Here's my pics and story from an overnight camping trip in the Lake District a few days ago.....
For those not immediately familiar with the name, Red Tarn is just below the ascent to Helvellyn by either Striding or Swirral Edge, and is sheltered by the 'bowl' formed by the two edges.
I've camped at Red Tarn a few times now, and this time was trickier than previous, due to the largely waterlogged ground, due to the recently melted snow, and subsequent water running down the slopes to lower ground.
As You can see from the pics, there's still snow up in the upper reaches of the lakeland hills, more so on the ridgeline of Helvellyn itself. It wasn't too cold, even at nightfall, so it should have been a pleasant night......
This was my first proper outing with my new tent, a Vango Juno 300 Teepee.... a single skinned 3(ish) person tent, which I bought last year in a Costwold Outdoor sale, for about £25, too good a bargain to pass by.
It is similar in size, I think, to the Golite Shangri-La 3, but the Vango has a built in groundsheet, rather than the Golite optional item.
After buying the tent, around half price, I then proceeded to almost double the purchase price by replacing the 4 section STEEL centre pole with the alloy pole designed for the Golite SL3 (which is adjustable for length), and replacing the steel pegs with 12 Vargo Titanium vee pegs.
These replacements lighten the overall package by 0.8Kg, so a worthwhile mod, if expensive....
As I climbed towards Helvellyn, from Glenridding, for much of it, following a wall that would shame Hadrian in it's durability, I wondered if I had made a mistake, viewing the snow on the ridges, and with a single skin teepee in my rucksack...
Despite being familar with Red Tarn (and choosing an easier route than last time, thankfully), I had to walk around for a while to find a spot dry enough to pitch (my usual area was a no-go big time).
Having pitched my new teepee for the first time, I got a brew on, and sat around a while, waiting to see if the wind would rip the tent from the ground, to hurl it into the tarn.
After adjusting a few pegs, I decided it was going to be ok, so settled down to eat, doing a boil-in-bag Chicken Korma in the Snow Peak Titanium 1400 pot.
At the same time, I was boiling more tarn water (perfectly clear) in the 1100 Tibetan Titanium pot, one on a Tatonka burner, one on a Trangia burner, both on Tatonka burner stands. All the burners, stands, simmer rings and caps pack into the Tibetan 1100 pot, which in turn packs into the Snow Peak 1400 pot, including 2 foil windshields.
During the fading light, and whilst slowly siimmering my evening curry, I ventured around the tarn, to check out the views, and discovered an interesting opportunity for a photoshoot, mor of that later.
During the twilight period, I extensively used my Silva Ranger Pro headtorch, that I bought at the NEC Outdoors Show, a few weeks ago. I have used this light at work, at home, and now, camping, it is simply superb, runs on a single AA battery, 3 levels of light and flashing mode, no other colour of light but white, which suits me.
I had expected it to get dark earlier, it was early April, after all. Final last light, to the useful extent, was 9pm, and I set my camera up on a Manfrotto Modo tripod to see what I could pull from the darkness.
This pic was with my Canon Powershot G9 set to 1600 ISO, f2.8, and 15 second exposure, with a headtorch sweeping the foreground rocks.
I cursed the fact that I had forgotten to bring some reading material, for the long, dark hours ahead, left my latest reading interest in the car !
Also to be cursed, during the night, was the location upon which I had been almost compelled to pitch the tent, due to the prevailing frosty swamp in most of the surrounding area.
My particular location would prove to be more steeply sloping than the initial recce suggested, a fact that would see me, in my sleeping bag sliding down my thermarest (very low coefficient of friction) towards the tent door at almost every movement.
I hardly slept at all, and I waas glad of the sunrise, to rise from my sleepless misery, to pack my kit and get ready to leave, couldn't be bothered with breakfast, but also wanted to implement my little plan....
Extreme Camping...? Exclusive location, great views, and its got a moat.........
Mainly, I just pitched the Teepee on this little rock to see if it would fit, and it did, only just. The 'island' is actually a rock, with very little scope for the casual insertion of tent pegs. Having said that, it did seem drier than most of the other spots around.
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