Wednesday 31st December 2008
The weather for this walk was mixed with cold, foggy weather in the valleys but once I managed to climb above 1,500 feet I was bathed in bright sunshine with wonderfully clear views all around the Lake District. Starting from the village of Rosthwaite in the valley of Borrowdale I walked along Langstrath, past the short rocky gorge of Blackmoss Pot, and up towards Stake Pass. Langstrath is a beautiful, uninhabited valley, which is quite rare in the Lake District as most valleys have at least a farm. Ennerdale is the most notable exception but that is full of trees; I suppose at one time Ennerdale was just as deserted as Langstrath is now, before the Forestry Commission came along and planted all those conifer trees. I had been in Langstrath only once before, back in 2006 in pouring rain whilst on my way to Borrowdale from Grasmere; this time the weather wasn’t much better but that was soon to change. As I neared the top of the pass blue sky began to appear overhead and soon I came out into bright sunshine with amazing views behind me over a thermal inversion where the valley was colder than the higher ground which resulted in fog forming at the bottom of the valley rather than, as usual, at the top of the fells. It was an awesome sight that I had seen only once before, in Ireland in 2005 while climbing Carrauntoohil. Before me was an extensive ‘sea’ of white clouds with the hills forming islands and gave me a feeling of a lack of civilisation, of being a very long way from anywhere. There was no sign of human activity in any direction as it was all hidden beneath the clouds.
I immediately left the path over the pass and made my way across the grassy hills towards Rossett Pike. I had never been on this fell before even though I’ve walked all around it, even up Rossett Gill, but this is a Wainwright and there were excellent views from on it on this day into Langdale. I climbed along the enjoyable, undulating rocky top above Black Crags and Rossett Crags until eventually I made my way to the summit where I had lunch. With such good weather and fabulous views I decided I would extend my planned walk by going up Esk Pike so I dropped down to Angle Tarn and the heavily manufactured bridlepath that passes it. I didn’t stay on the horribly popular ‘highway’ long but soon turned off to climb towards Ore Gap. This path was so heavily affected by slippery ice that I spent more time off the path than on it! Beyond the gap is a good path that climbs up to the stunning views that can be found at the summit of Esk Pike. This is an often overlooked fell that is dwarfed by the giants around the top of Eskdale (including Scafell Pike, the highest hill in England); in fact until quite recently it didn’t even have a name on Ordnance Survey maps. To me, though, it is a fine fell that stands at the head of my favourite place in the Lake District: Eskdale.
After spending some time at the summit admiring the views and taking a few pictures, I walked down to Esk Hause on an excellent path, which I’d not been on in over five years, that passes along a thrilling ledge and over much rock. From the wonderfully familiar Esk Hause I made my way past the ravines of Ruddy Gill down to Sprinkling Tarn. There I left the well-used path and, for the first time, I made my way across Seathwaite Fell past its many tops and tarns, but none of the tops were the actual summit that I was after. This is one of the lower fells in the Lake District that seem to make up for what they lack in height by having a complex and interesting summit. Although the highest point on the fell is 632m, the top that Wainwright chose as the summit is 601m and is situated at the northern end of the fell overlooking Borrowdale, which I reached just as the sun was disappearing behind Lingmell. The views across the sea of clouds were still quite simply astounding, especially the sight of the mist falling waterfall-like over Sty Head into Wasdale.
With the light fading I tried to find a way down but there were no paths on the fell and the mist in the valley was also making it difficult for me to discover the right way down; using my map and GPS I was able to locate the stream I was supposed to be following down into the valley, but it was still really tricky as the hillside was very steep and frost-covered. Once I was down in the valley I was back in the cold mist and I had to be careful as I gingerly made my way along ice-covered paths to descend down to Seathwaite and thence Seatoller. It was unusual to come down into a valley and find it so much colder than the tops as it’s usually the other way round; I particularly remember walking in the Lake District in 2003 in really high temperatures and being astonished at how hot it was when I got down into Langdale. This was an absolutely fantastic walk in awesome conditions with quite simply astounding views once I got above the clouds. I can’t think of enough superlatives to describe this walk, it was a brilliant way to end the year, and I didn’t have long to wait for my first walk of 2009.
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