The Lakes, day 11 – High Raise

Thursday 25th July 2002

For the last walk of my first ever visit to the Lake District I went up into the fells that overlook Grasmere, circling around Easedale. Just like the whole of this second week, the weather was bad again with low cloud all day, but that didn’t stop me venturing up into the clouds and gaining in my confidence of walking in this sort of weather. I started the walk by climbing up to the top of Helm Crag, the small fell that dominates views of Grasmere, and walked along the ridge over Gibson Knott to Calf Crag under ever increasing rain. I went straight over the pass at the top of Far Easedale heading straight up the fellside towards High Raise climbing up Deep Slack to Codale Head following a line of old boundary posts while the rain became heavier and the fog thicker. I had experienced some pretty bad conditions during this second week, but this was becoming the worst yet, leaving me with no sense of where I was and with no path to follow except for a broken line of fence posts. I eventually decided I was fed up with it all when I put my foot onto what I thought was a stone only to find myself knee deep in mud. It doesn’t matter how waterproof your boots are, if you step into a puddle deeper than the top of your boots you will, like me, have a wet foot in that boot for the rest of the day.

When I eventually reached the top and found the main footpath across the summit plateau, instead of heading north to the summit of High Raise, I turned south. I was so fed up with the conditions that I couldn’t be bothered to try and find the summit cairn and trig point. During this holiday I found that it is not fun to walk around the fells when it's raining and you can't see more than a dozen metres ahead of you. I can now appreciate the challenge inherent in walking in these sorts of conditions, but I wouldn’t say that such a day is as fun as one with good weather. You should always make the most of whatever weather you’ve got, but you still need to adapt your plans to the changing weather conditions. Walking around aimlessly in thick hill fog is never fun; the goal is always to get below the clouds. I came down from the top of High Raise by the quickest route I could find, beside the Bright Beck stream to Stickle Tarn near the Langdale Pikes.

This was my first visit to the area of the Langdale Pikes and I remember being impressed by the enormous cliff of Pavey Ark that overlooks Stickle Tarn with the top of the crag disappearing into the clouds, which potentially makes the cliff-face look even bigger than it actually is. From Stickle Tarn I proceeded across the undulating hills of Blea Rigg, Castle How, Swinescar Pike, Lang How, Silver How & Dow Bank. This is a fabulous walk that I have done many times since and found that it is always best done in this direction with the gradient gradually falling as you come off the fells rather than having an annoyingly long climb to get up onto the higher fells. I commented at the time that this is “quite a way when you walk it,” but every step is a joy. Eventually I reached the road at Red Bank and the foot of Loughrigg. Ever since losing my glasses on Loughrigg on the first day of my holiday I had wanted to return to the fell to look for them, so when I eventually located the spot where I thought I'd lost my glasses I tried to find them, but to no avail. I had to accept that they were lost.

The following day was technically the last day of my holiday but I was so tired in both spirit and in leg that I decided to go straight home (the knowledge that I would have to be at work on the Saturday morning was another motivator), but part of me wishes I hadn't. I had a plastic bag full of presents that I’d just bought in Grasmere so walking would have been impractical, but the weather was glorious for the first time all week, which seems to be just my luck. It has been interesting going through my experiences of my first trip to the Lake District and reading what I wrote back then. My inexperience of hill-walking shows through in many places with a intense distaste for walking in the rain, though that would seem to be in part due to the inadequacies of my clothing. The reports from this holiday have reminded me of how much I have developed as a walker. I am no longer afraid of bad weather as I have now walked in weather that is considerably worse than that I found on Robinson, Hindscarth and High Raise during this holiday.

The Lakes, day 10 – Helvellyn

Wednesday 24th July 2002

After the poor weather of the previous couple of days, the forecast for the tenth day of my first ever visit to the Lake District was for more rain later in the day, but it never arrived. Nevertheless it was a windy, overcast day and not the most ideal conditions for my first ever climb up Helvellyn. After being thwarted in my attempts to climb Helvellyn the day before, now that the rain had stopped I was determined to make my first ascent of this most infamous and popular of Lakeland Fells. After leaving the Patterdale Youth Hostel I crossed Grisedale and walked along the path that gradually climbs out of the valley to the Hole-in-the-Wall. This literal gap in a wall is marked as such on maps as if it’s the only gap in a wall in the area, but it is famous for being the start of Striding Edge. I had heard so much about this narrow ridge that I had built up quite a fear of it, so when I got to the Hole-in-the-Wall I daren’t go through it. The weather was still quite poor at this point, with high winds and low clouds, so I cowered out of doing Striding Edge and took the path down to Red Tarn where I climbed up to the ridge at the start of Swirral Edge.

I don’t think I have vertigo, but I would say that I have a healthy fear of falling to my death! In the poor weather, with the wind howling around me, I even found Swirral Edge rather scary. I remember leaving the very top of the ridge and clinging to the steep grassy slopes above Red Tarn as I tremulously climbed up to the top of Helvellyn. I was still quite new to bad weather at the top of a mountain at this time so I was finding it quite nerve-wracking, but the more times I experienced that sort of weather the more I learnt that so long as you’re careful, particularly with navigation, there is nothing to worry about. Back then I was relieved to come away from the wind-swept summit of Helvellyn and make my way south following the wide footpath that passes close to Helvellyn’s satellites. I was beginning to get used to the wind and low clouds by now so I diverted from the highway in order to bag the tops of Nethermost Pike, High Crag & Dollywagon Pike while on my way to Grisedale Tarn.

After the steep descent to the tarn I walked up to Grisedale Hause and from there climbed up a scree slope to Fairfield. I remember at this point being rather fed up with the scree slopes that I was climbing with annoying rapidity in the Lake District. I’d never encountered them before so I wasn’t used to their shifting stones and steep slopes, or the zig-zag route that has to be taken up them, but this was all simply part of learning my way around the Lakes. The summit of Fairfield was just as windy, cold and covered in hill fog as Helvellyn. It may not have been the best of days but I was beginning to cope quite well with the conditions as I successfully found the summit cairn on the broad summit plateau before heading in the correct direction off the top. From Fairfield I walked along the long ridge south towards Rydal passing over Great Rigg, Heron Pike and Nab Scar. The weather began to improve markedly as I descended becoming sunnier and warmer below the clouds with stunning views ahead of me along the whole length of Windermere.

At Rydal Mount I was near the spot where I had started my first day in the Lakes, and where I had lost my glasses. Now more than a week later that still hung its shadow over my holiday so I wanted to return to Loughrigg and try to look for my glasses even though the chances of finding them must have been pretty remote. Leaving that for another day I finished this walk by staying on the eastern side of the river walking along the excellent Coffin Route to Grasmere past Dove Cottage. This was a walk of contrasts from the wind-swept heights and terrors of Helvellyn to an entrancing walk down the ridge from Fairfield. I have not walked along the length of this ridge since that day, and that must be the most tragic aspect of this walk.