Sandbanks Tier 16 Dec 2013
Elin above the summit of Sandbanks Tier
We were a bit frustrated at having only climbed one mountain, and the weather had now cleared up to be a magnificent day, so, even though we were passing by Sandbanks at nearly five o’clock, Elin and I decided to bag it. One extra point for both of us. My husband found our pace over the uneven ground a bit hot, so read the newspaper in the bush instead.
Sandbanks from below
The mountain looked uninviting with its scree and dry wasteland, but a point is a point. We were also unsure as to exactly which peak would be the summit, but headed for the one that seemed indicated by the VERY rough sketch in the Abels book (pictured above).
Summit view of high land nearby
We had huge fun clambering up, and I was delighted that my calf didn’t slow me down TOO much, although I was pretty cautious, still protecting the muscle that was no longer able to function properly. That said, we were on the summit in 36 mins, and took even less to get down as my confidence in my calf grew. Elin, being an orienteer, danced over the rocks.
The lake below was beautiful in the late afternoon light
The view from the top was stunning. I had never imagined that Sandbanks Tier could offer anything, but there stretched out before us was not ony a wondeful expanse of shining blue water, but we could see Geryon, Acropolis, Ossa, Pelion East, Olympus, Byron, Cuvier and, to really cap it all off (sorry), Frenchmans with no shelf, but definitely the cut-off head of Frenchmans was sticking up clearly. I used my big zoom to get the mountains so we could show my husband that night. Now we were far more satisfied. Our trip had yielded two mountains. Home we went for a late dinner.
This is one of the zoom shots I took for B. It shows the mountains that we looked at from the west, namely Acropolis, Geryon and more, and here we were seeing them from the east as part of the same trip. It was rather special.