Causey Pike and Crag Hill

Monday 12th April 2004

When planning this walk I took on a challenge that I thought would be difficult for me to accomplish, but in the end I succeeded with time to spare, all thanks to tremendous weather. I was booked to stay at the Honister Youth Hostel, and from Keswick the most obvious route to take is to head up over Maiden Moor and High Spy, however I took that route the year before and I knew it wouldn’t take me all day. One of the challenges when planning walks is to make the length long enough to ensure that I reach my destination between five and six; not so early that I’m standing around wondering what to do next and not so long that I have to rush so I can get there before it gets dark. My solution for this walk was motivated by a desire to climb Crag Hill, even though this would involve a route that would take me via Buttermere, before going to Honister. That could not be helped, but with the weather as good as it was I thought it would be possible.

Knowing that I had a long walk ahead of me I set off from Keswick at a brisk pace along the route of the Cumbria Way through Portinscale and Fawe Park to the foot of Cat Bells. So far I had been following the same route as the much shorter way to Honister via High Spy, but at this point I came off the direct route and made my way across the Newlands Valley from Skelgill to Rowling End Farm. I was now at the foot of the ridge that comes down from Crag Hill over Causey Pike and has its terminus on Rowling End, but on this occasion I didn’t climb Rowling End and instead I took a slanting path across the hillside which finally reaches the top of the ridge at the col, Sleet Hause, with Causey Pike. This is the more popular route up, and when I returned to Causey Pike, in 2009, I took the alternative route over Rowling End.

After a fun, little scramble I reached the top of Causey Pike, though I had no time to pause as I headed along the gently undulating ridge and up and over Sail. I remember finding this climb rather tiring, on a wide track that heads straight up the fell of which Wainwright said ‘the final pull from Sail Pass to the summit is on a very wide path becoming eroded into a trench’. I don’t remember thinking the path was eroded, but someone else did, and when I returned to this area in 2011 I found that an unsightly raised zigzagging path had been constructed. I know there is an idea to ‘fix the fells’, but surely there is a better way to preserve the fells for future generations than disfiguring the fells with ugly paths such as can now to be seen either side of Sail Pass. Fortunately I saw the fell in its original state before it was disfigured by the very people who were supposed to be fixing it.

I didn’t stop at the top of Sail to visit the small summit cairn a short distance away from the path, but kept going along the narrowing and exhilarating ridge all the way up to the top of Crag Hill. However, I didn’t even stop at the top of Crag Hill as I was ever mindful of still having a long way to go on this epic walk, so without stopping I headed down the hillside and along the fabulous ridge to Whiteless Pike. From there a steep descent took me all the way down into the tourist-filled village of Buttermere. When I had been thinking about this walk the evening before I had anticipated arriving in Buttermere between two and three in the afternoon, which I thought would be sufficient to ensure that I reached Honister in reasonable time. However, due to my headlong rush over Causey Pike and Crag Hill I reached Buttermere at 1.30, so I was finally able to stop and have my lunch before heading back over the hills.

On my first visit to the Lake District I climbed out of Buttermere in appalling weather only to find a vast boggy quagmire in Buttermere Moss, an area where, according to Wainwright, water cannot escape except by being carried away in the boots of pedestrians. On this occasion, despite the drier weather, I found it just as spongy as it was when I had last been there. After a final steep pull I reached the summit of Robinson where I made my way onto the ridge that connects Robinson with its neighbour, Hindscarth, but still thinking that I was short of time I bypassed the top, which lies some distance away from the ridge, and continued along Hindscarth Edge to Dale Head. This is a hill that I had planned to visit on both my two previous visits to the Lake District and failed to reach the summit both times due to bad weather.

On both occasions I had been heading towards Keswick and turned north before reaching Dale Head. By walking from Keswick and leaving Dale Head till the end of the walk I was finally able to reach the outstanding cairn that stands at the summit. A simple walk took me down the grassy slopes from the top of Dale Head and it wasn’t long before I reached Honister Hause much earlier than I had anticipated. I had assumed that the only way I was going to be able to reach Honister in time using this route was if I kept up a brisk pace, but with hindsight that doesn’t appear to have been the case. I should have slowed down and enjoyed the walk more, but despite my fast pace I really enjoyed the walk. I had tremendous fun quickly traversing the fabulous ridges of the North Western Fells in great weather. I couldn’t see how I could have enjoyed the walk more!