Little Hart Crag and High Pike

Saturday 21st December 2019

The previous day I had completed all of the fells that I had planned for this holiday, which left me with an open choice of where to go for my final day in the Lakes. When I saw the weather forecast indicated light winds I decided I would try to climb some of the high fells north of Ambleside so I wouldn’t have to travel anywhere since that was where I was staying. I had enjoyed good, calm weather the day before and based on the forecast I thought the weather for this walk would be similar, but as I left the youth hostel it was a grey, misty day with rain at first, and though this soon stopped the poor weather continued all day. After passing through Ambleside I walked up to Sweden Bridge Road and out of the town on an enclosed lane that is typical of the Lake District. Behind me the view opened out over Ambleside with Windermere in the misty distance while over the wall to my left Rydal Water could just be seen past the wooded surroundings of Rydal. Soon the track passed into beautiful woodland with the Scandale Beck running at the bottom of the valley until eventually I came out of the wood not from from High Sweden Bridge that is described by Wainwright as “one of Lakeland’s most iconic stone bridges”. Despite this I had never seen it before as I had not previously been in this valley.

Scandale is a wide, secluded valley that has recently been planted with hundreds of trees, which I have seen the National Trust do in many other parts of the Lake District. The weather was not great as I made my way up the valley with light rain passing through and clouds hanging low overhead. As the end of the valley approached, the steep ridge of Bakestones loomed oppressively ahead, but fortunately my path took gentler slopes into the clouds and eventually reaching the top of Scandale Pass. I have descended to this pass many times before when crossing between Red Screes and Little Hart Crag, but never before have I taken the paths up to it. When I was last there in 2018 I bypassed the summit of Little Hart Crag, but now I diverted up the windswept, craggy terrain to the summit. After bagging the top I returned to the main path and turning right followed the fence posts that lead towards Dove Crag, however I wanted to take the path up Bakestones. In 2016 while on the Bakestones path I noticed that the path is not clear (the Walker’s Edition of Wainwright’s guide describes it as “intermittent”) so in view of the poor visibility I stayed on the clear path until the terrain steepened.

At that point I turned south keeping to the foot of the rising ground following sheep trods and turned uphill only after I had passed the faint Bakestones path, but taking my own route up Scandale Head. I failed to see the tall Bakestones cairn in the mist, and eventually discovered the now clear path above the cairn which led me to the ridge wall, lined with snowdrift, coming down from Dove Crag. It was bitterly cold at this point with rain and wind coupled with snow on the ground that made the conditions really tricky as I wrapped up against the harsh weather and carefully made my way beside the wall through the snow south. Soon, as I descended, the conditions eased and eventually I reached the cairn at the top of High Pike where I was able to stop and have my lunch. After High Pike the ridge steepens with rocky ground to negotiate, which I found to be a little tricky in the wet conditions. When a sudden upthrust of rock appeared through the mist I realised I had reached Low Pike, so I climbed up to reach the small cairn that marks the top. Continuing down the ridge I came upon a wide marsh where a small sign helpfully warns of a deep bog and recommends keeping to the wall, though this was just as wet.

Even though I had now fallen below the clouds the views were pathetic, but at least the path improved as it diverted around the rock step on Sweden Crag with a good surface underfoot that took me past the turning to High Sweden Bridge and all the way down until eventually I crossed Low Sweden Bridge. Passing through Ambleside I finally returned to my car exhausted after a walk that had required careful concentration to navigate complex terrain in poor weather conditions. There was no chance to relax and enjoy the walk as I had been able to do on the previous two days, but it was still satisfying to have managed to complete the walk despite the weather. Even though this was a very short holiday in the Lake District, it once again reminded me just how much I love this place and why I had gone out of my way to get up there.