Sunday 23rd June Stickle Gyll

Stayed overnight in Grasmere. The plan was to meet up with my cousin and his walking group and do a walk around Great Langdale. However, I screwed up the RV, which was then not helped by the lack of any mobile reception, so didn’t get to meet him.

In the end I parked at the NT car park at Great Langdale and walked of towards Elterwater in the hope of intercepting him. After 90 minutes it was clear it wasn’t going to happen , so I decided to set off up Stickle Gyll. The original plan had been Pavey Ark and then across to the Langdale Pikes and back down to Great Langdale, but on the basis of my aching muscles from yesterday , the rain and the wind and not wanting another solo walk , I settled for a walk up to the top of the falls (didn’t get as far as Stickle Tarn) and then back down again. It is a beautiful and spectacular gorge (from the bottom and the top)

About 5 miles (including the valley walk looking for my cousin)

Ascent : 1,177 ft

OS OL 6

Saturday 22nd June – Grasmere Round

Weekend away in the Lakes. Unfortunately , the (accurate) weather forecast was for wind and persistent showers. I am not a big fan for walking in waterproofs, especially in summer.

I have never been to Grasmere before so this area of the Lakes is new to me. Took me a while in the car to figure out where to park and where to pick up the path out of Grasmere.

In the end I parked at the pay and display just out side the centre of the village and then walked down through the village to Easedale Road. After just over half a mile I took the right hand turn just after Goody Bridge. This is a beautiful country lane with Helm Crag on one side and Seat Sandal , Dollywagon Pike towering to the other side.


on the way to Steel Fell. Seat Sandal on the horizon

 After just over a mile the road becomes a footpath at Helm side, and this is where I made my navigation error (after reviewing what happened). I headed on the obvious footpath down to Green burn which is a beautiful fast flowing river / gyll with small waterfalls. I headed along this path looking for the footpath up to Steel Fell. I couldn’t find it and in the end I started on up the side of the fell. Fairly soon I had to make a decision – head straight for the summit which looked quite steep near the top or bear right and head for the ridge which I should have been on. I chose the latter and was soon wading through a steep slope covered in bracken. Bloody hell....that was hard work. At last I got to the ridge and headed on for the summit....wet and exhausted. From there great view back to Grasmere and my return route, Seat Sandal and Thirlmere.

As Wainwright correctly describes it the path across from Steel Fell to Calf Crag is very boggy and swampy, so I added wet feet to the rest of wet me ! The views down to Green Burn valley and Grasmere were (as usual in the Lakes) stunning. Eventually , after a tiring journey across, with lots of zig zagging to avoid the really wet bits I got to Calf Crag, and had the added fantastic view of Grasmere common to the right. The path then was an undulating one sometimes dropping slightly from the high ground over to Gibsons Knott. It is not really a ridge path that I was expecting but an up and down path along high ground. The showers kept whipping in from the East – quite spectacular to watch as the came in across the valleys – at one point by the time it hit me the rain was horizontal.

                                                The return ridge with Helm Crag a the end

                                                       Looking back down to Grasmere


The path up to Helm Crag was a good one finishing in some steps up to the summit. The summit is an interesting place with the rocky outcrops of the howitzer and the ‘Lion and the Lamb’, with great views all around.

                                                Middle of June ....are you having a laugh

                                                  Path up to Helm Crag

The Howitzer

 

 

 

As this is such a popular Fell the path down to Grasmere is well defined and maintained.

Really enjoyed this first visit to the Lakes , although this seemed a lot harder than I expected.

Distance : 8.5 miles

Ascent : 2,135 ft

OS OL 5

Sale Fell, Ling Fell 10th June 2013

Working up in Glasgow ,  so took the opportunity of stopping off in the Lakes for a quick walk on Monday afternoon, taking advantage of the long June daylight. The plan was to do a couple of smaller Wainwrights as I had limited time. Sale Fell and Ling Fell seem to fit the bill.

