Sunday 29 May 2011

Dufton Pike

Distance: 7km; Ascent: 300m; Solo
See route in new window

On a family long weekend away at Centre Parcs near Penrith, I took advantage of a free morning to head over to Dufton to climb Dufton Pike, which is a hill I had been keen to climb for a couple of years since first walking past it on the way to climb the higher fells to the east.

I set off walking from Dufton at around 8:45am and headed north-east along the track that passes to the south and east of the hill.  Soon after entering open access land, I left the track and headed north through a gate and ascended up a small path to reach the south-east ridge.  By now it was quite windy with occasional rain and I soon entered the cloud.  The summit of Dufton Pike (Marilyn) was soon reached, unfortunately without a view.

I opted to descend a different way to the ascent for a bit of variety and headed down the obvious north-west ridge.  I soon dropped out of the cloud and the views were good.  At the end of the open access land I had to take a small detour to the east to pick up a public footpath that led down to the Pennine Way, which I then followed back to Dufton.  I arrived back at Dufton shortly before 11am and headed back to meet the others for a spot of swimming.


No comments:

Post a Comment