start of the route".

However we set off up what we thought was the correct "rib of rock on a central buttress", only to find it a little too easy as it should've been harder - for us!

Although it looks steep , which it was in certain places, the rock has plenty of holds and you do get a sense of being on a big crag. However it just didn't seem difficult enough!

As the guide says though, scrappy scrambling can be found almost anywhere and made as easy or as hard as you like. So, after we finished we went back down and selected another possible candidate for the correct route and tried that!

Coniston, Great Carrs and back, Tuesday 7th July 20090

With the forecasts being so unpredicatable, myself and Lorna decided to head for the hills, starting once again at the Walna Scar road car park. From there we went north, up past The Pudding Stone and on past Levers Water, up to Black Sails, the point between Swirl How and Wetherlam.

Looking back over Levers Water on our way up to Black Sails, with Raven Tor on the right. From Black Sails, we went west up the rocky path on the Prison Band to the summit of Swirl How at 804m, and then north again to Great Carrs at 788m.

On the summit of Great Carrs stands a memorial to the crew of a Halifax Bomber that crashed in 1944, with what remains of the wreckage.

The eight crew members are named on the memorial with the youngest being just 19.

The view of the Langdales with Pavey Ark centre of the picture.

Looking south again to our next stop; the top of Dow Crag at 778m over to the right, with Brim Fell and Coniston Old Man on the left. After Dow Crag it was down to the old Walna Scar road and then east back to the car park.

Coniston, Sunday July 5th 2009; scrambling on The Bell

This was Tam and Susannes first visit to the Lakes and also their first scramble on the grade I "The Bell", a short walk from the car park at the top of the Walna Scar road out of Coniston.

The Bell as seen from the car park.

Tam and Susanne making light work of their first scramble! From the top we made our way back to the car park and then headed out towards Goats Water below Dow Crag. We stopped just short of Goats Water for a bite before Lorna, Tam and Susanne headed back to the car, whilst I headed up past Dow Crag.

Dow Crag with the grade III, Easy Terrace starting left of the blue stretcher box up a right slanting rake.

A closer view of Easy Terrace and two climbers on D Buttress. From Goats Water I climbed the steep path up to Goats Hause before turning South East to make for the summit of Coniston Old Man at 803m.

Looking across from the Old Man trig point to the Scafell's.

Looking down over Low Water, with Levers Water just visible behind the southern side of Raven Tor (sloping down from left to right). Above and left of Raven Tor is Great How Crags 776m, Swirl How 804m and Great Carrs 788m respectively. High on the right is Wetherlam at 762m.