Grasmoor

Friday 29th April 2011 

For this first time during this week I had very changeable weather conditions with strong winds that thwarted my original plans for the day. I had planned to walk up the north west face of Grasmoor, a climb that Wainwright described as being “probably less difficult than the North Wall of the Eiger”. Such a climb seemed over-optimistic in the windy conditions so I settled for a more straight-forward ascent of Grasmoor. Painfully, I set off along the road through Buttermere and up the path to Rannerdale Knotts. I had been up this small fell once before, but in descent so now I would have a chance to do it properly, in ascent. Now that I’ve done all the Wainwrights I thought it would be a good idea for me to go back through the list and ask myself how many of these have I properly climbed from the valley to the top. It could be argued that you can’t claim that you’ve done a Wainwright until you’ve climbed to the top without passing over another fell on the way. Ridge routes don’t count. So I’ve still got a reason to go to the Lake District. Yes! 

Rannerdale Knotts is a nice little fell with a short, steep fun climb to the top and a nice assortment of outcrops when I got there, however I also found that it was very windy, almost knock-you-over type wind. I made up my mind not to do the north west face of Grasmoor as I battled against those strong winds walking along the undulating ridge of Low Bank. At the top of Rannerdale I turned down into this delightful little valley, walking past the gorgeous, and historic, bluebells of Rannerdale. The start of the May Day weekend is the perfect time to see bluebells and I was overjoyed that I was in Rannerdale at the right time to see this most wonderful display. I’d been in Rannerdale several times before but disappointingly I had never been there at the right time to see bluebells, so to see them now was a delight. I love bluebells as there is something so quintessentially British in the way they cover old woodland floors. I always make a point of visiting a bluebell wood around May Day, so given the significance of the bluebells of Rannerdale this was an extra special May Day weekend. 

After passing through the bluebells I started to climb through heather and dead bracken onto the Lad Hows ridge, which is a pretty straight forward ascent, but was just right for such a windy day while listening to the Royal Wedding on the radio. The weather was really poor with dark clouds overhead, strong winds and a definite look of rain in the area, but this didn't stop me and eventually I reached the summit of Grasmoor where I had my lunch in the shelter of the western slopes. As is not as unusual as you’d expect, the summit was not as windy as I’d experienced during the ascent, in fact the strongest winds I encountered all day were at the top of Rannerdale Knotts. Passing back over the summit I explored the top of Dove Crags, Grasmoor’s most striking feature, certainly its steepest crags, before descending the wide, grassy, eastern slopes of Grasmoor. After the poor weather of the ascent the sun now finally made an appearance and turned the day into another great one for walking. This made me pause and rethink my plans; I had originally planned to go up to Hopegill Head and  to walk along the narrow ridge to Whiteside. But I wasn’t keen on the long walk back into Buttermere alongside Crummock Water and since it was still quite windy the exposed ridge didn’t appeal to me, but the weather was so good I had to go for a walk somewhere. 

Eventually I climbed up the wide grassy slopes of Crag Hill opposite Grasmoor to the summit of the fell that Wainwright called Eel Crag. Passing over I crossed the fabulously narrow and rugged ridge to Sail, stopping off at the summit cairn just in case I never actually did that last time I was there since the path doesn’t go to the actual top. Last time I was on Sail, which was quite a few years ago, there was a steep straight path down the grassy eastern slopes to Sail Pass. Now however someone has put an enormous set of zigzags on a raised path that cuts across the old path making a scar that is far worse than the path that was there before. This is easily the worst manufactured path I have ever seen, and is totally unnecessary. I’ve not been coming to the Lake District for very long, it’s been less than ten years, but even I feel like the Lake District has changed a lot, and not for the better. It makes me afraid about what’s going to happen in the future. If paths like this are going to be the norm then the Lake District will be a lot less enjoyable to walk. 