 Just near the top of Bassenthwaite Lake I turned left towards Wythop Mill, and parked at the side of the road before the church , just opposite a footpath sign on the right. This was on the northern flank of sale Fell. I started 

Start of the walk along northern flank of Sale Fell

on the footpath and then took the sharp left heading  east along the flank of the fell with the top of Bassenthwaite in view. Soon the path bnt around so that the Lake was on my left. Looking at the map I could see the footpath headed for Kelswick on the South side of the Fell. I took the decision to just head up the fell away from the path. Bloody hell - that was harder work than I expected, with one false summit after another as I just kept heading for high ground.....eventually got to the summit, absolutely knackered.

 

From there I picked up a grassy path , heading west and gradually downwards.

 

 



Eventually, this brought me down to the valley bottom, along the road for a short distance before  a left turn over Brumston Bridge , and picking up the corpse path which snakes its way around the flanks of Ling Fell and gradually heads up to the summit.

 

 

 

 



 

The going was nice and steady, warm, , no breeze, but a bit hazy.

 

From the summit, I took the same path down, mindful of the time , and the fact I still had to drive up to Glasgow. Once back down to the valley, I took the road into Wythop Mill, and then back out towards the car.

 



 

A brilliant walk in a quiet secluded corner of the Lakes,

About 5 miles and 1,965 ft of ascent.  OS Map OL4

North Western Lake District June 2nd 2013

A bit excessive, driving to the Lake district for  a day out , but I was really up for this after checking out the favourable weather forecast. Up at stupid O'clock, and I was parked just outside Braithwaite for 8 O clock, at the same car park as last time. The plan was to do some of the peaks that I missed last time.

On the way up via the old mine track

I did the easy bit of the walk first this time which was to head up the old mine road , up to Coledale Hause. Disappointingly, there were wisps of cloud gathering around the top of Crag Hill as I made my ascent, with the sun making a few pathetic attempts to peak out.  Once at the top of the Hause I stopped for a brief rest and a look at the map.

The path up the pass that skirts the side of Crag Hill

I set of on the god path with the stream on one side and the side of Crag Hill on the other. Eventually this comes to a T junction. I took the right fork which heads up Grasmoor....unfortunately as some mist began to settle. I reached a cairn and thought this must be it, and then the mist cleared and I could see the path snaking further upwards. Soon I was on the wide plateau of the summit with (average) views around....there was still quite a bit of low cloud.

View from the top of Grasmoor

 



From there back down the same path and carry on straight up to the summit of Crag Hill. Finally ...after twice getting within touching distance !!

Crag Hill Summit

 

Coledale Valley from the top of Crag Hill

 

 

I took a look at the map and realised it wasn't far to Wandope from Crag Hill, so I headed back down to the pass and then left across the grass towards the summit of Wandope. This was the only 'cheap' summit of the day, in terms of the effort to get to the summit. The views across Addacomb Hole across to Knott Rigg and Ard Crags were spectacular.

 

From there, I headed back to Coledale Hause , and then up to Hopegill Head via Sand Hill. At least I got to see the incredible drop of Hobcarton Crag, which I missed last time in the mist.

 

 

 

From Hopegill Head I headed off onto the Whiteside Ridge, and off to the right there was a paraglider floating below me. After a while the path stopped and the way was over a narrow arête with steep drops either side. I have to say that this scared the crap out of me.....Striding Edge was fine but this seemed worse. it could be that I was tired after a hard days walking ? I stopped for a sit down to try and calm myself down, and then carried on for a while. After another stretch of path I hit another arête and decided to call it a day, as I still had a long way back to the car. I had got about two thirds of the way along te ridge but hadn't reached the summit.

 

 

So I did a u turn back to Hopegill Head and then back up to Grisdale Pike, which seemed a lot bigger than when I had done it in the mist a few weeks ago. By this time the low clouds had gone and there were breath-taking views all around. I didn't realise the descent from Grisdale Pike towards Braithwaite is such a pig. After a while my toes were banging into the front of my boots and pretty soon every step was bloody painful. There must be a way of avoiding this....both my big toe nails are black now !!

 

I checked my route on track logs and I had covered 12 miles and 4,600 feet of ascent.

 

Apart, from the sore toes and scaring the crap out of myself on Whiteside this is another day which will last long in the memory.

 

OS OL 4