Causey Pike

Sunday 25th January 2009

This was a good little walk over a fabulous fell. I only had a couple of hours in the Lake District before having to drive home so I decided to go for a walk up the distinctive fell of Causey Pike. I had recently been reading Wainwright’s book on the North-Western Fells and been thinking that if I lived locally (which would be a dream), I would often go for short walks up the fells and this walk was an ideal example of what could be done. As I was preparing to go to the Lake District I still didn’t know where I would be walking on the second day, until I thought of this lovely little walk inspired by Wainwright’s guide book. I parked just above the farm of Uzzicar and walked along the road past Stoneycroft to start to climb the hillside immediately after crossing the bridge over the Stoneycroft Gill. I previously went up Causey Pike only once back in 2004 after walking from Keswick, past Cat Bells, to the foot of Rowling End.

On that occasion I took the popular route across the hillside below Rowling End making a direct course for Causey Pike, but on this occasion I decided that I would take the older path that climbs steeply up to the end of the ridge at Rowling End. Soon after I started the climb the good weather that I had enjoyed the day before came to an end as it started to rain. Nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed the climb up Rowling End on an excellent path that ascends beside Elias Crag and gave me fabulous walking with occasional rocky bits to scramble up. The rain was intermittent and had stopped by the time I reached the summit of Rowling End which provided me with good views of the Newlands valley but fails to earn a chapter in Wainwright’s guide books. Walking through the rain and heather along the top of the ridge, I passed over Sleet Hause and started to climb the wonderfully steep, rocky buttress of Causey Pike where more delicious scrambling was required. Once at the top of Causey Pike I encountered snow once again but it seemed safe enough to proceed as I visited the many distinctive tops of Causey Pike, and so I traversed the ridge over Scar Crags, which unlike Rowling End was deemed worthy of it’s own chapter by Wainwright. The snow was a little deep in places but safe enough to proceed and was not as tiring as it had been the day before when I had actually grown rather sick and tired of the snow. In fact I quite enjoyed that walk along the ridge (ridge walking is one of the best forms of walking and is always a delight); I even began to enjoy walking through the snow, but I was to get a rude awakening once I got to Sail Pass.

My desired course was to turn right towards the miner's track through the Stoneycroft valley, but that way lay under deep drifted snow. To my left was little snow and I could easily have descended that way into the Rigg Beck valley, but I decided to try the snow. In other circumstances this may have been dangerous as it was steep just below the pass; in fact, later on I was chatting to someone about the path at this point as he had been up there the previous evening when the snow was frozen solid and needed crampons. As stated in my previous post I don’t have any crampons but I think I will have to get some if I want to do any more walks like these. Fortunately when I went through the snow it was soft and deep enough for me to be able to wade through it following the footsteps of others that had passed along this steep path earlier in the day. Under ordinary circumstances this is an excellent narrow path, created by miners, that cleverly crosses the steep hillside below Scar Crags dropping gradually down onto High Moss. I passed this way in 2006 in poor weather and now, once again I was passing in tricky conditions.

Soon the path eased and all that was left for me was a long, easy descent through the valley back to my car, but the weather had a few more treats in store. Once I was on High Moss it started to snow, and as the snow under foot disappeared during my descent so did the snow that was falling from the sky, turning into rain. So it was that I had a wet end to the walk as I followed the excellent miner’s road beside Stoneycroft Gill all the way back to the road where my car was waiting. I really enjoyed this walk, despite the poor weather, as the hills themselves were of such high quality, particularly the distinctive Causey Pike itself. The snow below the pass was a little tricky but was soft enough to be negotiable without crampons, and without being in danger of slipping so at no time during the walk did I feel that crampons were necessary. As I prepared to leave to go home a really annoying thing happened: the rain stopped and the sun came out, so it was becoming a really good day for walking, which is really annoying, but couldn’t be helped. I have learnt many times over the years that one can always come back to a hill and try again in better weather, and frequently I have changed my plans due to the weather. The hill never changes and will still be there next time. During this weekend I made decisions to continue walking in weather that it could be argued I wasn’t prepared for, but I believe I always made the right decision to continue as I was able to complete my walk successfully. I learnt a lot during this weekend about walking in snow and I will certainly try to be better prepared next winter.