I descended from Sail Pass, slowly dropping down to Sail Beck (on a nice steep path that I’d never actually taken before) and began a gloriously relaxing walk in the sunshine all the way back into Buttermere. This is a nice little path and a handy route between Newlands and Buttermere. I walked through this valley on a Bank Holiday Monday five years ago in equally windy conditions and just as now I enjoyed every moment of the secluded surroundings. This was a nice walk in changing weather, even if it was completely different to the one I had intended.

Starling Dodd and the High Stile ridge

Thursday 28th April 2011 

With another cloudless sky in prospect for the day I set off along the forest track that runs through Ennerdale and past Ennerdale Water. After a long and painful walk along the track I passed a car park and climbed up beside Rake Beck and the edge of a wood. Some way up I crossed a broken stile and attempted to go to the top of the viewpoint Bowness Knott, but all I found was a mess of discarded tree stumps, trunks and branches. There is a plan to stop using Ennerdale as a timber factory and just let it go wild, allowing the trees to get on with whatever they want. At the moment I don’t think it’s working, but it could just be early days. The day before I found that the path from the Pillar Rock was overgrown and boggy (and difficult to find if going up), while on this walk the path up to Bowness Knott was similarly impossible. The Wild Ennerdale project might be in its early stages but some areas, like on Bowness Knott, still need some work (indeed the top of Bowness Knott may be in the process of being cleared to allow access). Until then Ennerdale is still not a pretty place to visit. On coming back to the fell-side I climbed the ridiculously steep heather-clad fell all the way to the top on an entertaining, but tricky path that was badly eroded in places. A short walk across the boulder covered top brought me to the summit of Great Borne, which left me with just one Wainwright to do. This day was the culmination of several years of determined bagging as I completed all 214 Wainwrights. Over the previous couple of days I had been slowly ticking off my last remaining fells and leaving me with just two more to visit. Across a grassy saddle lay my final Wainwright, Starling Dodd, the very same fell where Wainwright himself completed his series on 10th September 1966. I finished mine on 28th April 2011 at 12.40pm after almost nine years of walking in the Lake District. My first thought upon completion was that I now didn't need to go to the Lake District. Can you imagine a worse punishment? It would be torture to be prevented from going to the Lake District. 

Unfortunately my last Wainwright wasn’t a great fell being a grassy dome in an area of broad open hills, typical of the far western fells. I had chosen Starling Dodd as my last fell because Wainwright had finished there, but it didn’t turn out to deserve the honour, so I soon left the summit of Starling Dodd and set off across the grassy saddle that leads up to Red Pike. With the sun continuing to shine and a cooling breeze keeping things agreeable I climbed up to the summit of Red Pike where I had my lunch, for the second day running (although the previous day’s Red Pike was a different fell). Now the terrain changed once again from the heather and grass of Great Borne and Starling Dodd I was back into the rock of the Borrowdale Volcanics. Red Pike is at the western end of the High Stile ridge and I had enormous fun crossing the rocky terrain to the summit of High Stile, and then across the top of Comb Crags to High Crag. The High Stile ridge is a fabulous, but popular walk, justifiably so. I wasn’t alone, but that didn’t matter. Eventually I got to end of the ridge at High Crag, where, from the northern slopes, I looked across Burtness Comb to the north-eastern slopes of High Stile and saw an incredible looking path that descends the steep ridge. I had originally thought of taking the path that crosses the Sheepbone Buttress, but Wainwright doesn’t recommend it as a descent and I didn’t fancy the look of it (it might be possible in ascent but since I couldn’t see a path I’ll wait for that ascent). The walk across the tops of Comb Crags was so great I wasn’t bothered when I decided to return back up to High Stile from where I descended the north-eastern ridge all the way off the fell. It wasn’t as great a descent as I’d hoped but it was infinitely better than following the crowds down to Scarth Gap. Instead of dropping down to the shore of Buttermere I followed the right-of-way marked on the map, which Wainwright calls the rock-climbers' route, above Burtness Wood, on a narrow path just below craggy ground. It is a good, little-used path that leads to a stile in the woodland-edge fence, and thence down to the lake-shore path. 

