Patterdale to Honister

Tuesday 29th March 2016

During my holiday in the Lake District last year I walked from Patterdale all the way across the national park to Borrowdale, while climbing up Nethermost Pike and High Raise on the way, just to make it a little more challenging. I actually found this mammoth task surprisingly easy for me to do, so when I was planning a similar traverse in this holiday I decided to alter the route and make it even more of a challenge. Instead of going over two mountain passes I was now going to keep going to the top of a third pass: Honister Hause. However, what I hadn’t planned on was the weather. I had planned to start my traverse by climbing to the top of Birks and from there continue along the ridge over St. Sunday Crag. As I left the hostel I considered going up Arnison Crag, which is a much smaller fell, but the weather wasn’t too bad at the start of the walk and I’d already changed my plans so many times on this holiday I liked the idea of sticking to my plan for once. An option for Coast to Coast walkers skirts the side of Birks, missing the top, on a direct ascent towards St. Sunday Crag, but I wanted to make a direct ascent of Birks itself.

A very steep path took me up the side of the fell with great views behind me over Ullswater until eventually the gradient eased where the views that were revealed beyond Birks towards the snow-covered slopes of St. Sunday Crag worried me. Puddles of ice beside my path were even more of a concern so by the time I reached the summit of Birks I was thinking that continuing over St. Sunday Crag was a bad idea. Therefore on the ridge between Birks and St. Sunday Crag I dropped down the snow-covered northern slopes to the wide, bypassing path that took me hastily back down to the bottom of the valley. With the prospect of hard snow and ice at the top of St. Sunday Crag I decided it was better to be late than dead, and so an hour and a half after I had started the climb, I was back down at the bottom of Grisedale. I had just as far to walk as when I’d started, but with less time to do it, so I briskly made my way along the bridlepath on the southern side of the valley.

I passed many examples of the effect of the record-breaking amounts of rain that had fallen over the winter leaving a considerable amount of damage in their wake, though fortunately none of the footbridges that I needed had been washed away and I was able to walk all the way up the valley to Grisedale Tarn. As I neared the head of the valley it started to rain, which soon turned to snow while I walked up the great, craggy path that climbs out of the valley. By the time I reached Grisedale Tarn the ground was covered in snow leaving conditions that felt very wintry and required a lot of care. Following the northern edge of the tarn I made my way to the far end of the lake where I found the start of Raise Beck and the path that follows the stream all the way down. I have never been more thankful to start descending as I made my way down this path and away from the snow that lay around Grisedale Tarn. The Raise Beck path is very rough, descending steeply to Dunmail Raise, but was a joy compared with the challenges of making my way around Grisedale Tarn in that weather. On last year’s traverse I had joined this path half way down, but what I now found at the bottom of the path was very different.

Last December part of the road over Dunmail Raise was washed away by the torrential rains and the repairs had still not been completed, so although it may have stopped raining by the time I reached the top of the pass, there were no cars on the road. Last year I climbed the steep slopes on the other side of the pass up Steel Fell, but now I turned right and followed a bridlepath that has been considerably improved to cycle track standards with stunning views of Thirlmere Reservoir ahead of me and glimpses of the extensive repairs being carried out on the road nearby. At West Head, previously known as, and still marked on maps as, Steel End, I turned left onto a path that soon became a nightmare. I had entered the Wythburn valley, which has a notorious reputation for being boggy, so I was walking into the wettest valley in the Lake District immediately after one of the wettest winters on record. Actually aside from the bogs, there is some tremendous scenery that made for an interesting and varied approach that will abide with me long after I’ve forgotten about the bogs.

In the best section of the valley the stream passes through a delightfully wooded ravine with spectacular crags looming ominously above me. Above the waterfalls the valley levels and broadens into an extensive swamp known as the Bog. My attempts to negotiate this boggy terrain were enlivened by a surprising improvement in the weather and eventually I realised that the sun had come out. This was astonishing compared with the weather that I had endured at Grisedale Tarn, and it continued to improve for the rest of the afternoon. After rounding Middle How I crossed Wythburn Beck and made my way up the agonizingly steep, grassy slopes out of the valley while amazing views slowly revealed themselves over the head of Wythburn and far into the distance. By the time I was out of the valley the weather was fabulous and on the far side of the deceptively named plateau of Greenup Edge, at the top of Lining Crag, I was confronted by the awesome sight of Stonethwaite valley shining brightly in the sunshine extending all the way into Borrowdale. After the wintry weather at Grisedale Tarn I now felt like it could be summer.

The astonishingly good weather gave me awesome views down the valley prompting me to make rapid progress as I joyfully made my way down into the valley and all the way into Borrowdale. Last year, on a similar traverse, I had come down from the top of High Raise to Greenup Edge and down this same path, so although I had tried to take a different route this year, now they coincided until eventually I arrived in Borrowdale where I had ended my walk last year. This time I walked straight past the Borrowdale Youth Hostel and continued past Seatoller along the old toll road up to the top of Honister Pass. This was an amazing day that at one point I thought was going to be a disaster that would never end, but the weather turned around spectacularly to bring about a sensational end to the day. I had planned for this walk to be challenging, but I had never anticipated just how challenging it would be. In Grisedale it was still winter, but by the time I reached Borrowdale it felt like a warm spring day. The weather in the Lake District had given me an almighty test and rewarded me handsomely.

