Greenup Pass

Monday 31st December 2012

The weather forecast for this walk did not look good. The rain that had started the day before had continued all through the night and was forecast to continue throughout the morning. The ‘F’ word was even mentioned in the forecast which made me rather nervous as I was attempting a walk that I had started, in the opposite direction, at Easter in 2010. On that occasion it had rained heavily all night and was still raining as I started to walk from Borrowdale through Stonethwaite up the Greenup valley, but it wasn’t long before my way was blocked by a raging torrent that forced me to turn back and find an alternative route over the hills via Blea Tarn. However, despite the weather forecast warning of flooding, when I got up for this walk it wasn’t raining so my fears were eased slightly and I decided to attempt the climb over the pass of Greenup Edge, which is something I’d never succeeded in doing before.

Leaving Grasmere I walked up the lane and into Far Easedale. The lane was very wet with deep pools of water littering the lane that would have been trouble for me if I wasn’t wearing the SealSkinz Trekking Socks that I had been using for the first time on this holiday. Despite the flooded lane my feet stayed dry thanks to my waterproof socks. This lane is a fantastic walk, whether wet or dry, and leads to Stythwaite Steps where a wet and muddy climb started up Far Easedale under grim weather. The promised rain soon began to fall and the wind blew strong but I battled on nevertheless. The weather wasn’t making this a pleasant walk, but the surroundings were just as awesome as ever with high crags either side of a valley that would have been a delight to explore, if the weather was good. Far Easedale is a fantastic valley, but this was actually only the second time that I’d walked along its length, with the first time being back in 2004, also in poor weather. In good weather the ridge between Calf Crag and Helm Crag proves too strong a temptation.

The bad weather encouraged me to just put my head down and plough on up the valley until I reached the top of Far Easedale where I had a rest at the top before crossing the upper end of the notoriously boggy Wythburn valley. This is a horribly wet place, particularly with the weather that I had to cope with as the path had deteriorated into a muddy slime and then disappeared to leave me with a boggy traverse of the valley until I reached higher ground on the other side where the path re-appeared. This was not a nice place to be in this weather, but I would have worse to come. Despite the weather, I resolutely climbed the path battling against the wind and rain until finally I reached Greenup Edge, the misnomer that is actually a wide boggy plain between the fells of High Raise and Ullscarf. I had never walked over Greenup Pass before and based on my horrifying experience on this walk I’ll not be in a hurry to repeat the experience.

The Coast to Coast Path crosses Greenup Pass, but that hasn’t made the path any clearer as all I found was a faint path marked by cairns crossing the bogs, and all the time it was raining and very windy. This was a truly horrible place to be in these weather conditions and not somewhere that I wanted to linger. Finally I reached the top of Lining Crag where I found myself on the edge of an astonishing cove with steep sides all around; if there is an actual edge at Greenup then surely this was it, even if it is only one-sided. Retreating slightly from the edge of the cliff-face I took a path that crosses the top of Greenup Gill and carefully made my way down a steep, manufactured path following the stream all the way into the bowl, continuing on this interesting path that I had attempted to walk up in 2010 and found impassable. With the rain continuing to fall I grew apprehensive about the raging torrent that had blocked my path almost three years earlier.

When I eventually reached the torrent that had blocked my passage in 2010 I found a gently flowing stream that was easy to ford. The Greenup path has an astonishing number of fords to cross and that was my undoing in 2010, but now, despite the prolonged rain, the river levels were not as high as then. I think that is because the Lake District is used to prolonged rainfall and has a vast network of rivers and streams to remove that water. For the Lake District to flood, recently most notably in November 2009 (and my experience was not long after that compounded by snow melt), requires enormous amounts of rain to fall in an astonishingly short space of time. This wasn’t the case now and I was able to continue along the water-logged path with no trouble all the way into Borrowdale. One of the reasons why I was able to complete this walk, despite the horrendous weather, was because I had gear that was able to keep me warm and dry. I remember as a child being told by an experienced walker that so long as you can stay warm and dry then you will be able to walk in any weather.

Once in Borrowdale I walked along the road through the Jaws of Borrowdale and then took a track on the right that climbed up to the Bowder Stone, which is a huge rock that appears to have fallen from Bowder Crag uncounted years ago. I had never visited this popular tourist attraction before and since there was no one else around I was easily able to climb the ladder to the top and enjoy the vertiginous views. My original plan for the end of this walk had been to walk through Borrowdale all the way to Derwent Water and then along the western shore to Keswick, but I quickly realized that it would be dark long before I reached Keswick. A walk through woodland brought me back down to the road and thence to the village of Grange where I caught a bus to Keswick, which was a much more prudent idea than attempting to walk to Keswick. This was an interesting walk in challenging weather that I found strangely satisfying in my adventure over Greenup Pass. I never saw anyone else going over the pass and I’m not surprised for the weather was truly awful.

