Pike O’Blisco, Crinkle Crags and Bow Fell

The Lakes 2003, part 2
Tuesday 15th July 2003

It was really hot on this walk, which taught me the importance of taking lots of water on walks, and to use a higher factor sun cream as my factor eight sun cream ultimately proved to be inadequate to the task. The walk was a true great: the Oxendale Horseshoe, but extended with the added burden of having to walk from the youth hostel along Great Langdale to the start of the walk at the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel and then back again at the end. The walk along Great Langdale was varied but pleasant and I have always enjoyed it while passing the Wainwright Inn (now called slightly differently: Wainwright’s Inn) and Oak Howe. Near the National Trust campsite I turned left up the grassy hillside on what at that time was a very muddy trail, but where a path has now been constructed to eliminate such problems. At the cattle grid near Side Pike I crossed the road and started to climb the steep slopes beside Redacre Gill under a blazing sun. I remember this climb as being really difficult, not so much for the steepness of the terrain but for the heat of the day. In the sweltering temperatures and with very little wind I was sweating profusely and got through at least half of my water at just that point of the ascent. This sort of weather may be good for sunbathing in, but it doesn’t make climbing fells easy.

Eventually the gradient levelled and on this more exposed plateau, almost two thousand feet above sea level, it was cooler with a little wind which made for a much more pleasant experience. The rest of the day was an absolute delight as I walked over three of the best fells in the Lake District for the first time, starting with the underrated Pike O’Blisco. A great climb took me up to the rock covered summit where a magnificent cairn stands proudly at the top and where tremendous views can be seen throughout the length of Great Langdale, but most notably straight across the valley to the Langdale Pikes that I’d climbed just the day before. In good weather the top of a fell in the Lake District is the best place you can possibly be and on just my second ever visit to the Lake District I was seeing the fells at their best and from an excellent vantage point. From the top of Pike O’Blisco I dropped down to Red Tarn and up between Cold Pike and Great Knott to a glorious scramble over the Crinkle Crags. I had enormous fun on the Crinkle Crags, most notably on the infamous ‘bad step’, a ten foot high almost vertical rock wall that 'is the most difficult obstacle met on any regular walkers’ path in Lakeland.'

I had no problem with the bad step and was soon up the rock wall and eventually reached the top of Crinkle Crags where I had my lunch. I saw some people near the top who had been particularly burnt by the sun and had turned a deep shade of red, but I was confident that this would not be a problem for me as I slapped on some more of my woefully inadequate sun cream. The continuation along the ridge took me up and down the rest of the Crinkle Crags and over the five crags of the adjacent Shelter Crags as I reflected that I would have had a very different experience if the conditions had been worse, but with the excellent weather that I was enjoying my traverse was tremendously enthralling. Once I had passed over the crags I descended to Three Tarns, which were almost dried up, and ascended Bow Fell to the highest point of the walk. After all my exertion while trying to get up the steep scree slope to the top of Bow Fell it was annoying to have to come all the way back down the same scree slope again little knowing that there is a terrace path that leads straight onto the descent. Wainwright recommends it even though it is difficult to find, but since it was not marked on OS maps I didn’t know about it in 2003, and I have not been on it since.

Instead I dropped steeply down to Three Tarns and from there descended the fell over White Stones and along the Band, a popular walkers’ highway. I had great fun hopping around from rock to rock while at the top of the fells where it was windy and cooler, but down in Langdale it was very hot and windless. It was astonishing how hot it became as I descended with the heat gradually building up to almost unbearable levels and despairingly I realised that I still had a long walk ahead of me all the way back along Great Langdale to the youth hostel. Before I reached my destination the back of my neck began to ache terribly from sunburn, and other exposed parts of my skin felt no better. I heard on the radio during my walk back to the hostel that it is not recommended to use sun cream below factor fifteen and I could now see why as despite using sun cream all day I had gotten burnt. This walk was very enjoyable, but only when I was not being boiled alive. Nevertheless I had just enjoyed my best ever day in the Lake District up to this point, and whatever the weather I was eager for more.

