Sea of vapours
Guru
- Location
- Clapham, Yorkshire Dales
March done. I'm looking forward to feeling happy to start imperial centuries an hour or two later. Today was 0920, which is pretty much 'crack of dawn' for me.
I decided to get up Great Dun Fell as I've not been up it since November and the new, second radome is now finished; and very shiny it is too. (New one on the left, for anyone who's not familiar with GDF.)
In all probability it will look less white and shiny most days. Today featured clear, blue sky all day to sunset and the wind speed at the top of GDF was a mere 'indiscernible', which is very rare indeed.
I approached via Kirkby Lonsdale, then northwards via Tebay and Orton to cross the excellent 'main' road across the Westmorland Dales to Appleby-in-Westmorland. The lanes from then on, to reach Knock and the beginning of the ascent, were pretty muddy, though surprisingly dry, which was a bonus. The ascent itself featured one opportunistic walker, near the top, and no-one else. In fact I saw very few cyclists all day; three perhaps. It was even warm up there; 7C according to my head unit. Later on was less so; the temperature had dropped to a bracing minus 3C by Newby Head and remained below zero until I arrived home. A really fine day out, with some great long views and some very pleasant light of the unaccustomed 'full-on sunshine' variety, even in Mallerstang (below), which is often somewhat dark and shadowed.
I decided to get up Great Dun Fell as I've not been up it since November and the new, second radome is now finished; and very shiny it is too. (New one on the left, for anyone who's not familiar with GDF.)
In all probability it will look less white and shiny most days. Today featured clear, blue sky all day to sunset and the wind speed at the top of GDF was a mere 'indiscernible', which is very rare indeed.
I approached via Kirkby Lonsdale, then northwards via Tebay and Orton to cross the excellent 'main' road across the Westmorland Dales to Appleby-in-Westmorland. The lanes from then on, to reach Knock and the beginning of the ascent, were pretty muddy, though surprisingly dry, which was a bonus. The ascent itself featured one opportunistic walker, near the top, and no-one else. In fact I saw very few cyclists all day; three perhaps. It was even warm up there; 7C according to my head unit. Later on was less so; the temperature had dropped to a bracing minus 3C by Newby Head and remained below zero until I arrived home. A really fine day out, with some great long views and some very pleasant light of the unaccustomed 'full-on sunshine' variety, even in Mallerstang (below), which is often somewhat dark and shadowed.
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