Around the Mountain Passes

Wednesday 14th April 2004

I felt the weather for this walk was not conducive to being at the top of the fells where strong winds and rain were threatened, so I abandoned my planned walk over Pillar, Scoat Fell, Haycock and Red Pike in favour of a walk that explored the mountain passes in the area. With hindsight this was not as good an idea as I thought at the time. Winds tend to be funnelled up valleys so that the top of the valley, the mountain passes, are often the windiest place to be. I have sometimes felt little wind actually at the summit of a high mountain, but been buffeted by really strong winds at the top of the nearby pass, so in fact most of the windiest places that I have ever been are at or near the top of a pass. There are very good reasons for staying away from high mountain summits when it is very windy, but high mountain passes are not a reasonable alternative, as I have learnt several times over the years.

Due to the poor weather I was not in a hurry to leave Black Sail Hut, but when I eventually left I headed up and over the Black Sail Pass. There is a good path up from Ennerdale with some fun, though brief moments on rock before reaching the top of the pass where a rusting gate sits in the middle, but with no fence either side of it, and as Wainwright said: “Only a fanatical purist would think of using it.” I had never been on the path on the other side of the pass before and I was surprised to find it badly eroded in places with deep channels, while other paths in the Lake District are well-constructed. I have never been back to this path since to see whether these channels have been filled in and a more hard-wearing path with better drainage constructed. I would imagine that this is exactly the sort of thing that the interested parties should be trying to fix.

The dale I was descending into was Mosedale, one of several dales with that name in the Lake District, but this is the most famous and I found it to be a quiet and nondescript valley, and in the low cloud it had a secluded feeling as if it was far from the hustle and bustle that was actually just around the corner at Wasdale Head. Before me was the Dorehead Screes, an infamous scree run that, from where I was descending, looked to be a vertical drop. Although I have walked past the top of the screes several times, I have still never climbed or descended the Dorehead Screes so I have no idea how anyone can walk either up or down them. In fact, this walk is the only time that I have ever been in Mosedale and that must surely be reason enough to make a return visit in order to explore this delightful little valley.

Mosedale leads into Wasdale Head, a familiar starting point for many walkers, particularly those preparing to climb Scafell Pike, but at this time it was a place that I had never been to before due to the absence of a Youth Hostel at this northern end of Wasdale. From Wasdale Head I proceeded along the bridlepath to what is undoubtedly the most frequently visited mountain pass in the Lake District: Sty Head. There are three paths up to Sty Head Pass marked on the Ordnance Survey map, but on the ground there is only two, an easy, direct route across the slopes of Great Gable and a valley route. I was expecting well-constructed paths up to Sty Head, but after missing the turning onto the easier route the path I was on seemed to deteriorate to become barely perceptible along the valley bottom over and beside many streams.

Wainwright was very complementary of this little path that follows a leisurely course snaking up the valley as it follows Lingmell Beck and Spouthead Gill up the valley before finally zigzagging steeply to the top of the pass. When I descended on this route in 2011 I loved it, but in 2004 I thought it was very difficult and wished that I had taken the easier route, however when I did take that path the year after I found it too easy and wished that I had taken the valley route again. I passed through Sty Head twice on the day before this walk and it was fun now walking past the same places, but in much poorer weather because now there wasn’t a single person around. When I had been descending to Sty Head from Great Gable the day before there had been loads of people milling around the top of the pass, but now it was deserted. From Sty Head I took the well-used bridlepath that follows the stream past Taylorgill Force to Seathwaite.

With the weather worsening and time advancing I rushed along the road between Seathwaite and Seatoller and then hurried up the old toll road to Honister Hause. Since a road goes over this pass it holds less interest for me and besides, I was still climbing. From Honister I followed a disused tramway to an old Drum House where I turned left to continue to climb until just before reaching the two thousand feet mark, and the highest point on the walk, where I branched right onto the path that took me down to the top of Loft Beck. Having successfully braved the poor weather on the northern slopes of Grey Knotts and Brandreth I descended steeply into Ennerdale beside Loft Beck and proceeded along the valley the short distance back to Black Sail Youth Hostel. Despite the poor weather this had been an interesting walk on routes that I had not taken before, and in places not taken since. The passes were not as windy as they could have been and instead I was able to build up my experience and consequently my confidence in my ability to walk over the fells in bad weather.