Sergeant Man and the Langdale Pikes

Tuesday 3rd September 2013

At the start of this day the weather was really poor with clouds all the way down to the level of the trees that line the valley that contains the village of Grasmere. As I started my walk it looked like it was going to be a dreary day, but as I climbed up Easedale I could see breaks in the clouds where the sun was trying to break through, which hinted that things were not going to stay this way. It was a joy to walk along the lovely path that climbs past the waterfalls of Sourmilk Gill, despite the low cloud, with the sun occasionally breaking through and enveloping me in a heavenly ray of light while all around was dull. Beyond the waterfalls the gradient leveled off into the hidden valley of Easedale Tarn, which felt all the more delectable due to the low cloud a short distance above my head. After passing Easedale Tarn, the path began to climb once more with the clouds keeping pace above my head, rising as I climbed into the awesome cove edged by Blea Crag, Eagle Crag and Slapstone Edge. This is a great path, but I hadn’t previously walked along the whole length of it before because on my previous visit to Easedale Tarn, in 2006, I left the path at the lake to climb up to Blea Rigg.

I now had an enjoyable time climbing this excellent, well laid-out path with occasional scrambles and couldn’t understand why Wainwright had been so dismissive of the route saying it was too ‘deep enclosed to be attractive’, but the clouds ensured that I wouldn’t have had a view even if I hadn’t been stuck in a deep valley. As the clouds began to break a distinctive pointed peak appeared ahead and seemed to draw me on. This was Belles Knott and as I came alongside it the clouds lifted completely to reveal blue skies that promised smashing weather for the rest of the day. Although the back of Belles Knott is not the craggy face that it presents to Easedale Tarn, I couldn’t resist climbing up the grassy slopes and taking in the views that can be seen from the top down Easedale. On returning to the main path I resumed my climb on a path that from this point I had taken before (last year) and passes through an interesting stone gully before reaching the top of the path at a crossroad of paths with the Langdale Pikes arrayed in awesome splendour across the bowl of Stickle Tarn.

Last year, I turned left at this point towards Blea Rigg, but now I turned right towards Sergeant Man on a path that I have wanted to walk along for a long time, until now. I had always assumed the path follows the top of the ridge, but there appeared to be no path there and it wasn’t until I’d hunted around for a bit that I discovered a faint, cairned path that climbs just to the east of the ridge. I followed this excellent route up the broad, craggy ridge all the way to a small top that is marked on maps simply as ‘Pile of Stones’, but across a depression was the top that I was aiming for: the shapely peak of Sergeant Man. I consider the first ascent of the day to be the most significant while anything else that I do during the rest of the day is just ridge routes and not true ascents, so on this walk I did my first ever ascent of Sergeant Man after all my previous visits had merely been ridge routes, usually from High Raise.

I reached the top of the fells before noon and according to my plan for the day I had to find something to occupy myself for the next four hours in the relatively small area of the Langdale Pikes. However, I didn’t have much planned so I mostly made it up as I went along, starting with nipping across boggy ground to Codale Head and then over to the top of the broad grassy mound of High Raise. This vast fell is very dull compared with the nearby Langdale Pikes, but it is the highest point in the Central Fells and affords tantalising views into Borrowdale and across Derwent Water to Keswick. Turning my back on Keswick, I headed across long slopes towards the Langdale Pikes, stopping at the inconsequential Wainwright of Thunacar Knott before heading across the boulder strewn terrain to the top of what Wainwright called North Rake. Half way down I came off North Rake into Easy Gully, but half way down that I found my way blocked by huge boulders. I trembled at the thought of trying to drop down this big step so reluctantly I headed back up to North Rake and continued my descent there.

I may have found Easy Gully easier in ascent, but I didn’t fancy taking the risk in descent, which necessitated my encircling the bottom of North Rake and crossing steep slopes until I reached the bottom of Easy Gully where the start of Jack’s Rake lay enticingly nearby. I had my lunch while gazing across Stickle Tarn and contemplated my prospects on the rake. I previously climbed this treacherous route in 2007 and considered it the scariest thing I had ever done in the Lake District, but looking at it from a distance now I couldn’t see what the problem had been. After taking a brave pill I started Jack’s Rake, which is technically considered a rock climb, and soon I remembered what had terrified me six years ago. Wainwright said that while on the rake his mind had been fully occupied with nothing but a primitive desire for survival and that was exactly how I felt. There were moments when I was at a loss as to how to go any further, I felt stuck, cragfast, fearing that I was going to fall, but somehow eventually I found a way up. Once past the hardest section I collapsed into a heap and with shaking legs I ate an energy bar and had a drink before resuming the climb confident that the worst was now over.

The rest of the rake is still not easy, but I did eventually reach the sunshine at the top of Jack’s Rake in one piece, even though I was panting heavily. After a rest I decided that my best course over the Langdale Pikes would be to head across the pathless fellside north of the pikes to the western-most pike: Pike of Stickle and then head back across the tops to the highest of the pikes: Harrison Stickle. This final pike is deservedly very popular so when I finally reached the top I didn't stay there long before dropping back down onto the path that crosses the steep, southern slopes of the pike above the deep ravine of Dungeon Ghyll. The weather was fabulous all afternoon with stunning views down Langdale all the way to Windermere in the distance with beautiful, lush green trees between them. My path down descended steep grassy slopes to the splendid viewpoint of Pike Howe and eventually ended at the Dungeon Ghyll Hotel. This was a fun, enjoyable walk, terrifying at times, but also exciting, challenging and tiring while walking in fantastic weather over amazingly complex fells.

