BB1728 : The Angel of the Mountain

Thursday 10th August 2017

None of us would claim to be Turiel, the Angel of the Mountain, which is probably just as well.  Turiel conquered every challenge, won every contest and brought down every adversary. In the end, it was his own greed that vanquished him. Deep in the mountain, he guards his horde alone.

No, that's not any of us.  Nevertheless, today, one of us was granted the nomenclature Angel of the Mountain and, believe or not, by the Sisters of Mercy.

What did he do to earn that honour?  The accolade came late in the day and many miles were to be covered beforehand.  However, Terry had his new winged boots on and his magic blue shorts.  No wonder he was flying.

The objective was a Wainwright hunt.  First, Tarn Crag from the Travellers Rest at Grasmere.  The path took us past my old school camp in Far Easedale, stirring up happy memories of driving my Morris Minor up a track that now would challenge a LandRover.

We had a minor disagreement as to which way to climb Tarn Crag, not helped by missing my chosen path due to it being obscured by bracken.  However that was soon overcome and we could look down on Easedale Tarn where a group looked as if they were going diving.  

We continued on and up and further on and up to High Raise.   All was going well although it wasn't quite as sunny as we had been led to expect.

Our next objectives were Sergeant's Crag (not to be confused with the nearby Sergeant Man) and Eagle Crag.  This meant a long descent and a boggy plain before the short ascents.  Fine viewpoints and worth the effort.  

Scafells

Gable

Newlands round

Skiddaw

And, I could see my other School Camp- the Whitsuntide one in Borrowdale!

The return was always going to be a challenge.  We found a relatively dry and not too steep route to down to the valley moraines, followed by a climb on the Coast to Coast track, left of Lining Crag to Greenup Edge.

Now we were close to decision point.  How to get to Steel Fell?  Carrying on along the Coast to Coast path would seemingly involve a long trek around a boggy plain. We flirted with a more direct route but didn't like the steepness of descent so, somewhat to Stan's disappointment, returned to the Coast to Coast Path.  A lot of time had now been lost and legs were tiring.  We decided that Steel Fell could wait for another day when we could take Terry the proper way to do it- diretissimo from the Dunmail Raise summit.  Whether that was a good decision or not, I am not sure.  Looking at the map after the event, I think it added considerably to our distance whilst only saving us 200 to 300 feet of climbing.

On the other hand, had we carried on as planned we would not have met the Sisters of Mercy.  They were waiting for us in Far Easedale.  At least they said they were sisters but the age gap was far too great for them to be blood sisters and the religious nature of their chat plus the fact they came from Chicago led us to conclude they were indeed Sisters of Mercy.  And the help he provided led to Terry being acclaimed by them as the Angel of the Mountain.

What did he do to deserve this accolade?  Basically, they weren't exactly lost but were not at all sure where they were and how far it was to Grasmere and the Quaker Hotel where they were staying.  Or how to get there  He was able to tell them.  I thought he was going to offer to fly them there.

Then it was confession time.  They didn't actually want to go directly to the hotel.  After all, it was a temperance establishment and the Sisters wanted to flirt with the devil before bedding down for the night.  They offered, indeed begged, to come to the Travellers Rest with us until we told them it was way out of town.  So we left them to find whatever dens of iniquity they could find in Grasmere, walking on with their thanks and blessings ringing in our ears.

I don't know if was the devil's intervention or, bearing in mind what happened to the original Angel of the Mountain, divine retribution or what but our return home was one long traffic jam all the way from Grasmere to, an hour and a half later, a broken down coach on a narrow bend alongside Windermere.  I think it was punishment for not having visited Steel Fell.  Terry will probably agree when he finds himself now having to do that climb by the evil route!  Or maybe he'll just fly up it!

Don, Thursday 10th August 2017

ADNaCS Not Explained.  Or Perhaps So?

I still haven't managed to discover the derivation of the navigational software acronym ADNaCS .  My contact at the Earth Observatory Laboratory in Boulder City, Colorado has not been able to find anyone who knows even though it is the term by which the software being developed for EOL is known.

However, I have found a few other ADNACS:,

• An undefined something in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia
• The private instagram address of  a Portuguese lady called Adna Costa.  She also has a Facebook page.
• Some ice hockey Instagram photos.
• A drug : ADNAC-S which is made up of 83% Diclofenac Potassium and 17% Serratiopeptidase which is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Inter-alia, it helps in reducing pain and inflammation, joint or back pain, attacks of gout, pain caused by kidney stones or other injuries.  But then, you knew that.  It's quite different to the navigation program but could be quite useful if that led you in the wrong direction!

BOOTboys followers' suggested explanations of the initials were shown in BB1724.

My prize for the "most pertinent" goes to Emma Ma. As no-one who should know does know, I suggest her autological offering is the most apt.

 Anorak Don’s Naming ADNaCS Compulsive Search

Yes, I know, it's nepotism but that is OK as long as you keep it in the family.

Map shown: Anquet Harveys 1:25k

BOOTboys routes are put online in gpx format which should work with most mapping software. You can follow our route in detail by downloading bb1728 .

To discover which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing - although it may not be that up to date - or for the totals of the mileages and heightages (ditto) see the Excel file: BB Log.

You can navigate to the required report via the Home Page

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BOOTboys 2017

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