Little Stand Solo Wild Camp.

A great guest blog from friend of the LD  Mark Dak

I can count on one hand how many times I have spent the night under canvass, and I wouldn’t be using all of my fingers! As a kid, I never camped out but we did have a tent, mostly used in the garden on sunny days. I am sure it gave my poor parents a break from looking after us little terrors, but it was never used in anger on a camp site.

In the past few years, I have developed a love of walking, climbing, mountaineering and winter climbing in The Lake District among other places. It is so close and accessible to where I live that I can be on the approach path to Blencathra in 1½hrs from my front door. I can go over early, have a mega day and then head home the same evening. Sadly this leaves me with a problem, one day is never enough!

Obviously there’s loads of B&B’s, hostels, hotels and campsites, but they are often expensive, mostly near a town and there are always other people there. How do I go and stay over there, enjoy the solitude of the mountains and not spend a fortune? Wild Camp! But, I didn’t know exactly how to go about it on my own. (I would suggest researching what’s expected of you wherever you choose to wild camp, the BMC is a good resource.)

After I had seen the boffins at LD Mountain Centre who expertly sorted me out with my kit, I was set. I started my first solo wild camping adventure by deciding where I would actually be spending the night. Great Langdale has been the start of some epic days out for me in the past, so I figured it would be a great area to camp. I needed somewhere not too remote for my first trip with a nice, interesting walk in and a different way off the hill the next day and a reliable source of water. Plus very importantly, I needed to be able to see the sun set and rise. Eventually after studying my OS map, I chose Little Stand, just beyond the Bad Step on Crinkle Crags.

I set off for my high-up getaway after re-checking the forecast which said low cloud and 80% chance of clear summits. From The Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, I walked through the clag and made my way up The Band to reveal a stunning, clear blue sky with a strong sun beating down. Whilst my pack was crammed with all my kit, it never felt overly heavy and with the aid of some lightweight poles, I was at the top of The Band in no time and onto the saddle between Bowfell and Crinkle Crags at the Three Tarns.

I turned left here and made my way my chosen site.

The cloud inversion covering the entire Lake District was breath-taking. As the sky above 1200ft was so clear, I had views of the Scafells, the Isle Of Mann and nearly every other peak in the national park. It was a truly special day to be out in the hills. It was the Monday of the Easter weekend and I thought the place would be overrun but there were only a few people around. I did meet a group of four people who were finding the Bad Step a bit awkward but with a bit of help, they all managed to get down happy and smiling and continued their walk. After this, I headed on.

Once I had reached camp I began to set up. LD had supplied me an MSR Elixir lightweight tent which is simplicity itself to erect. This tent has been really well designed, they have thought of absolutely everything. The main support poles are lightweight, red and silver, anodised aluminium with an ingenious hinge mechanism and they insert into colour coded tabs on the base. Then colour coded clips on the net fabric clip to their corresponding poles. This process takes under a minute and the inner tent is pitched.

Then if required, the silver rain sheet goes over the top and again using colour coded tabs, the set-up is complete, taking no more than about four minutes. There are great interior touches too with the zip tags made from soft, nylon cord so they don’t knock together disturbing your sleep. There are two net pouches for storage, ideal for putting spare clothes and head torches in. Two clever hinged vents to reduce overnight condensation and the list goes on, a really well designed and well-made product. There are two or three pitching options depending how light a set up you need, but I took the entire tent including the free ground sheet and it was still quite light.

Rab, hydrophobic down, sleeping bag which was super warm and has an internal pocket for storing goodies and a synching cord around the face hole to keep you snug. I used a Therma-Rest Neo Air inflatable mattress which has a really neat stuff sack which doubles as a bellows like inflator to save you blowing it up with your mouth. Along with some spare clothes, and two Wayfarer ready to eat meals and a brick of Soreen, I had a water bladder in my back pack which holds about two litres of water. This wouldn’t last me two days so I also took an Aqua Pure Traveller water-filter bottle. I used this to top up my water supply from some thawing snow and the filter ensured I didn’t drink any nasty bugs. There was nothing to do now other than soak up the rays until dinner.

So after all the kit was set up and my dinner had been inhaled, I set about watching the day draw to a close from the summit cairn. It did so with the most spectacular sunset I have ever seen. As the sun slipped beneath the horizon a perfect vertical shaft of golden light shot up towards the heavens, I had never seen this before and it was the perfect end to the day.

night, the sun rose and it was time to get up and clear camp before anyone passed by. This is one of the easy to follow rules of wild camping, set up once everyone has left, clear up before anyone passes and leave no trace you have stayed, definitely no setting of fires. I left the site exactly as I found it, absolutely perfect and pristine, ready for the next person.

I have two backpacks, one a 45lt and the one I used on this trip which is “only” a 38lt Osprey Mutant. I used the smaller pack as it fitted more in. I know that sounds odd but if you imagine the 45lt pack is like a can of Coke, straight up and down, and the 38lt is like a glass Coke bottle, quite curvy. So its smaller capacity but more accommodating shape made it the best back for the trip. Once everything was packed up I was ready to head back down to the car but wanted to bag another lovely view from the top of another hill first.

Only a short walk away from camp was the summit of Pike O’Blisco. Once on top, the views were maybe even better than the day before because of the fresh cloud inversion and staggering morning sunshine. After I had my fill of the gorgeousness, I headed down on a path which took me through the National Trust Campsite. I think after seeing all of the people in there, I had made the right choice to spend the night in the stunning scenery high up above the valley. Although this was my first solo wild camping trip, it most certainly won’t be my last. I am sure if you have any questions, like I did, the team at LD will help you out and put you on course for your own adventures. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed this one. Happy trails!