Grasmoor

Tuesday 10th October 2006

On this day I woke to great weather, however it didn't last long as soon after I started walking it clouded over, which left me with little to see until I got off the fells, and of course the clouds lifted soon after I'd finished walking! I left Buttermere early and headed up to the top of Squat Beck, and then after expending all that energy I walked back down the hill beside the beck into the picturesque Rannerdale (which was sadly lacking its 'historic bluebells' - wrong time of the year). When I was back at the bottom of the hill the real walking began as I started to climb over Lad Hows and up to Grasmoor, but soon went the wrong way. Instead of moving across the hillside I went straight up and found myself in thick bracken. Using my GPS and some cross-country walking I eventually came back onto the path where route finding was much easier as I gained the narrow ridge over Lad Hows and climbed steeply up to Grasmoor zigzagging up the final stony section before emerging on the grassy plain on top. Since I was now in clouds the views were a bit lacking, but after visiting the summit cairns I had a look at the top of Dove Crags on the northern edge. Since I couldn't really tell what they looked like because of the cloudy weather I angled back over onto the main path and headed across to the top of Crag Hill. Since the views were lacking I couldn't see any point in hanging around the summit so I headed down the Scar, which was a bit nervy in the wet conditions, but still great fun and up to the top of Sail. From this rather dull fell I dropped steeply down to Sail Pass and turned left forfeiting Causey Pike since I had been over it before.

The path from Sail Pass to High Moss is fabulous as it descends steeply across a sheer cliff face with nothing more than a narrow ledge to walk on. This is the sort of path I live for as it's a marvel of engineering. Leaving the main path at the moss I crossed over and climbed up Outerside where I had my lunch even though I was nearing the end of the walk. Descending from Outerside I went up the next top on the ridge, Stile End, and then crossed over to the final top, Barrow. There, finally, the clouds began to lift and I was afforded with stupendous views of the Newlands and Derwent valleys. Descending to Braithwaite was a revelation as the views from the ridge were amazing and made me long for better weather, which ironically appeared soon after I arrived in Braithwaite. Another fabulous holiday in the Lake District had come to an end, except for Saturday.