Friday 3rd January 2025
On my walk the previous day to this, in icy cold weather, I had followed the crowds around the Fairfield Horseshoe and made a few mistakes that meant I hadn’t kept warm enough for the conditions, so for this walk I made a point of wearing more layers and eating more and this resulted in my having a much better day, even though it was perhaps even colder with more cloud cover and less sunshine making things feel more arctic. After spending the night in the Youth Hostel in Grasmere I set off for my first target, Steel Fell, which I had first tried to climb seventeen years ago, until I was turned back by strong winds, and subsequently, in 2012, I came down from Steel Fell by this route, but since I had never successfully completed the ascent from Grasmere I decided that this would be my first goal. I enjoyed walking up the ridge that had interesting variety including three bands of rock that were cunningly negotiated with easy walking on grass in between until the gradient finally eased and a simple traverse brought me to the summit of Steel Fell where I had views north down Thirlmere while the lack of crowds at the top was a very pleasant change from the previous day on the Fairfield Horseshoe.
The broad ridge that links Steel Fell with Calf Crag is usually horrendously boggy, but in this weather the bogs were all frozen so I had a fabulous time slowly making my way across while the sun came out to cheer me on and provide me with good views. While the terrain is not the best on this ridge, it is usually boggy, the sunshine and sense of openness with no one else around more than made up for the lack of rock. Eventually the gradient steepened and brought me to the summit of Calf Crag where I took a path to my right that weaved around the undulating ridge to reach the head of Far Easedale where the well-trodden route of the Coast to Coast Walk crosses, while I kept on ahead towards Deep Slack.
I had previously come this way in 2015 and once again I now enjoyed exploring this complex, craggy area on a path that was too vague to be reliably followed and while this provided me a bit of a challenge to find my route, so long as I kept heading uphill I couldn’t go far wrong. The main challenge was the lack of sunlight on this north-facing slope, which made the surroundings less appealing and particularly cold, so when I stopped for lunch I put on a second fleece, but I never felt too hot. When I finally emerged back into the sunshine I had views all around me from an unnamed peak that were sensational and included looking back over Calf Crag and Steel Fell, and down Easedale towards Grasmere.
It is a shame this viewpoint is not named as it was a fabulous place for me, though it might be the small peak mentioned by Wainwright as appearing from Grasmere to be the summit of the fell. The ascent continued to Codale Head, which is insignificant, but Sergeant Man, lying across a depression, was much more prominent and could not be missed. However, the tiny summit was covered in ice which made it extremely treacherous so I didn’t stay long and very carefully made my way back down and headed towards the dull, featureless dome of High Raise. The best feature of this broad fell is the view north towards Borrowdale, but it had now clouded over and a thin sprinkling of snow covered the fell which made walking tricky. I had to be very careful while descending past Low White Stones to Greenup Edge where I joined the route of the Coast to Coast Walk and hoped I would find easier walking but this was not the case as a lot of ice covered the path, which now uses flagstones on Greenup Pass. This does not help in icy conditions, but worse was to come on the steep descent past Lining Crag.
To avoid the black ice on the path I veered right onto the grass which provided me with safer terrain as I slowly made my descent until finally I reached the bottom, but still a long way away from Borrowdale. The skies were now covered with dark clouds, which made this an ominous walk for me along the valley, still being careful with my steps on the icy ground, until I eventually reached the branch that took me into the small village of Stonethwaite and as I made my way along the road into Borrowdale it began to rain. This was an amazing, enjoyable walk where my change of tactics to keep myself warm worked perfectly, but the weather conditions were now very different to what I had enjoyed the day before and proved to be a lot more difficult and treacherous during the descent.
