Jill Rowland persuaded Jo, myself, Roger and Ann to join her in reducing her Wainwrights from 23 to go to 21 to go. Because of the high winds we opted not to climb high and to stay away from ridges - instead we headed to Watendlath to test out the waterproofness of our boots on High Tove and Armboth Fell. It was grey day with strong winds, forecast to rise to very strong as the afternoon progressed - the forecast was accurate! A short but steep climb up the zig zags soon brought us to the gentle ascent (boggy in places) to High Tove. The wind meant we did not linger but struck out over the bog and headed for Armboth Fell. For those who don't know it, Armboth Fell is arguably the least impressive Wainwright of all and the term Wainwright should have gone to the much more impressive Bell Crags a mile to the south. None the less the summit of Armboth fell is a small rock pyramid and Jill was photographed as she struggled to avoid being blown off the summit. We ate lunch in a sheltered nich on the east side of the summit rocks. Then we decided to extend the walk by visiting Fisher Crag a rarely visited but excellent viewpoint above Armboth on Thirlmere. The views up and down the reservior and over to the Helvellyn range really are good. Then a bit of a scrambly traverse and a bit more bog (of course) brought us back to High Tove and Watendlath. An enjoyable walk given the lousy conditions and the views from Fisher Crag really were excellent.

said fornside01 2008.03.02 at 10:10:45 PST