Whiteside

Friday 5th April 2013

The problem I had with this holiday was that when I was originally planning it I’d anticipated walking over lots of high fells but the snow that lingered on the tops prevented me from climbing that high. For my New Year holiday I’d deliberately planned low level walks anticipating that snow and bad weather would put the high fells out of bounds; I hadn’t anticipated getting wintry conditions like that at Easter. A lot of my planned walks were shelved and I was having difficulty coming up with a good alternative, partly because where I was staying lent itself best to high level and not low level walks. This walk was particularly affected by this problem, which resulted in a bit of a messy day. For a long time I’ve had a desire to do Wainwright’s ascent of Grasmoor from Lanthwaite Green direct, which is a climb that Wainwright describes as being “probably less difficult than the North Wall of the Eiger”. The challenge of this difficult climb has been almost irresistible, but I would really need good weather for it and I’ve never been able to get it. I’d wanted to do this climb two years ago until the weather intervened and now once again I was unable to do it.

Still unsure whether I was actually going to do the ascent, despite strong winds and snow, I tried to put off my decision as long as possible, so I started the walk by going back across to Scales and following the path alongside the shore of Crummock Water below Mellbreak. I had taken this path back in 2002 after descending Whiteside and never taken it since, and despite overcast skies I had an enjoyable, relaxing walk to the northern tip of Crummock Water and Lanthwaite Green. There I had to make my decision and almost started the ascent of Grasmoor, but in the end common sense prevailed and instead I climbed the fell to the north of the Gasgale Gill valley, Whiteside. This was an excellent idea and I had a thoroughly satisfying climb up the steep fellside through heather up to Whin Ben before a steep rock-covered climb brought me up to the top of Whiteside. Due to the strong winds that I found at the summit I sought shelter in the lea of the fell and had my lunch while looking out across Lorton Vale towards Crummock Water and Loweswater.

I had now decided that I would repeat my walk of 2002, so after lunch I set off over Wainwright’s top and then over the actual highest point on the fell towards Hopegill Head. But I was becoming worried as I’d just remembered that the ridge narrows precipitously before reaching Hopegill Head and it was very windy with a generous helping of snow on that exposed ridge. Conditions got worse after the summit with a strong, cold crosswind that in the end made me decide that it was better to stay alive and be disappointed than be dead and break my mother’s heart. Perhaps it wasn’t that melodramatic, but I decided that the conditions didn’t warrant going on, so I turned around and headed back to Wainwright’s top and began to descend the steep stony path back to Lanthwaite Green. I may have been over-reacting, but I can easily come back another day and do that ridge in better weather; I may not have been able to if I’d injured myself or worse.

When I was back down near Lanthwaite Green I was left with another decision to make: where do I go now? Picking up tracks in the gentle slopes below the western face of Grasmoor, I slowly made my way into Rannerdale taking paths that I must have previously taken in 2009 after coming down from Coledale Hause. The difference in the weather in Rannerdale compared with at the top of Whiteside was astonishing as now the sun was shining, there was no wind, and it felt like a warm spring day. It felt like a completely different world to the inhospitable conditions that I had encountered on top of the ridge. Here, the lower slopes of the fell were covered in day-trippers who had just gotten out of their cars and were strolling through the bracken in the picturesque valley. When I was in Rannerdale two years ago the place was awash with bluebells, but now due to the late winter and early Easter the hillside was bare.

Rannderale Knotts lay ahead of me and I considered climbing it, but in the end I decided to follow the Rannerdale Beck along a very faint path beside the stream into the deeply cut valley. The faint path eventually disappeared and the terrain became so rough that it became very difficult to find a way up the valley. I could have continued to battle on up the valley, but in the end I decided to give up, again, and climb the steep eastern slopes to Saddle Gate. This was a tiring climb up dreary grassy slopes, but not as prolonged as I’d feared and eventually I managed to reach the ridge of Whiteless Edge. The conditions on this ridge were completely different to those I’d found on the Whiteside ridge as here there was no snow or a strong crosswind. Not far from where I’d joined the ridge was Whiteless Pike, so it wasn’t long before I was at the top of my second fell of the day and looking out at the awesome views across Buttermere towards the High Stile ridge and beyond to the snow-capped Scafell Pikes.

These views completely justified the effort in my unorthodox route of ascent and stayed ahead of me as I slowly strolled down the gloriously engineered path that cunningly snakes down the hillside. I have descended this path many times before, but I think I’ve only ever climbed it once, on that 2002 walk that I’ve already mentioned several times. I can’t really complain about this walk, despite the weather not being at its best. The main problem was my planning of the walk as I’d spent so much effort on deciding whether the direct ascent of Grasmoor was possible that I’d failed to consider whether the Whiteside ridge would be crossable. I had been trying to do a walk that I hadn’t done before and in that I think I succeeded: I climbed Whiteside, and I climbed Whiteless Pike from Rannerdale, both of which I’d never done before.

