Knott Rigg and Ard Crags

Saturday 2nd January 2010

My main aim on this day was to get home as soon as possible. I'd just about had enough of snow and ice, so I wanted to quickly get away from it all, plus I wasn't confident in public transport being reliable, though as it turned out by taking the first train or bus that was going in the right direction I got home with no problems. I still wanted to do a decent walk on the way so after leaving the youth hostel in Buttermere I walked up the snow covered road to Newlands Hause. Despite being a road this felt like I was walking along a farmer's track on the side of a hill. The deep snow gave it a really isolated and bleak feel; you certainly couldn’t drive over the pass, and judging by the animal tracks in the snow no one had tried. Eventually I reached the top of the pass where I found a stunning view of the surrounding fells as the weather gave me a special final treat to see me off with beautiful, clear views of all the fells around me. From Newlands Hause I set off straight up the snow covered slope to the ridge of Knott Rigg. This was an enjoyable walk as the snow under foot seemed almost a pleasure to walk upon under good weather and with stunning views around me. After a lovely walk along the top of the narrow ridge I reached the summit of Knott Rigg but I hardly paused as I continued along the ridge to Ard Crags. I had been along this ridge only once before on a windy bank holiday Monday, and it had thrilled me then just as much as now with the snow.

At the end of the ridge the wind picked up as I descended a steep heather slope onto a bracken covered hillside that took me down to Rigg Beck which I crossed before joining the Rigg Beck path. This path forms an important route through the mountains from Buttermere to the Newlands valley and would have been my bad weather route. Fortunately I hadn't needed it on this walk, though I probably should have taken it to get to Buttermere earlier in the week. Following the path to its end at a road I turned left and followed the road north until I could find a way over the Newlands valley. Unfortunately the recent floods had washed away all of the bridges in the valley. Every road I passed was marked 'Road Closed Ahead' and the footpaths were marked 'Bridge Missing'.

I had to walk along the road all the way to Braithwaite before crossing Newlands Beck Bridge on the main road before finally getting back to Keswick. Despite the diversion I got to Keswick by lunch time and had plenty of time left to get home. This was not a vintage week in the Lake District; in fact it was a very challenging holiday that had saw me venture into some quite wintry conditions that were not to my liking. As the week progressed I was able to practice lots of special ways of walking in snow, e.g. kicking into the snow and edging with my boot, but it wasn’t really for me. By exercising prudence and care (plus a pair of walking poles) I survived the snow and I didn’t slip over at any time during the week. However, without crampons I was limited in what I could do, but I’m not keen on getting any. Most of the time they weren’t necessary (and in fact they would have been useless), and if I’d had them I may have been encouraged to venture into areas that would have been really dangerous. For now I’ll be staying far away from snow-covered mountains.

Fleetwith Pike and Haystacks

Friday 1st January 2010

The weather forecast for this walk was good. but apart from a brief spell of sunshine in the middle of the day the weather was poor again and even snowed at times. I was unsure about what to do for this walk, as it was really difficult to know what I would be able to do or what the conditions under foot were going to be like as it changes all the time. In the end I took quite a gamble and found that the conditions under foot were okay except at just one point after the weather turned bad. The day began fine with a fantastic walk alongside Buttermere on a permissive shoreline path that is thoroughly enjoyable as it follows the shore all the way to Gatesgarth; any walk that includes that path in its route is a good one. At Gatesgarth Farm it started snowing so I considered changing the walk but ultimately I decided that I would continue as planned and see how far I got. This was potentially quite a dangerous thing to do but I judged that I wasn’t taking too much of a risk, and so it proved.
So began an exciting climb of Fleetwith Edge with stunning views of Buttermere and Crummock Water always behind me. Soon the snow stopped and the view cleared to reveal a wonderful scene of lake and fell. The climbing became trickier the higher I got and soon I was scrambling up the ridge through snow, but snow that was always soft and despite some tricky moments I never felt it was too difficult, though it was thrilling. After what seemed an age I eventually reached the summit of Fleetwith Pike to bright sunshine and stunning views of the surrounding mountains under a deep covering of snow. I set off across this winter wonderland thoroughly enjoying the walk through the snow along the top of Fleetwith as far as the Black Star top. There I dropped steeply down to Hopper Slate Quarry, which of course was not working on New Year's Day, and turned right onto an old quarry road that took me down to the disused Dubs Quarry and Dubs Bottom.

Crossing the stream at the bottom I followed a path across the snow covered landscape under fantastic weather, but as I approached Haystacks I noticed storm clouds approaching that soon spoiled the beautiful weather. From Blackbeck Tarn I followed other footprints straight across the heather covered landscape and away from the usual path that turns sharp right along the edge of Blackbeck ravine. Before reaching the top of Haystacks, as snow began to fall again, I stopped to have lunch while perched on a handy outcrop. Resuming the path to Haystacks I passed the frozen Innominate Tarn, where Wainwright’s ashes were scattered, and continued to climb on the main path up to the top. By the time I got to the summit of Haystacks the wind had picked up, driving the snow into my face and making for very unpleasant conditions. I did not want to stay on the summit in those conditions; instead I wanted to get off the fell as quickly, and as safely as possible, so I made my way down the treacherously icy slope to the Scarth Gap. This descent was the only moment during the walk when I thought crampons would have been an advantage, despite my tricky ascent up Fleetwith Edge.

The weather continued to be quite poor below Scarth Gap Pass as it continued to snow at all levels, which was making it difficult for me to know where the path went. Conditions stayed poor until I had descended quite some distance below the pass and the wind eased. Eventually I reached the shore of Buttermere and followed the western path beside the lake through Burtness Wood back to the youth hostel. In places this was a good walk, but in others it was very unpleasant. I’m really not keen on winter conditions, but when the weather was good such as while traversing Fleetwith it was fantastic. I would consider myself an experienced hill-walker, but if you dump a load of snow on the fells I’m a novice again. I’ve had to treat the landscape with an enormous amount of respect on this holiday and treat it with extreme care and trepidation, because I don’t know what it might do to me. For the moment I prefer my hills to be snow free, but who knows what I’ll get up to in the future. For now I don’t want to carry crampons and an ice axe as they feel too much like mountaineering, so I will be staying away from snow covered mountains.