Great Gable and Scafell Pike

Tuesday 13th April 2004

The weather forecast for this walk was for rain in the afternoon, however this fortunately didn’t start until after I had arrived at my destination so it was dry throughout the day, but very cold with patchy low cloud that left me with only got occasional views from the tops. I left Honister after breakfast and headed straight up the fell-side on a steep rough path that eventually led me onto Grey Knotts, but never I met a soul, which inevitably was to be the exception on this walk rather than the rule. This route up Grey Knotts starts from the car park directly outside the door of the hostel and follows a fence straight onto the fell all the way up to the top. The usual route is to follow an old tramway to the foundations of a drum house at the top of the path and then turn sharp left across the open hillside. This is also the usual route to Great Gable from Honister and was the route that I took two years previously when I first climbed to the top of Great Gable, so now I wanted to take this more challenging, and to my mind, more interesting route.

Once I reached the top of Grey Knotts I headed along the broad ridge to Brandreth on an easy path that follows the fence and boundary posts before heading up to Green Gable. On my early visits to the Lake District I always seemed to have poor visibility when crossing Gillercomb Head and even now whenever I’m there it feels strange for me to have a view. On this occasion, Green Gable was in the clouds, but the Windy Gap just beyond was clear and rewarded me with the mesmerising sight of clouds blowing up from the valley and through the gap. After a rough climb up to the top of Great Gable I was astonished to find the summit almost clear, though not of clouds, but of people. There were just three people there sitting at the popular summit, but as there was no view to be seen, after a brief pause in front of the War Memorial, I descended the hill all the way down to Sty Head.

On this holiday I walked along a lot of differently constructed paths of varying degrees of quality. The path going down from Great Gable to Sty Head was very well constructed, but the path from Sty Head to Esk Hause seemed to me very poor. It’s a gravely path that’s like walking on scree, or a pebbly beach, with all the inherent difficulties and so on several occasions while on this path I bemoaned the path makers. In my most recent visit to this area, in September 2013, I found a path that is considerably easier to walk upon than is described here. Either steps have been taken to improve the path or the stones have naturally embedded to create an easier surface for walking. From Esk Hause, with clearer skies all around (even Great Gable was uncovered), I walked past Great End and over Ill Crag and Broad Crag, before arriving at the top of the grossly over-crowded Scafell Pike. It never fails to amaze me how people will go to just one peak in the Lake District simply because of a numerical coincidence that makes it the highest. On Scafell Pike you are surrounded by hundreds of hills many of which are far superior and yet it remains the one hill in the Lake District that everyone wants to go up.

The path up to Scafell Pike from Lingmell Col is part of the heavily used tourist route from Wasdale Head over Brown Tongue and is consequently a fully-constructed (I could even say over-constructed) and well-defined path, but the path on the other side of the pass to Lingmell was almost non-existent and so it was much more enjoyable, as were the views through the gaps in the clouds. After visiting Lingmell I returned to the col and took the fabulous Corridor Route back to Sty Head. This is a really enjoyable path that has retained its rough charm even though it has been heavily constructed in places. When I returned to the path in 2013 I thought there had been some additional construction, but given my comment above, taken from my notes made back in 2004 (and my notoriously fickle memory), it is possible that it hasn’t seen much more construction in the last ten years. Either way it remains an enjoyable route.

The Corridor Route hugs the steep sides of the fell below Broad Crag and Great End while traversing the tops of several deep ravines before descending to Sty Head Pass where I took a seldom used climber’s path that crosses the face of Great Gable. This is a thrilling route that clings precipitously to the side of the fell as it crosses the boulder fields and sheer scree slopes below Great Gable; my heart was in my mouth on several occasions as I negotiated around fallen boulders while just inches away from my feet was a sheer drop. I returned to this path in 2013 in fabulous weather, much better than on this occasion, and once again enjoyed this most thrilling path. I had stunning views down Wasdale and along the length of Wastwater that prompted me on many occasions to stop and just absorb the scenery while clinging onto the steep slope for sheer life.

Eventually I reached Beck Head where the clouds had now descended which required that I get my compass out in order to find the path on the other side of the pass around the side of Kirk Fell to Black Sail Pass. I had taken this path the year before on my way to Black Sail Hut and I took it again the day after and several occasions since. In fact, I think I may have walked along this path more times than I have walked over the top of the fell that this path circumnavigates, Kirk Fell, which is even more surprising given how indistinct the path is, not only at the start near Beck Head, but for much of the route. The only place where the path is clear is where Sail Beck is crossed in a steep ravine and after that point on this occasion I left the path and descended to the bridlepath which took me all the way down to the Black Sail Youth Hostel. This was a truly great walk over some great fells, but most significantly on some truly astonishing paths.