Glaramara in deep snow

Saturday 24th January 2009

I was back in the Lake District to grab a chance of a weekend with relatively clear weather for a walk over the fells immediately south of Borrowdale, though with tops that I found were under snow with very deep drifts. It was really tiring trying to walk through the knee-deep snow and quickly wore me out; in the summer this would have been a short, easy walk, but in these wintry conditions it was long and exhausting. I parked just outside the small village of Stonethwaite (there’s nowhere to park inside the village), and after walking through the village I took a path that climbed steeply up the hillside beside Big Stanger Gill. This was the route that I'd tried to find last May but was unable to find it. Now I tried it in ascent and found that it is a fabulous route that climbs steeply up the hillside on a manufactured path that is old enough to be well bedded-in. It didn’t have the paving that they like to use these days, and is well-constructed as it zigzags up the hill. The path just got better and better as I got near the top of the huge gully where I was simply in awe of my surroundings and the path that weaved cunningly around the rocks below the crags, but all too soon the path emerged at the top of the gully and I was confronted by snow in abundance.

The path now disappeared and I had to try and make my own way to Bessyboot, the top of Rosthwaite Fell, but after a tiring climb up a shallow gully I realized that I was going in completely the wrong direction. It wasn't until I got to the top of a low hill that I was able to see that I had gone the wrong way and Bessyboot was still some distance away across the snow-blanketed, undulating terrain. It was at this point that I abandoned Bessyboot and settled for trying to reach Glaramara, bypassing the tops in between, but even that proved to be difficult. I have never done any serious walking in snow before and don’t possess any crampons or ice axe, which may have been needed at this point. While walking on level ground I had no problems, but trying to walk up a slope was very tricky as I kept slipping and my walking pole wasn’t much help, nevertheless I battled on and learnt to pick my route in such a way as to ease my progress. I found that the steeper slopes were actually easier as I could climb up them by forming steps in the snow and using my collapsed walking pole as a makeshift ice axe. The steepest section I had to climb was immediately below the summit of Glaramara where there is what Wainwright describes as a ‘rock-step’. Someone had been up there already and left behind steps in the snow-face, which I was able to follow climbing up to the summit.

This walk from Bessyboot to Glaramara was very difficult and could have been potentially dangerous. The terrain traversed is undulating, pathless and complex at the best of times and I was climbing it under snow of varying depth and varying solidity without the usual winter equipment of crampons and ice axe. Frankly, I may have been lucky, and if the snow had been just a little less soft I would not have been able to climb up to the top of Glaramara without having an accident. If I am to continue walking in such conditions I need to buy some crampons and an ice axe. I think one reason I managed to get to the summit safely despite travelling across such complex, pathless terrain was because I had waymarked the summit in my GPS last May so I knew where to head toward. Once at the summit of Glaramara I had my lunch, but it was so cold and the wind chill was so severe that by the time I left the summit my hands were painfully frozen and I had to keep them in my pocket until they warmed up. Another thing I should have brought was warmer gloves. Now I had a path to follow or I would have if I could see it, as there is an excellent path between Glaramara and Allen Crags, but I couldn’t tell where it went. Instead I followed the footprints of other walkers, but they sometimes didn’t go in the right direction, and at one point even led to the top of a ten foot drop. Generally this side of Glaramara was a lot easier with less undulation and shallower terrain, so in fact after what I had just been through, this was quite dull. I was able to follow the tracks all the way up to the top of Allen Crags and down to the false Esk Hause on the other side. There I turned left and descended the snow covered slope on the bridlepath to Langdale following the footprints of others through the snow to Angle Tarn where I turned off the main path and headed for the Stake Pass. Before reaching the top of the pass I turned off the path and followed my course of New Year's Eve by cutting the corner to the top of the zigzags on the northern edge of the pass. The snow had begun to deplete as I approached the pass and was thankfully almost gone by the time I reached the edge. Once on the main path through the pass I descended into Langstrath and after crossing the beck, I returned to Stonethwaite on the western side of the valley. I have taken the eastern side a couple of times before, including on New Year's Eve, but this was the first time I’d taken the other side and it appears to be the easier route, and certainly Wainwright agrees with me. This proved to be a very tiring walk on a complex fell, in very cold weather and with conditions under foot that I had not been expecting, and had never come across before. The ascent was great, but battling through the snow was just too tiring. I’m not a winter walker and I’m not used to walking in these sorts of conditions, so I should avoid them in future unless I have the right equipment.