This walk saw some quite striking contrasts starting with two grassy fells, typical of outlying fells, and within a short distance of some of the best ridge walking in the Lake District. The High Stile ridge is an excellent walk, and I got to do it not only in excellent weather, but some of it twice! What more can you ask?

Yewbarrow, Red Pike and Pillar

Wednesday 27th April 2011 

The weather for this walk was brilliant again with a hot sun shining in a cloudless sky as I set off along the road beside Wastwater. After pausing several times to take pictures of the awesome scene across Wastwater and towards Wasdale Head, voted Britain's favourite view, I eventually turned off the road at Overbeck Bridge and climbed the steep grass-covered slope slowly making my way up Yewbarrow. After the initial tedious, steep climb, the path started to get very interesting as I skirted around the enormous buttress of Great Door and scrambled up a gully. After a lot of fun scrambling I eventually reached the top of the summit ridge where I couldn’t resist turning right to reach the top of Bell Rib, above the Great Door, from where I surveyed awesome the surroundings. Eventually I turning around and had an enjoyable walk along the summit ridge in the bright sunshine that brought me to the summit of Yewbarrow. I was unsure which top was the summit as the map gives a height for the north top but not for the central top, which suggests the north top is the summit. Once I was there it was clear that the central top is the summit, and Wainwright confirms it. (My old OS map says the central top is 2058 feet and the north top is 2009 feet.) Continuing along the ridge from the central top brought me to the north top where I had to take another scramble, this time down Stirrup Crag, to get off the fell. Yewbarrow is a fabulous fell despite not being much more than two thousand feet high and is looked down upon by its much bigger neighbours around Wasdale Head, but the great scrambling that is required to get both on and off it more than makes up for its small height. I had been over it only once before, in the opposite direction, but that was six years ago. Why has it taken me so long to return to such a brilliant little fell? At Dore Head I started to climb the long rock-filled terrain of Red Pike. This was an interesting walk, but very tiring under the hot sun. Red Pike is another fabulous fell in this area of fantastic fells (and I haven’t been over Red Pike in six years). Great mountains such as these are rare and yet in this part of the Lake District they crowd in on each other. Other parts of the country, even Scotland, don’t have mountains of such quality and quantity as these, which is one of the things that makes the Lake District such a great place to walk. 

Red Pike is supposed to have something on it called the Chair, described as being the most distinguishing feature of the summit of Red Pike, but I couldn’t find it! Wainwright does say that it “often escapes attention nowadays” which does at least offer me some consolation, but I was actually looking for it! It is possible that I did find the collection of rocks that have been shaped into a chair but dismissed it as simply a cairn. If so, I’ll just have to return to Red Pike again soon so I can discover it. At the summit I had my lunch during which a cloud came over and turned everything rather cold until mid-afternoon. So now with a cagoule on I set off across the col with Scoat Fell and rounding the top of Black Comb bypassed Scoat Fell. At the top of the fabulous southern Ennerdale ridge I passed over Black Crag and across the Wind Gap up to Pillar. 

From the rather dull summit of Pillar I headed towards the Pillar Rock on the northern slopes of the fell where I gingerly I made my way down to the Pillar Rock, which looked impregnable enough to force me to stay well away from it and instead I headed across the fabulous Shamrock Traverse. With an abundance of loose rock this was a tricky path, but worth every thrilling moment until I eventually reached the Robinson Cairn. I hadn’t been able to decide in advance what I was going to do at this point because I wanted to do the High Level Traverse, but that would have involved walking to the Black Sail Pass, and from there down into Ennerdale and thence a four mile walk all the way along the valley floor to the youth hostel. Despite my desire to do the High Level Traverse (having only done it successfully once before) my fatigue forced me to take a more direct route into the valley. From the Robinson Cairn I dropped down into Pillar Cove and followed the stream, Pillarcove Beck, descending steeply down the steep fell. 