Calf Crag and Steel Fell

Sunday 30th December 2012

On this day I had a bit of a rest from my northward trek towards Keswick and spent two nights in the popular tourist village of Grasmere. When I was coming off the fells the day before this walk I noticed particularly that there was hardly any snow, even on the highest fells, but when I got up for this walk I was surprised to discover that it had snowed during the night which had left an inch of snow on hills as low as four hundred metres high. My original plan for this day had been to climb High Raise, the highest fell in the Central Fells at two and a half thousand feet high, but in view of the snow I decided not to do that ascent. This is not the first time this has happened to me with High Raise; on my first ever holiday in the Lake District I climbed High Raise from the top of Far Easedale in bad weather and ever since I’ve wanted to retrace my steps. A couple of years ago, at Christmas, a plan to climb the fell from the top of Far Easedale was thwarted by snow, and last Easter an ascent from Tarn Crag was also stopped by snow. As disappointing as this might be I didn't need to worry as High Raise will still be there next time I want to explore the eastern slopes of the fell, and that time I might have the good weather that I’ll need in that complex area.

I had only one goal for this day and that was to go up Calf Crag, the highest fell on the Helm Crag ridge. On all the previous occasions that I have been to Calf Crag I have always walked onto the fell along a ridge from the neighbouring fells, Helm Crag and Gibson Knott. Now I wanted to climb Calf Crag from the valley to the top so that I could say that I have actually climbed the fell, and the route that I’d selected was that from the unfrequented valley of Greenburn. Once past the last house I found a wonderfully deserted, little valley with lovely, little waterfalls below the flat swamp of Greenburn Bottom. Despite being lashed by strong winds and hail I enjoyed the climb up this delightful valley along an excellent track that led me to the edge of Greenburn Bottom where it crosses the valley before starting to climb the valley walls. I followed an old path up onto the ridge just above the snowline, reaching it at the lowest point between Calf Crag and Gibson Knott. Despite the popularity of this ridge undisturbed snow lay all around me, even on the path, and it was tremendous fun walking through virgin snow and exploring the tops east of the summit including the cairn at the top of Rough Crag.

The weather was quieter at the top than I had endured in the valley with clear views all around me and not a soul in sight; it was a great moment to be on the fells. After a quick lunch I crossed the boggy ridge above Greenburn Bottom to Steel Fell, but it wasn’t cold enough to freeze the bogs on the ridge so it was still very wet underfoot, but my waterproof socks made light work of them. This ridge is rather too broad and boggy to be interesting so I was relieved when the ground finally started to rise along with the appearance of some outcrops that always make a walk more stimulating. As I approached the summit of Steel Fell the isolation that I had enjoyed on Calf Crag ended with the appearance of other walkers that prompted me to veer away from the path towards the top of Blakerigg Crag, high above Greenburn Bottom, before finally heading for the top when it was clear. The views from the eastern cairn were particularly good as they look down the length of Thirlmere Reservoir with the brooding giants of Skiddaw and Blencathra lurking in the misty distance.

From the top of Steel Fell I descended the southern ridge where fabulous views could be seen past Helm Crag towards Grasmere. I had tried climbing this ridge a few years ago just after the New Year when it was very windy, though probably not much more windy than it was for this walk. The lower slopes are particularly exposed, as I found now, so I’d decided to turn back. I guess I just didn’t feel like doing much walking that day. It was a pity though as there is a good path down the south ridge with some nice, tricky bits as it zigzags across the steep crags. Eventually I reached the bottom of Greenburn and since it was still quite early I decided that it would be an excellent idea to climb up Gibson Knott. I had though of the idea of walking up the right-of-way from Greenburn to Bracken Hause at the start of the walk while still walking towards Greenburn, but this route is not recommended by Wainwright and having now taken it I wouldn’t recommend it myself. Wainwright did recommend the route that I’d taken in the morning as a route for going up Gibson Knott, but I’d already done that. It didn't help that it started raining soon after I started the climb up muddy, grassy slopes and the zigzagging path was doing little to alleviate the tedium.

When I eventually reached the ridge between Helm Crag and Gibson Knott I found that the strong winds that had hit me in Greenburn and on the south ridge of Steel Fell were back in force on this extremely exposed ridge, so with my head down I battled against the wind walking along the ridge as far as the summit of Gibson Knott. As soon as I reached Gibson Knott I turned right around and headed back along the ridge trying to stay on the sheltered side of the ridge past Bracken Hause and up to the top of Helm Crag. It must be a few years since I was last up Helm Crag as I’d forgotten how good and craggy is that fell. I’d even forgotten how good the popular path up to Helm Crag is as I carefully made my way down the rugged, stony path in the rain. There is some stunning rock scenery alongside the path that really made up for the driving rain and high winds. This wasn’t a good end to the day, especially weather-wise as this rain gradually wiped out all the snow that I’d been enjoying. The best weather and most enjoyable part of the day was around noon while I was at the top of Calf Crag, and that made up for the rest of the day, but even when it is wet and windy it was still fabulous being in the Lake District.