The Lakes 2003, part 1 – The Langdale Pikes

Monday 14th July 2003

Once again at this time of the year I don’t have a new walk to blog about, so as is customary for me I’m going to write about an old walk. Last year I described my first ever visit to the Lake District, back in 2002, and now I am going to advance a year and talk about my second ever visit to the Lake District. I had returned to the Lake District for a second visit because there were many fells that I hadn’t gone up the year before, and also because I had enjoyed it so much. I took a train up to Windermere and got into the first bus I saw that was going to Ambleside, until it broke down, and it had never even left the station! Just as it was beginning to look as though my luck on this occasion was going to be as bad as the previous year, the driver managed to get the bus started and I was able to catch my connection to Dungeon Ghyll. I had decided to walk up to the Langdale Pikes starting at the new hotel walking up the ‘usual route’, taking the path to the left of the Dungeon Ghyll stream climbing all the way up to the gap between Loft Crag and Thorn Crag.

At that time Britain was in the middle of a heatwave with temperatures in excess of 30° Celsius. The heat was overwhelming as I slowly made my way up the steep path and with the sweat pouring off me I found it very hard going. I have never taken this route since, but I’m sure a return visit would be worthwhile as the path seems to be well-engineered and would be a delight to walk upon again. Once up to the Pikes I was finally able to relax and cool off before heading towards Pike O’Stickle where I had my lunch. I remember the area around the top of the path being rather boggy, but littered with helicopter bags full of paving stones in preparation for the laying of the paths that now cross the area. From the great viewpoint of Pike O’Stickle I headed up to Harrison Stickle, the highest of the Langdale Pikes, and since this was the first time I’d been to the Langdale Pikes I was keen to bag as many tops as possible so once the Pikes had been bagged I headed north over Thunacar Knott but bypassed Pavey Ark little realising that this insignificant crag was also a Wainwright.

It wasn’t until a few years after I started going to the Lake District that I started reading Wainwright’s Pictorial Guides and only then did start to eagerly bag every fell that he mentions. I wasn’t interested in the books until I later found one in Ennerdale Youth Hostel and discovered how meticulously well drawn they were and useful for devising walks over the fells. Beyond Thunacar Knott I climbed broad grassy slopes up to the highest point on the walk, High Raise, which I had just missed out on the year before. On that occasion the weather had been poor, so rather than hunt around for the summit on the broad top I decided to come straight back down, but now I had no such problem finding the summit: it’s much easier when you can see where you’re going! From High Raise I headed southeast across the grassy plain to the prominent top of Sergeant Man and from there I made my own route down grassy slopes to Blea Rigg. There is a great freedom in making your own way across a hillside and not follow a path but just keeping your destination in sight and using the lie of the land to devise your own route.

From Blea Rigg a fabulous undulating landscape proceeds for mile and after mile over Castle How, Lang How and Silver How as I slowly descended making my own way along the ridge. In good weather, such as I was enjoying, there are few better ways off the fells than to follow this undulating ridge that leads all the way to the Langdale Youth Hostel at High Close. The ridge is riddled with faint footpaths, but there are so many you’ll probably never take exactly the same route twice. Instead I was free to make up my own route from top to top without any problems as the steep slopes on the edge of the ridge ensured that I stayed on course. Good weather is vital to ensure you know where you are, and if you want to come off the ridge at a particular point that you come off at the right point. It took me all afternoon to come down off the fells, but I enjoyed every moment of the descent with fantastic views throughout.

I remember at one point on the descent, probably near Silver Howe, I tried to get into the pouch at the top of my rucksack without taking the rucksack off my back. This foolhardy endeavour resulted in me breaking the zip and ensured that when I next returned to the Lake District I would have a new rucksack. The Langdale Pikes are very popular, iconic fells that stand out from far away, notably from the northern end of Windermere near Ambleside and the great weather ensured that once I was at the top of the fells I had a fabulous walk. I have been back to the Langdale Pikes on several occasions subsequently and despite their popularity they always produce great walks.