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.
No comments:
Post a Comment