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.
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!
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