Hart Crag and the High Bakestone Cairn

Monday 28th March 2016

When I stepped out of the youth hostel at the start of this walk I was astonished at the change in the weather from the previous couple of days when it had been very wet and windy, but what a difference a day makes. It wasn’t raining, but more significantly the wind had dropped as this, more than the rain, was what had been keeping me off the tops of the fells throughout the weekend. With little wind I was able to have a great day on the fells that made up for the two days that I’d missed. The weather was still a challenge as it was now rather cold, as evidenced by the patches of snow even at the bottom of the valley beside the youth hostel. These soon melted during the morning but snow lingered on the fells and particularly on the high fells of the Helvellyn range. While the cold can easily be accommodated by adding an extra layer, the snow on the fells made me wary of my options despite the improvement in the weather and prompted me to have plenty of alternative routes available for this walk.

I retraced my steps from the day before by heading up Patterdale on the footpath that follows the eastern edge of the valley floor, turning off at a signpost that points towards Deepdale Bridge. The improved weather had given me a spring in my step and I seemed to zoom along the path excited at the prospect of the day's walking, so it wasn’t long before I’d reached the signpost and was following a permissive path beside Goldrill Beck. I was rather vague in my plans for this walk, which somehow involved Dovedale, but as I was walking along the path I could see the northern end of the Hartsop above How ridge across the valley and suddenly wanted to walk up it. After crossing the road on the far side of the valley I started to climb through Low Wood looking for the path that is marked on my Ordnance Survey map as following a wall up the hill. However there isn’t such a path on the ground as I would have seen if I’d checked the route with Wainwright’s guidebooks.

The correct path is on the other side of the wall, but there was no way of getting across it so I had to struggle up the hill using sheep-trods until the gradient eased where a faint path appeared and I was more easily able to follow the impregnable wall along the top of the ridge. I found it slightly frustrating that I wasn’t climbing the fell along the correct path, even though that path was only on the other side of the wall. Eventually I came upon the path that comes up from Cow Bridge car park and was finally able to cross the wall onto the right side of the ridge. The only time I had previously been on Hartsop above How was in 2009 when I had descended along the ridge and on that occasion I had taken the steep path through the wood down to the car park. Now that I was finally on the correct side of the wall the dull, grassy ridge was transformed into an enthralling rock-covered delight that had me skipping along the path all the way to the top of Gale Crag.

The ridge descends after passing over this intermediate top down to bogs that testify to Wainwright’s claim that this ascent is not attractive in itself, but as Wainwright goes on to say: “with views increasing in quality as altitude is gained”. Place Fell dominated the views behind me early in the climb, but it was the snow-covered Hart Crag at the end of the ridge that attracted my eye and my caution. The summit of Hartsop above How, on Gill Crag, was insignificant when I reached it and further along the ridge, after another boggy depression, the ridge rose even higher to a point above Black Crag with the snowy bulk of Hart Crag looming ahead of me. The ascent of Hartsop above How may be poor, but as an ascent or especially as a descent from Hart Crag it is a good walk offering great views, although on this occasion I was contemplating diverting left into Houndshope Cove to avoid the snow on Hart Crag. Despite my hesitation I kept going and saw that the snow was not too deep or icy and eventually reached the snow covered summit of Hart Crag.

My views from the summit of Hart Crag were extensive, across much of the Lake District, and I was surprised to see a general lack of snow compared with the abundances on the fells north towards the seemingly more snow-bound Fairfield and the Helvellyn range. I am not a fan of walking in snow so the top of Hart Crag was as far as I wanted to go in that direction so I turned south and headed onto the clearer, neighbouring fell of Dove Crag, which sits at the head of Dovedale. Continuing south I came off the snow and followed the top of the ridge that forms part of the very popular, even when the high fells are covered with snow, Fairfield Horseshoe walk. With Windermere glistening in the patchy light far ahead of me, I felt that this was a great day to be walking in the Lake District, despite the fact that it was cloudy and cold. Eventually I came off the Fairfield Horseshoe and turned onto a slender path that crosses the slopes high above Scandale to a spectacular tall cairn that sits at High Bakestones and looks down the valley towards Windermere.

I don’t think I have ever visited this cairn before, which is a great shame as it is a magnificent structure with tremendous views towards Windermere. In the end I had decided that this walk should be around the fells that surround Dovedale, but I was soon at the top of Little Hart Crag from where all that was left for me was to descend over High Hartsop Dodd into the valley despite it being only two in the afternoon. After gazing around at the surrounding fells I contemplated walking across Scandale Pass to Red Screes, but when I looked at the short, craggy ridge to High Hartsop Dodd I made an instant decision and set off along that ridge. This was an enjoyable descent in improving weather and since I had plenty of time I walked slowly taking in my surroundings and the views along Patterdale over Brothers Water. From the top of High Hartsop Dodd I slowly descended the weaving path that falls steeply down to the valley, and as I strolled down the valley I marvelled that the sun had finally come out. It is odd how I often seem to walk quickly when I’m excited or walking in dramatic surroundings, and at the end of this walk, or like the day before, I walked very slowly because I was in more peaceful surroundings. Despite a slow end to the day I shouldn’t let that affect what was a great walk over an awesome snow covered fell.