Whiteside

Friday 5th April 2013

The problem I had with this holiday was that when I was originally planning it I’d anticipated walking over lots of high fells but the snow that lingered on the tops prevented me from climbing that high. For my New Year holiday I’d deliberately planned low level walks anticipating that snow and bad weather would put the high fells out of bounds; I hadn’t anticipated getting wintry conditions like that at Easter. A lot of my planned walks were shelved and I was having difficulty coming up with a good alternative, partly because where I was staying lent itself best to high level and not low level walks. This walk was particularly affected by this problem, which resulted in a bit of a messy day. For a long time I’ve had a desire to do Wainwright’s ascent of Grasmoor from Lanthwaite Green direct, which is a climb that Wainwright describes as being “probably less difficult than the North Wall of the Eiger”. The challenge of this difficult climb has been almost irresistible, but I would really need good weather for it and I’ve never been able to get it. I’d wanted to do this climb two years ago until the weather intervened and now once again I was unable to do it.

Still unsure whether I was actually going to do the ascent, despite strong winds and snow, I tried to put off my decision as long as possible, so I started the walk by going back across to Scales and following the path alongside the shore of Crummock Water below Mellbreak. I had taken this path back in 2002 after descending Whiteside and never taken it since, and despite overcast skies I had an enjoyable, relaxing walk to the northern tip of Crummock Water and Lanthwaite Green. There I had to make my decision and almost started the ascent of Grasmoor, but in the end common sense prevailed and instead I climbed the fell to the north of the Gasgale Gill valley, Whiteside. This was an excellent idea and I had a thoroughly satisfying climb up the steep fellside through heather up to Whin Ben before a steep rock-covered climb brought me up to the top of Whiteside. Due to the strong winds that I found at the summit I sought shelter in the lea of the fell and had my lunch while looking out across Lorton Vale towards Crummock Water and Loweswater.

I had now decided that I would repeat my walk of 2002, so after lunch I set off over Wainwright’s top and then over the actual highest point on the fell towards Hopegill Head. But I was becoming worried as I’d just remembered that the ridge narrows precipitously before reaching Hopegill Head and it was very windy with a generous helping of snow on that exposed ridge. Conditions got worse after the summit with a strong, cold crosswind that in the end made me decide that it was better to stay alive and be disappointed than be dead and break my mother’s heart. Perhaps it wasn’t that melodramatic, but I decided that the conditions didn’t warrant going on, so I turned around and headed back to Wainwright’s top and began to descend the steep stony path back to Lanthwaite Green. I may have been over-reacting, but I can easily come back another day and do that ridge in better weather; I may not have been able to if I’d injured myself or worse.

When I was back down near Lanthwaite Green I was left with another decision to make: where do I go now? Picking up tracks in the gentle slopes below the western face of Grasmoor, I slowly made my way into Rannerdale taking paths that I must have previously taken in 2009 after coming down from Coledale Hause. The difference in the weather in Rannerdale compared with at the top of Whiteside was astonishing as now the sun was shining, there was no wind, and it felt like a warm spring day. It felt like a completely different world to the inhospitable conditions that I had encountered on top of the ridge. Here, the lower slopes of the fell were covered in day-trippers who had just gotten out of their cars and were strolling through the bracken in the picturesque valley. When I was in Rannerdale two years ago the place was awash with bluebells, but now due to the late winter and early Easter the hillside was bare.

Rannderale Knotts lay ahead of me and I considered climbing it, but in the end I decided to follow the Rannerdale Beck along a very faint path beside the stream into the deeply cut valley. The faint path eventually disappeared and the terrain became so rough that it became very difficult to find a way up the valley. I could have continued to battle on up the valley, but in the end I decided to give up, again, and climb the steep eastern slopes to Saddle Gate. This was a tiring climb up dreary grassy slopes, but not as prolonged as I’d feared and eventually I managed to reach the ridge of Whiteless Edge. The conditions on this ridge were completely different to those I’d found on the Whiteside ridge as here there was no snow or a strong crosswind. Not far from where I’d joined the ridge was Whiteless Pike, so it wasn’t long before I was at the top of my second fell of the day and looking out at the awesome views across Buttermere towards the High Stile ridge and beyond to the snow-capped Scafell Pikes.

These views completely justified the effort in my unorthodox route of ascent and stayed ahead of me as I slowly strolled down the gloriously engineered path that cunningly snakes down the hillside. I have descended this path many times before, but I think I’ve only ever climbed it once, on that 2002 walk that I’ve already mentioned several times. I can’t really complain about this walk, despite the weather not being at its best. The main problem was my planning of the walk as I’d spent so much effort on deciding whether the direct ascent of Grasmoor was possible that I’d failed to consider whether the Whiteside ridge would be crossable. I had been trying to do a walk that I hadn’t done before and in that I think I succeeded: I climbed Whiteside, and I climbed Whiteless Pike from Rannerdale, both of which I’d never done before.