Grasmere to Derwent Water via the Langdale Pikes

Saturday 7th October 2006

This walk was a bit of a grueller and I didn't even start until 2.15 pm due to repeated delays on the train. Now the logical thing to have done would have been to walk straight over Greenup Edge and down into Borrowdale abandoning my planned walk to the Langdale Pikes including an ascent up Jack's Rake, but of course I didn't do that. I shot straight up the path to Easedale Tarn and was at the lake by three still convinced that I could do the original walk despite starting an hour later than planned. Taking a side path at Easedale Tarn I climbed up the hillside to Blea Rigg and after bagging the top negotiated the complex landscape below slowly descending to Stickle Tarn. And that was when it started raining. Once I had put on full waterproofs I made the obvious decision that Jack's Rake in this weather would be suicide so I made my way up the East Rake onto the top of the fell. In view of the gale force wind and rain, plus the lateness of the time, I bypassed all the Langdale Pikes and headed straight for the Stake Pass.

It's funny when I think about it now, but the only other time I had previously visited this pass was during my 2004 holiday when the weather was just as wet and windy and the last time I was at Stickle Tarn the visibility was so poor I gave up on that walk as well. It may seem like some areas are just cursed, but I went up the Langdale Pikes in the summer of  '03 when the weather was scorching. On this occasion I descended along the bridlepath in Langstrath, a valley that I had never previously been in before and now it was in bad weather! With great effort I eventually made my way to Rosthwaite and the waiting bus. I wish. I had assumed the summer timetable was still in force and pinned all my hopes on a bus at 6.50 which I would have easily caught. But the bus was at 6.15 and there was not another one for two hours.

Resignedly I made my way in the dark slowly up and over the hill to Watendlath and thence along the road, mile after mile, in the dark, to Derwent Water and the youth hostel. For whatever reason this walk took everything out of me and once I started eating my dinner I felt very light headed and threw up the soup I had just eaten. Fortunately a good night's sleep and a filling breakfast the next morning worked wonders, which was just as well as I had a full day ahead of me.