Matt In The Lakes: The Old Man of Coniston

Distance: 6.3 miles
Ascent: 2293 ft

As it is still February and the days are still a little short, we needed a walk that we could do in a few hours without any winter gear, so we chose Coniston Old Man for this weekend's jaunt. Our loop also included Dow Crag and Brim Fell.

We began at a small car park outside Coniston, which saved a walk in and out had we parked in the village. The initial 2 mile flat section along the 'Walna Scar Road', which is actually a track rather than a road, had good views of the peaks we were about to climb.

Looking up to Buck Pike and Dow Crag from Walna Scar Road

Old Man of Coniston to the right

The view back to Coniston

At the 2-mile point we turned off the Walna Scar Road onto the path leading up to Buck Pike; not a Wainwright but with decent views out towards Scafell Pike and the rest of the day's route.

The view towards Scafell Pike from the shelter on Buck Pike

By this point there was a dusting of snow on the ground and the wind chill, while not present on the ascent, was definitely noticeable on the exposed ridge. From there we followed the path along the ridge to the first of the day's Wainwright summits - Dow Crag.

The view across Goat's Water to the summit of The Old Man

The view back along the ridge from Dow Crag to Buck Pike

Passing Dow Crag we descended to Goat's Hawse, then took a tangent off the main path up to the next summit of Brim Fell.

Heading up Brim Fell with Dow Crag and the decent to Goat's Hawse behind

The Old Man of Coniston from the summit of Brim Fell

From there it was a quick and easy (albeit chilly) stroll to the final summit of the Old Man.

Walking past the summit cairn of the Old Man we turned left and descended the steep path to Low Water, made slightly trickier by the compacted snow and ice. Once down at the tarn and below the snowline it was an easy descent down to a level mile-long stroll back to the car park.