Goat Water

Goat Water, beneath Dow Crag, Lake District

The plan today was to do a mountain walk to test and build fitness ahead of next weekend's trip to the Cairngorms. The route was up the Walna Scar, then up past Goat Water and then to walk along the ridge above the dark, glowering Dow Crag.

But I was too lazy.

I was too lazy to sort my gear out last night - in the morning I couldn't find my compass.

I was too lazy to get up when the alarm went off - so I didn't arrive on site early enough.

I was too lazy to park the car in Coniston and walk all the way up. I tried to take the car up the very steep road that leads to Walna Scar. Big mistake. The Volvo and I survived intact, and we backed off before we hit the black ice. The next car to attempt it came to grief and ended up embedded in the bank, which delayed me further while we tried to get him back on the road.

I was too lazy to faff about putting my crampons on, even after falling over five times on the hard, polished ice.

All of these factors conspired together with lowering cloud and a blizzard to make me back off when I got as far as Goat Water. But really that was laziness too, there would have been time to do it.

The picture shows frozen Goat Water looking a little glacier-like. It's not monochrome as the green Rhizocarpon lichens on the foreground boulder show. Dow Crag towers above Goat Water on the left of the picture, but is utterly invisible in the cloud.

The only birds I saw on the walk were the ever-present cronking ravens, there was not a single meadow pipit. The bird list for the year therefore remains at 72.