Grey Knotts and the High Stile ridge

Wednesday 30th March 2016

Every day that I am in the Lake District I aim to start my walks with an ascent that I have never done before, which means that I am walking up to the top of a fell that previously I had only ever visited from a neighbouring fell by a ridge route. When considering my options from the Honister Hause Youth Hostel I realised that I had already climbed all the fells that can be climbed from Honister, even though it must be at least ten years since I last stayed at that hostel. In the end I decided that I would climb Grey Knotts taking the usual route via the old tramway drum house. In 2004 I climbed Grey Knotts direct from Honister, so although I wasn’t climbing the fell for the first time I was at least taking a route that I had never taken before. At the highest point on the course of the old tramway, the site of the drum house, I turned left and followed the well-worn path that is usually taken by people on their way to Great Gable. When the path levelled I turned left and headed up the snowbound slopes of Grey Knotts.

The weather was typically terrible. It was raining when I left the hostel and by the time I had come off the path it was snowing. With a significant amount of snow underfoot I made my way up the pathless rock-filled terrain through the mist up to the top of Grey Knotts. There are several tors of rock that could potentially be the summit and even Wainwright couldn’t decide which of two of them deserved the accolade. To be sure I visited the top of all of them before making my way along the top of the broad craggy ridge to Brandreth. It was great being at the top of these fells in poor weather when the absence of any other footprints in the snow provided me with a very real feeling of exploration, but I didn’t think it would be wise to continue along the ridge towards Great Gable. I’m not a huge fan of winter walking, and I’m not equipped for it, so from the top of Brandreth, I turned to my right and headed down the broad slopes away from the snow.

Following a fence, I made my way down the long north-eastern slopes of Brandreth and realised that I had done the same thing in 2013. On that occasion I had reached a snow-covered Green Gable before turning around and descending these same, easier slopes towards Haystacks. Rather than keeping to the ridge overlooking Ennerdale, as in 2013, I now took a route that I have previously taken many times, passing close to Great Round How and joining the wide path from Honister via Dubs Quarry. It was reassuring to find that this old route was still clear and the snow that had continued to fall all morning finally stopped when I reached the Dubs Quarry path enabling me to really enjoy the fabulous rock terrain of the path as it passes the outlet of Blackbeck Tarn. Wainwright was a big fan of Haystacks remarking that the top of Haystacks is a wonderful cure that could make one forget even a raging toothache.

It certainly is a fascinating place and I so enjoyed my walk across the fell that the exploits of the demon path builders failed to dampen my enthusiasm. A satisfyingly tricky, scrambly descent led me down to Scarth Gap where I had my lunch. My original plan for this walk had been to go along the southern ridge of Ennerdale, but in view of the snow on the high fells I had decided that the northern ridge, usually known as the High Stile ridge, would be the safer option. On my first ever visit to the Lake District, I traversed the whole ridge after visiting Haystacks, but I can’t remember ever going that way since as I think all my subsequent traverses were in the opposite direction. I particularly remember climbing Gamlin End, the steep scree slope of High Crag, in baking hot weather, but now the demon path builders have built zigzags into the fellside alongside the scree, and actually done a good job. There was quite a lot of snow at the summit of High Crag and along the High Stile ridge, but as I slowly made my way along the ridge the weather gradually improved providing me with some awesome views along this fabulous ridge.

My experiences of earlier in the week had taught me that when I am excited about a walk and the surrounding scenery, I rush along unable to contain my excitement, but I knew that this ridge is far too good and too short to be traversed in double-quick time. There is nothing that can compete with this ridge once the end has been reached, so I may as well make the most of the improving weather and the fabulous fells on the High Stile ridge. This ridge deserves to be lingered over, so I wandered along the top taking in the amazing views that were improving with every moment. Slowly I made my way along the ridge to the highest point and its namesake: High Stile, and while there I wandered along the summit ridge towards Buttermere in order to take in the views towards High Crag and Red Pike, and to simply enjoy being up there for as long as possible. It is lovely to be able to stop at the top of a fell and not be in a hurry to get anywhere, but eventually I left the top of High Stile and made my way across to the top of Red Pike and the end of the ridge.

With gorgeous sunshine all around me, I didn’t want to descend, but the terrain drastically changes after Red Pike. The ridge descends steeply and broadens into featureless grassy domes that lack the interest of the dramatic crag-filled fells of the High Stile ridge. There was no snow on these lower hills and I couldn’t see the point in prolonging my walk onto these dull hills after the fabulous High Stile ridge, so I turned south towards the steep, grassy slopes of Red Pike. There is a footpath that descends these tedious slopes and once I had located it I dropped quickly all the way down into Ennerdale. After my mammoth expedition of the day before, I had maybe needed this relatively more sedate walk. I’m not a huge fan of walking in snow, possibly because you have to be more careful than usual, and maybe that is why I preferred my walk over Haystacks than over any of the other fells, but this was still a great walk in changing weather conditions through snow covered fells and over awesome rock-filled mountains.