This was an interesting descent, but so steep that it was over a little too quickly to enjoy. I took this route in ascent back in 2006 and I remember it as being a lot more pathless than I found it now, plus it was a lot harder. But of course on that occasion I was climbing the steep fell in warm sunshine and now I was descending into a cooling breeze, and I always find descents easier than ascents. When I finally reach the bottom of Ennerdale I wearily walked along the valley bottom all the way to the youth hostel. This was a tiring walk over rugged terrain; I don’t know why, but I didn’t seem to have much energy on this holiday. It can’t be because I’m getting old! It did occur to me that over the winter I did a lot of walks without a rucksack so that now that I was heavily laden I was finding it very difficult. I guess I’m just not used to carrying a heavy load (I’m not even used to wearing my walking boots!). Despite the heap that I collapsed into at the end of this walk it was a good day over some truly great mountains. I have been saying that a lot this week, but that’s because it's true!

Stanley Force and Buckbarrow

Tuesday 26th April 2011 

After my exertions of the previous couple of days I was looking forward to an easier walk for this day, but even though I didn't climb very high I still had to walk a long way in boots that were giving me blisters. On leaving the Eskdale Youth Hostel I had a pleasant walk beside the lovely River Esk before climbing beside Stanley Ghyll. This was an enthralling part of the walk as I climbed through a narrow, tree-lined ravine to reach Stanley Force waterfall. The waterfall was nothing special but the path through the wooded ravine more than justified the diversion. This waterfall is a noted attraction of Eskdale, but I had never previously seen visited it. Wainwright described Stanley Force, which he called Dalegarth Force, as Lakeland’s loveliest waterfall and exquisitely charming. He was certainly right about the sylvan beauty of the surroundings, but the waterfall itself failed to move me.

After returning to the River Esk I crossed over and passed into the small village of Boot where I stopped for a rest in the tranquil surroundings beside the bridge over Whillan Beck before starting a traverse of the moorland between Eskdale and Wasdale. After an early section beside a wall, the path passes onto open moorland and lost its appeal for me. The dreary crossing was only enlivened by the presence of Burnmoor Tarn beside which I had lunch. When I came to the top of the pass I suddenly beheld the view of the great mountains that surround Wasdale Head, though unfortunately throughout my moorland crossing the sun had been obscured by cloud which gave a very grey appearance to the scene as I came down into Wasdale. After passing the National Trust camp site I started a long and monotonous walk along the road beside the entire length of Wastwater. 

I did this same walk at Easter last year and for some reason then I actually enjoyed the crossing from Boot over the moor to Wasdale Head. However, last time I was excited at the prospect of coming to the Lake District again, but now I’d already been to places that put Burnmoor Tarn in the shade, just as the weather was doing. Compared with Scafell Crag, Burnmoor Tarn hasn’t got a hope. Since this was not my first visit to these scenes I was also not as excited by the descent into Wasdale Head, though the dreary weather undoubtedly contributed to my lack of enthusiasm. I clearly remembered the tiring walk along the road beside Wastwater last year, but this time even though I was just as tired as before, now I turned right onto a road that took me away from Wastwater and under the tall crags of Buckbarrow. I had considered and rejected doing this Wainwright last year, but now I had set it as my goal for the day, so after struggling all that way along the road I struggled up the steep sides of the fell all the way to the top of the Wainwright which left me with just two more to do before I’d completed the whole list. 

On the map Buckbarrow, doesn't look like it deserved to be treated as a separate fell by Wainwright, but when I got up there I found a complex terrain of rocky outcrops that are very much unlike its bigger parent, the dreary, grass covered Seatallan. Unfortunately I wasn't in a mood to explore the fell so after visiting a cairn, high above the cliff top, and another higher cairn further back, the actual Wainwright summit, I started descending steep grassy slopes into Greendale. Back on the road I took a footpath through the thoroughly delightful, wildflower-filled Roan Wood that was sadly all too small. Crossing a field and walking along a forest track took me to the youth hostel. Overall this was another tiring walk not helped by the problems I’d been having with my feet, but there were a couple of highlights, both relating to stream-side woodlands.