Red Pike

Thursday 4th April 2013

After the fabulous weather of the day before it was now cloudy with a very strong, cold wind that made the walking unpleasant and not particularly enjoyable. Throughout this week there has been a strong, cold wind on the highest summits, but now that wind was at all levels and without the sunshine that I’d been enjoying earlier in the week. To start the walk I decided that instead of going straight up Red Pike I would climb Starling Dodd first, which lies directly north of the Ennerdale Youth Hostel, straight up the hillside. However, someone has put the Ennerdale Forest in the way, which restrict the routes that one can take onto the fells from the bottom of the valley. Wainwright didn’t recommend any route up Starling Dodd from Ennerdale because of “the lower slopes being entirely planted and fenced for forestry purposes,” however Chris Jesty’s revision mentions two routes, the zigzag forest road and the gap between the plantations. The forest road didn’t appeal to me so I tried the gap.

This is the only break in the trees between Bowness and Scarth Gap on the north side of the valley, left to provide a route for sheep to be brought down off the fells, but it is a dull route of ascent for Red Pike. Consequently I’d never taken this path before, but that just made me more interested in taking this route now, and what I found was perhaps a hint of what Ennerdale looked like before the trees were planted, bracken-covered and with the remains of old stone enclosures. Since my target was Starling Dodd, after crossing a fence I turned off the Red Pike path and, going around the corner of the plantation, made my way across the slopes of Starling Dodd. The previous day, from the far side of the valley, I had seen what looked like a clear path across the face of the fell that would provide me with an easy route of ascent, but on the ground I found no such path. At first I found a sheep trod that looked promising but this led to a steep scree slope and left me with a nightmare climb clinging to heather and clambering up boulders.

When I had eventually managed to get past the nightmare I was near the top of Starling Dodd and being assaulted by strong winds that had been hiding during my ascent. The wind continued to attack me for the rest of the walk up Starling Dodd and across the wide grassy plain to the foot of Red Pike. After going around the snow drift below the summit of Red Pike, I finally reached the top, but despite the sun briefly coming out the wind was so strong up there I didn’t fancy lingering and I certainly didn’t want to continue along the exposed High Stile ridge. Instead, I turned around and slithered down the snow drift back onto the broad, grassy, western slopes where I followed a path not far, but far enough away from Lingcomb Edge while steeling glimpses over the edge at Red Pike and down into Ling Comb. The path takes a perilous route beside the edge at the top of a steep drop that would have been suicide to follow with the strong winds that kept trying to blow me over, so I stayed a safe distance from the path and the edge as I slowly made my way down towards Scale Force.

Back in 2002 I’d originally planned to descend Red Pike by this route, but ultimately took the Bleaberry Tarn route because of time, and subsequently I have never been on this path. But I won’t be keen on doing it again as I had a horrendous time on a narrow path that just got steeper and steeper with patches of ice and the strong wind that constantly made me feel like was going to fall down the steep hillside. I was cursing the path, the ice and the wind as I really thought I was in danger of breaking my neck, so I was greatly relieved to finally get down to the bottom not far from Scale Force. There are easier routes down the hillside that veer away from the edge to Scale Beck, but I hadn’t taken it. In better weather, in ascent, I might have loved this path, but I don’t like steep descents and the wind and ice just made things feel lethal, though it probably felt worse than it actually was. Eventually I reached the deeply enclosed waterfall of Scale Force where I had my lunch.

After a morning to forget and my plans for the day in tatters, I was left wondering what to do for the rest of the day. In the end I decided to do a walk over Mellbreak so I joined the Floutern pass path for a while before crossing Black Beck and passed through bleak Mosedale where a solitary holly tree adds to the desolation. I actually thought the valley was quiet and tranquil and I enjoyed my walk around the western slopes of Mellbreak to the northern end not far from the village of Loweswater. Wainwright said Mellbreak should always be climbed from Loweswater, so that is what I did, on a brilliant path that climbs the steep craggy slopes of White Crag. This is an ingeniously designed path, cunningly weaving a course up the crags through the heather and is an absolute joy to follow. This fabulous climb more than made up for my anguish while climbing Starling Dodd or descending Red Pike.

All too soon I reached the cairn at the top of Mellbreak, but not the summit as Mellbreak is made up of two tops with the better, craggier northern top actually being the smaller of the two. The broader, grassier, southern top is slightly higher, thus proving that there is no justice in the world. Nevertheless I really enjoyed my stroll along the ridge between the two tops, despite a strong wind and grassy slopes on the south top, partly because of the awesome view ahead of me towards the fells that surround Buttermere, decorated in wintery splendour. On the descent, I followed the clearest route off the fell eventually reaching the Mosedale path near Black Beck and with the sun finally coming out I followed this delightful path across Scale Beck and on to Buttermere. There were a lot of negatives in the first half of this walk, but from start to finish my walk after lunch through Mosedale and over Mellbreak was thoroughly enjoyable.