Causey Pike and Crag Hill

Monday 12th April 2004

When planning this walk I took on a challenge that I thought would be difficult for me to accomplish, but in the end I succeeded with time to spare, all thanks to tremendous weather. I was booked to stay at the Honister Youth Hostel, and from Keswick the most obvious route to take is to head up over Maiden Moor and High Spy, however I took that route the year before and I knew it wouldn’t take me all day. One of the challenges when planning walks is to make the length long enough to ensure that I reach my destination between five and six; not so early that I’m standing around wondering what to do next and not so long that I have to rush so I can get there before it gets dark. My solution for this walk was motivated by a desire to climb Crag Hill, even though this would involve a route that would take me via Buttermere, before going to Honister. That could not be helped, but with the weather as good as it was I thought it would be possible.

Knowing that I had a long walk ahead of me I set off from Keswick at a brisk pace along the route of the Cumbria Way through Portinscale and Fawe Park to the foot of Cat Bells. So far I had been following the same route as the much shorter way to Honister via High Spy, but at this point I came off the direct route and made my way across the Newlands Valley from Skelgill to Rowling End Farm. I was now at the foot of the ridge that comes down from Crag Hill over Causey Pike and has its terminus on Rowling End, but on this occasion I didn’t climb Rowling End and instead I took a slanting path across the hillside which finally reaches the top of the ridge at the col, Sleet Hause, with Causey Pike. This is the more popular route up, and when I returned to Causey Pike, in 2009, I took the alternative route over Rowling End.

After a fun, little scramble I reached the top of Causey Pike, though I had no time to pause as I headed along the gently undulating ridge and up and over Sail. I remember finding this climb rather tiring, on a wide track that heads straight up the fell of which Wainwright said ‘the final pull from Sail Pass to the summit is on a very wide path becoming eroded into a trench’. I don’t remember thinking the path was eroded, but someone else did, and when I returned to this area in 2011 I found that an unsightly raised zigzagging path had been constructed. I know there is an idea to ‘fix the fells’, but surely there is a better way to preserve the fells for future generations than disfiguring the fells with ugly paths such as can now to be seen either side of Sail Pass. Fortunately I saw the fell in its original state before it was disfigured by the very people who were supposed to be fixing it.

I didn’t stop at the top of Sail to visit the small summit cairn a short distance away from the path, but kept going along the narrowing and exhilarating ridge all the way up to the top of Crag Hill. However, I didn’t even stop at the top of Crag Hill as I was ever mindful of still having a long way to go on this epic walk, so without stopping I headed down the hillside and along the fabulous ridge to Whiteless Pike. From there a steep descent took me all the way down into the tourist-filled village of Buttermere. When I had been thinking about this walk the evening before I had anticipated arriving in Buttermere between two and three in the afternoon, which I thought would be sufficient to ensure that I reached Honister in reasonable time. However, due to my headlong rush over Causey Pike and Crag Hill I reached Buttermere at 1.30, so I was finally able to stop and have my lunch before heading back over the hills.

On my first visit to the Lake District I climbed out of Buttermere in appalling weather only to find a vast boggy quagmire in Buttermere Moss, an area where, according to Wainwright, water cannot escape except by being carried away in the boots of pedestrians. On this occasion, despite the drier weather, I found it just as spongy as it was when I had last been there. After a final steep pull I reached the summit of Robinson where I made my way onto the ridge that connects Robinson with its neighbour, Hindscarth, but still thinking that I was short of time I bypassed the top, which lies some distance away from the ridge, and continued along Hindscarth Edge to Dale Head. This is a hill that I had planned to visit on both my two previous visits to the Lake District and failed to reach the summit both times due to bad weather.

On both occasions I had been heading towards Keswick and turned north before reaching Dale Head. By walking from Keswick and leaving Dale Head till the end of the walk I was finally able to reach the outstanding cairn that stands at the summit. A simple walk took me down the grassy slopes from the top of Dale Head and it wasn’t long before I reached Honister Hause much earlier than I had anticipated. I had assumed that the only way I was going to be able to reach Honister in time using this route was if I kept up a brisk pace, but with hindsight that doesn’t appear to have been the case. I should have slowed down and enjoyed the walk more, but despite my fast pace I really enjoyed the walk. I had tremendous fun quickly traversing the fabulous ridges of the North Western Fells in great weather. I couldn’t see how I could have enjoyed the walk more!