Ill Bell and Thornthwaite Crag

Saturday 22nd May 2021

In 2018 I spent two weeks in the Lake District attempting to visit all the high fells, those that are more than two and a half thousand feet high and I had so much fun doing it that I immediately started planning a return visit. This was planned to be done late summer 2020, but then Covid got in the way and I didn’t know how to make the trip work, so I went to Devon instead. The consequence of this was that I had not gone to the Lake District in 2020, so when things started opening again in 2021 I was keen to go to the Lake District again. Catching a train to Windermere, I set off up the path to Orrest Head on a lovely walk through woodland decorated with bluebells, wild garlic and many other delightful wildflowers. This path soon deposited me at the top of the hill where there is a great view along the length of Windermere and towards the Langdale Pikes and other Lakeland Fells, and is justifiably very popular. I first visited Orrest Head in 2006 and just as I had on that occasion, I now headed north through farmland, but soon I lost the path and when I reached a road realised that I wasn’t in the right place and had to walk beside a high wall on the other side from the road until I reached the gate where the path I should have been on reaches the road.

Turning onto Dubbs Road I walked along the stony track while rain fell that was so light as to be virtually unnoticeable as I ignored the stile onto Applethwaite Common that I had crossed in 2006. With the rain getting heavier I donned my waterproofs, but these proved to be not breathable as I became intolerably hot while the gradient steepened towards the top of Garburn Pass. I had found this before and meant to buy a new cagoule, but failed to do this resulting in my sweat soaking my base layer, which would be a problem for me throughout the rest of the day. My discomfort eased once I came off the Garburn Road onto the excellent path that heads towards the top of Yoke as my route of 2006 joined me again after wasting time on Applethwaite Common. Eventually the rain became so heavy I decided I had to put my waterproof trousers on, but, of course, the instant I did that it stopped raining and it never rained again for the rest of the day.

At the top of Yoke the terrain that had been grassy and boggy suddenly became craggy and very Lakeland with improving weather and great views along a ridge that I had not walked along since 2006. I was now thoroughly enjoying the walk as I made my way along the ridge to the top of Ill Bell and down a steep, gloriously craggy descent, whose every step was a delight, before climbing to the top of Froswick. On this holiday I had decided to echo my challenge of 2018, this time trying to bag all the less high fells, those between two thousand and two and a half thousand feet high, and I had just done three of those fells on the Ill Bell ridge. In order to make this challenge easier I had decided that any of the less high fells that I had done in 2018 or later would not need to be done again, so the five less high fells at the top of Longsleddale had been done at Christmas 2019. Therefore, after another steep descent, I ignored the fells to the east and made the long ascent up to the tall beacon at the top of Thornthwaite Crag even though that is too high to be a less high fell, but it lies in the way of my next target, which is at the end of the ridge beyond: Gray Crag.

My less high fell after that was a problem as this was Hartsop Dodd, which lies across the valley of Pasture Bottom. Before the holiday I had tried to calculate the easiest way to do both Gray Crag and Hartsop Dodd from Thornthwaite Crag, but as I walked towards Gray Crag I came up with another idea that was just as stupid as all the others. These all have the same flaw of requiring unnecessary ascents up many different fells for the same stupid reason of merely ticking summits on a list. A very steep descent led me down the ridge from Gray Crag onto increasingly boggy ground that was very slippery and resulted to my falling over several times, so that by the time I reached the track beside Hayeswater Gill I was very tired and exhausted. On my original plan for this holiday I would now head along Patterdale to the Youth Hostel, but that was now not possible, so I planned to wild camp and there is a very popular wild camping location not far from where I was, beside Angle Tarn. However, I was still attempting to do the less high fells, so when I crossed the river at the bottom of the valley I turned back up to climb Hartsop Dodd.

This was a very steep climb and every step of the way I was wondering why I was doing such a stupid waste of effort. I wished I didn’t have to do it, and I didn’t, as it was a challenge I had set myself that involves a lot of unnecessary ascents that were particularly tiring when carrying a heavy rucksack. It would have been much better for me to just plan a good walk rather than come up with these convoluted challenges. Although I had excellent views behind me down Patterdale and a good, though steep path, I wasn’t in the mood to enjoy it. By the time I reached the top of Hartsop Dodd it was getting late in the day, so any other ideas I may have had were ignored as I continued along the grassy ridge slowly climbing towards Caudale Moor and the top of Stony Cove Pike. Needing some water I turned towards Threshwaite Mouth, but soon found a steady trickle of pure water beside the path and after bottling some pitched my tent at the nearest available point. This was a very tiring walk with weather that had gradually improved throughout the afternoon and into the evening, but my Less High Fells Challenge was proving to be a terrible plan and I didn’t want to do it.