One of the wonderful things about walking in the Lake
District is once you have climbed one fell you can usually walk for miles and
miles across the ridges to other fells and see a myriad of other views. It feels like you are on top of the world and
it is just wonderful. On these routes
you often find silent pretty tarns, rocky ridges, grassy paths and imposing
crags. You can see the sea from some
fells and as far as Scotland and the Isle of Man. Or you can be looking towards beautiful blue
lakes with striking mountains behind in one direction and rolling grassy hills
the other. It can take your breath away.
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| The Skiddaw Range - Ridge Route Example |
I have walked many ridge routes but there are a few that
really captured my imagination for the beautiful views, the type of terrain,
how I was feeling at the time or a combination of all of these. Here are the first three of my top six in no
particular order and bearing in mind I still have five Wainwright fells to
complete....
The first one has to be the High Crag, High Stile and Red
Pike ridge from Buttermere. This was one
of the first ridge routes I did as an adult (so through choice rather than as a
child complaining the whole way....I must have been a nightmare!) I walked along the shore of Buttermere lake
and through the woods with a gentle breeze rustling the tree tops, the lake
glistening in the sun and the bluebells just coming to life in the warm spring
air. I took the path up towards Scarth
Gap but then took a “short-cut” that went across the hypotenuse rather than the
right angle (if my Mathematics teacher ever reads this he will be shocked I can
remember anything given I spent most of my time daydreaming and looking out the
window....it was a mystery to both of us why I was in the top Maths class). This was a mistake as I could not find the
proper path and it was really steep and grassy.
It probably took me twice as long as the normal route! As I rejoined the main path, I was exhausted
from the climb and not yet at the top and then a swarm of fell-runners on a
“fun-run” came pelting down a scree section barely out of breath! I have such admiration for them as it would
be utterly beyond me to run anywhere on fells let alone on scree.
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| Red Pike, Bleaberry Tarn & Crummock Water |
As I reached the summit of High Crag, the views opened out
to see Buttermere, Crummock Water and the Grasmoor Fells in front, with
Haystacks and Fleetwith Pike behind. It
was beautiful. All the hard work had
been done by then and the walk to High Stile and Red Pike was just a gentle
stroll with ever more beautiful views, including Mellbreak (one of my favourite
mountains) coming into view and the striking sight of Bleaberry Tarn with the
red soil of the appropriately named Red Pike behind. The route down took me passed the Tarn and it
was so very pretty I could have stayed and watched the water lap the side for
hours. A great introduction to ridge
walking.
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| Ennerdale Water with moody skies |
The second one is the Mosedale Horseshoe from Wasdale Head, mainly
because Wasdale is probably my favourite valley. On this route I began at the pub at Wasdale
Head and climbed Pillar via the Black Sail Pass, Scoat Fell, Steeple, Red Pike
(not to be confused with the Buttermere Red Pike mentioned above!) and then back
down the Dore Head Screes. In future, I
would add Yewbarrow to the ending, which would make it perfect! The weather was less promising for the first
part of the walk but cheered up later on with sunshine. On the way up Pillar, I met a guy who
extolled the virtues of GPS and it was because of his recommendation that I
purchased my own system. This man climbs
all the Wainwright’s over 2,500 feet every year and after Pillar was off
towards Haycock (a fell I have yet to do).
The third fell on the list, Steeple, became one of my favourite fells –
the views down towards Ennerdale Water were superb and I had the fell top all
to myself. It is rarely appropriate to
describe a fell as “sweet” but Steeple was a sweet fell. Sitting on top of Steeple all my worries and
problems just melted away – it felt like I could conquer the world. However, I decided to delay my bid for world
domination and finish the walk.
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| Kirk Fell & Great Gable |
The path between Steeple and Red Pike (via Scoat Fell again)
was a lovely high level walk with the views of Great Gable, Kirk Fell and the
Scafells becoming increasingly spectacular.
I decided to end at the Dore Head scree because I thought it would be
too much to take in Yewbarrow at that point as I was feeling tired. However, given I could not find the nice
grassy path and therefore had to battle scree the whole way down, I am not sure
it was the easier option! But then I
have a natural affinity with screes as regular readers will know! It did mean I had the absolute pleasure of climbing
Yewbarrow separately another time and that was heavenly.
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| View from Silver How |
Third is the conclusion of my Langdale Pikes Saga in June
2011, which was a stunning walk. From
Grasmere I went up Silver How, Blea Rigg, Sergeant Man, Thurnacar Knott, High
Raise and Tarn Crag, returning via Easedale Tarn. This was a simply lovely ridge walk from
start to finish. Climbing Silver How was
I think one of the only fells where the top really is where you think it is
(not hiding further and higher away) and is quite quick to get to. The views opening up behind to Grasmere are
wonderful and with each fell summit reached, they get better. The route from Silver How to Blea Rigg was a
series of little grassy ups and downs and there was not another soul
around. Blea Rigg and Sergeant Man gave
way to rockier and more rugged summits with superb views of the other Langdale Pikes.
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| Easedale Tarn |
Thurnacar Knott and High Raise, whilst not particularly
interesting terrain (they are rather flat and a bit marshy) were still great as
you felt on top of the world and I confess that given the whole saga of
climbing the Langdale Pikes I was feeling euphoric! My favourite of the day however has to be
Tarn Crag, which is probably the least frequented of that group of fells, which
is a shame as it was really pretty. A
cairn or two would have been helpful as without GPS I am not sure I would have
found the summit as paths do not exist but unlike most other mountains I have
climbed, there was a lot of moss and some of the tiny flowers you usually see
in rockeries (if I were writing a food blog they would be “micro flowers”
reflecting the term “micro salads”). This
was really unusual and made the walk fascinating even though I am hardly a
budding botanist! The route down via
Tarn Crag was beautiful and I confess at this point I sat in the sunshine
paddling my feet for a while. Wonderful.
The next three routes will be in the Part Two...