Stone Arthur and Fairfield

Monday 2nd September 2013

For the fourth time this year I was back in the Lake District and this time I had left my tent at home (and my back was very appreciative of that!) as I went back to using the small rucksack that I’d last used at Easter with a week when I would walk from hostel to hostel, and it felt wonderful to have such a light rucksack on my back again. Due to commitments at home I was unable to start this holiday until after the weekend so I had the unusual experience (for me) of catching a train during the crazy Monday morning rush hour and eventually reached Windermere an hour late (thanks to the infamous punctuality of Virgin Trains). I now had a decision to make: considering the poor, drizzly weather that was in the Lake District when I got there, do I stick with my original plan of climbing Helvellyn or do I catch an earlier bus only as far as Grasmere and do a different walk? Since the title of this post is not Helvellyn it’s obvious that I caught the Grasmere bus, getting off opposite the Swan Hotel just outside the village, to do a more interesting walk than I would have got by going up Helvellyn.

Behind the Swan Hotel, I climbed a delightful lane that has a lovely stream running beside it under a tree-covering. I last came up this way Easter last year, also in poor weather, on my way to Alcock Tarn, but on this occasion at the top of the lane, instead of turning right over a small bridge, I turned left and followed a wall steeply up the fellside with dense bracken on one side and a coniferous wood on the other side of the wall. Before moving away from the cover of the trees I had some lunch and then continued along the path that weaves a course across the fellside gradually climbing towards the prominent tor of rock that is known as Stone Arthur. My only previous visit to Stone Arthur had been in descent in dwindling light at the end of an ambitiously long walk all the way from Windermere Station, so this was now my first ascent of Stone Arthur. I remember last time I was unsure which of the crags on the ridge was the actual Wainwright summit, but from my perspective now in coming up the fell it was obvious as Stone Arthur is very prominent in the views.

This is really just a descending ridge coming down from Great Rigg, so after passing Stone Arthur I wrapped myself more tightly in waterproofs against the harshening weather and proceeded to walk up the gradually ascending ridge that is dotted with rocky outcrops. This was an enjoyable climb, despite the weather, and it wasn’t long before I plunged into the clouds as I reflected that it must have been a while since I last did a walk in low clouds; I’d almost missed it. Eventually the ridge steepened and led me up to the summit of Great Rigg, which I don’t think I’ve visited since that time in 2006 when I descended the ridge that I’d now just climbed; the eastern arm of the Fairfield Horseshoe seems to have held more appeal to me than this side. I contemplated correcting my neglect of this arm of the horseshoe by turning south and descending over Heron Pike, but eventually Fairfield itself won as I continued along the ridge north up to the broad summit. Navigation is difficult on Fairfield in poor weather and even though I located the summit without any difficulty finding the correct way off was tricky.

It was very windy, cold and wet on the summit of Fairfield and this was hampering my efforts to find the route I wanted towards Cofa Pike off the summit, but eventually after a lot of unnecessary wandering around the plateau I managed to find the right direction. The ridge over Cofa Pike is a fabulous scramble that I had particularly wanted to do even though it was not actually in the direction that I ultimately wanted to go. The wet and windy conditions just made the narrow, rocky ridge even more exciting until eventually it led me down to Deepdale Hause. There is a path between Deepdale Hause and Grisedale Tarn after Wainwright suggested that ‘some public-spirited hiker with nothing better to do would serve his fellows well by stamping out a track and cairning it.’ This has been done but the path is rather faint until a cairned junction is reached. I was intrigued by this excellent, clearer path so I turned right along it and it seems to head across the fellside towards St Sunday Crag, but I couldn’t see where it went in the poor weather, though I would love to find out where this well-made path goes.

Eventually I returned back along this good path to the junction and confidently followed it down to Grisedale Tarn where I was able to join the popular path that climbs out of Grisedale on its way to Grasmere over Grisedale Hause. It had stopped raining as I left Fairfield, but the ground was still very wet and I found the pitched stones of the path coming down from Grisedale Hause very slippery. I don’t know if my old boots were not as grippy as they could have been, but I was having a really difficult time on this heavily manufactured path and I wished I’d had my walking poles with me. In fact, I didn’t slip over until I was off the pitched stone path; maybe I was thinking that I didn’t need to be so careful at that point. The stone pitching soon ended and left me with a delightful walk down into Grasmere. This was a fabulous walk, even though it was short and most of the time it was raining, windy and cloudy. It just shows why I could keep coming back to the Lake District: in any weather it is a fantastic place to walk. The path beside Tongue Gill as I came off the fells reminded of the beautiful little places that are so abundant in the Lake District. Thanks to the weather and a missed train connection I did a walk that was probably a lot better than the one I’d originally planned.