The weather forecast for this walk was good. but apart from a brief spell of sunshine in the middle of the day the weather was poor again and even snowed at times. I was unsure about what to do for this walk, as it was really difficult to know what I would be able to do or what the conditions under foot were going to be like as it changes all the time. In the end I took quite a gamble and found that the conditions under foot were okay except at just one point after the weather turned bad. The day began fine with a fantastic walk alongside Buttermere on a permissive shoreline path that is thoroughly enjoyable as it follows the shore all the way to Gatesgarth; any walk that includes that path in its route is a good one. At Gatesgarth Farm it started snowing so I considered changing the walk but ultimately I decided that I would continue as planned and see how far I got. This was potentially quite a dangerous thing to do but I judged that I wasn’t taking too much of a risk, and so it proved.
So began an exciting climb of Fleetwith Edge with stunning views of Buttermere and Crummock Water always behind me. Soon the snow stopped and the view cleared to reveal a wonderful scene of lake and fell. The climbing became trickier the higher I got and soon I was scrambling up the ridge through snow, but snow that was always soft and despite some tricky moments I never felt it was too difficult, though it was thrilling. After what seemed an age I eventually reached the summit of Fleetwith Pike to bright sunshine and stunning views of the surrounding mountains under a deep covering of snow. I set off across this winter wonderland thoroughly enjoying the walk through the snow along the top of Fleetwith as far as the Black Star top. There I dropped steeply down to Hopper Slate Quarry, which of course was not working on New Year's Day, and turned right onto an old quarry road that took me down to the disused Dubs Quarry and Dubs Bottom.
Crossing the stream at the bottom I followed a path across the snow covered landscape under fantastic weather, but as I approached Haystacks I noticed storm clouds approaching that soon spoiled the beautiful weather. From Blackbeck Tarn I followed other footprints straight across the heather covered landscape and away from the usual path that turns sharp right along the edge of Blackbeck ravine. Before reaching the top of Haystacks, as snow began to fall again, I stopped to have lunch while perched on a handy outcrop. Resuming the path to Haystacks I passed the frozen Innominate Tarn, where Wainwright’s ashes were scattered, and continued to climb on the main path up to the top. By the time I got to the summit of Haystacks the wind had picked up, driving the snow into my face and making for very unpleasant conditions. I did not want to stay on the summit in those conditions; instead I wanted to get off the fell as quickly, and as safely as possible, so I made my way down the treacherously icy slope to the Scarth Gap. This descent was the only moment during the walk when I thought crampons would have been an advantage, despite my tricky ascent up Fleetwith Edge.
The weather continued to be quite poor below Scarth Gap Pass as it continued to snow at all levels, which was making it difficult for me to know where the path went. Conditions stayed poor until I had descended quite some distance below the pass and the wind eased. Eventually I reached the shore of Buttermere and followed the western path beside the lake through Burtness Wood back to the youth hostel. In places this was a good walk, but in others it was very unpleasant. I’m really not keen on winter conditions, but when the weather was good such as while traversing Fleetwith it was fantastic. I would consider myself an experienced hill-walker, but if you dump a load of snow on the fells I’m a novice again. I’ve had to treat the landscape with an enormous amount of respect on this holiday and treat it with extreme care and trepidation, because I don’t know what it might do to me. For the moment I prefer my hills to be snow free, but who knows what I’ll get up to in the future. For now I don’t want to carry crampons and an ice axe as they feel too much like mountaineering, so I will be staying away from snow covered mountains.
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