Seatallan and Pillar

Saturday 29th May 2021

I had spent the night before this walk camped half way down the side of Sca Fell, the second highest hill in England, and broke camp early, though not before a fellrunner ran past my tent asking if I had a cuppa ready for him. He must have started very early to be coming down Sca Fell before eight o’clock! Continuing my, much slower, descent, I followed a faint path above Black Crag and past Rakehead Crag where there is a lot of loose stones that I thought the path descended. However, the correct route is to continue west until you reach the old corpse road between Eskdale and Wasdale Head. It was soon obvious to me that I should not have tried to descend this precariously loose run of stones, but by then it was too late and I had to continue the steep descent. Eventually I reached a fence where a stile gave me access into a field that led me past scattered trees to the path beside Lingmell Gill. My goal on this holiday was to climb fells that I had not climbed recently and right in front of me was Yewbarrow, which I had last climbed in 2011, but this naturally leads to Red Pike that I have climbed many times in the last ten years. It seemed a waste of effort to climb Yewbarrow only to come straight back down again, so I missed it out and walked along the road beside Wastwater for far longer than I thought I would need.

I was astonished at the vast numbers of cars coming up the road into Wasdale Head, attracted by the Bank Holiday weekend, and wondered how the valley copes with so many cars. Restricting the cars into Wasdale Head has been suggested and on a Bank holiday weekend I can see why that would be a good idea. Eventually I took the turning onto the road to Greendale turning off onto the path that climbs towards Middle Fell, which I last climbed in 2006 and definitely qualifies as being a target for this holiday, however when I got to a junction, I could see a path that stays beside Greendale Gill and thought, I wish I was going that way, so I did. This is a narrow path that threads a course through steep, ravine-like slopes lined with gorse and was a delight, but I soon stopped to cross the stream and have a drink. Instead of staying beside Greendale Gill I now found myself climbing Brown How and crossing the top of the Tongues Gills towards the crags of Buckbarrow that had looked too appealing for me to ignore. I had intended on following my route of 2006 up Middle Fell and Seatallan, but I was now heading towards Buckbarrow, which I climbed in 2011.

Eventually I reached the cairn at the top of Buckbarrow, but I could see another cairn lower down on the edge of the escarpment, so I made my way down the short distance to the top of Bull Crag before climbing back up to the top and continuing up to the cairn at the top of Glade How. From this point, Seatallan, across broad, featureless, grassy slopes was an obvious target, but I was still interested in Middle Fell, so I crossed the dreary, boggy slopes above the Tongues Gills to eventually reach Greendale Tarn and from the col above the lake I turned right to climb the craggy slopes of Middle Fell, which is a fell that I have fond memories of climbing in 2006. Unfortunately, the weather on this walk was terrible for photography with overcast skies and very poor visibility all day, but it was warm, which made it nice for walking even if the views were difficult to see. This is a shame for Middle Fell as it provides good views of the Wasdale fells, but I was not in a good mood to appreciate anything. My convoluted route via Buckbarrow and across the tedious grassy slopes above the Tongues Gills in warm weather had worn me out, so I had wearily dragged my feet all the way up to the top of Middle Fell.

Returning back down to the top of Greendale Gill I crossed very boggy ground that can be avoided by going around the northern slopes over Winscale Hows, but just as in 2006 I went straight across the col. After completely enveloping my boots in water, I reached more solid, but ridiculously steep ground that brought me up to the summit plateau of Seatallan that doesn’t feel like it belongs in the Lake District and is certainly not a mountain, being a featureless grassy mound and never deserved to be climbed in the last fifteen years. Turning north from the trig point at the summit I zigzagged down the steep slope ignoring the poor path until I reached gentler slopes where I veered towards the western edge after much deliberation on where to go next. I had climbed all the fells before me several times in the last ten years so there was no obvious target, but the lure of the high fells eventually prompted me to climb Haycock taking a steep, grassy rake that leads to the south cairn. It was now four o’clock and as I made my way along the ridge from Haycock to Scoat Fell I reflected that the day trippers were all now heading back down into the valleys, but that didn’t leave me the fells to myself. There were fellrunners like the one that had passed me while I was packing away my tent at the start of the day and there were other wild campers, given away by their large rucksacks, attracted by the Bank Holiday weekend.

After passing over Scoat Fell I made my way carefully down the large stones that litter the eastern side of the summit before climbing up to the top of Black Crag. This is an often overlooked peak that is small, but very high, so I always make a point of climbing it while traversing the Wind Gap. This gloriously craggy ridge continues up to the top of Pillar where I met a guy who had just completed his round of the Wainwrights and was celebrating with a can of beer. I made my way across to the northern edge to look at the large crag of Pillar Rock and at the path that descends towards it. In 2006 I took this path to the start of a high level traverse from Pillar Rock towards Black Sail Pass and ever since I have wanted to walk across it again in the other direction, but I have been thwarted by bad weather on many occasions. Now, the weather was good, but I was at the wrong end of the path and the day. I was exhausted and didn’t want to attempt the crumbly path in a tired state while carrying a heavy rucksack, so I descended along the top of the ridge, which is still a great route, to the other end of the high level traverse, which also seems to be in a poor, disintegrating state.

Continuing to descend I passed over the top of Looking Stead, even though the path bypasses it, and down to Black Sail Pass where I made my way to the foot of the Sail Beck ravine to get some water. I had been short of water all day and had frequently stopped to drink from streams through a filter, but now I was able to fill the large reservoir in my rucksack with pure water. Continuing my descent I came all the way down into Ennerdale pitching my tent out of sight of Black Sail Hut beside Sail Beck. This was a very long and tiring day in very hazy weather that was really annoying. I should have had stunning views all day, but instead they were awful with the haze leaving the views just a colourless shadow. Previously, when I have been in the Lake District, I have been based in youth hostels that enable me to limit the weight of my rucksack, but now I was carrying all my camping gear and food with me, which makes the walking very tough and left me really tired at the end of the day. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the traverse of the ridge from Scoat Fell over Pillar to Black Sail Pass, despite having done the route several times in recent years, but great mountains always deserve to be climbed.

Hard Knott and Sca Fell

Friday 28th May 2021

After three days of improving weather in the Lake District, on this day it was drizzly, overcast, dull, grey and miserable, but nevertheless I did a walk that felt like a great accomplishment. I left the Baysbrown Farm Campsite where I had been staying and walked along Langdale eventually reaching Stool End Farm where I started to climb the Band soon becoming too hot in my waterproofs. I already knew my cagoule was worn out and unbreathable, so I took off my cagoule reasoning that I was unlikely to get as wet from a few drops of rain as I would from my sweat. The rain was never very heavy all day and remained quite light, just a constant drizzle. How do you dress for that sort of weather? If you don’t wear waterproofs you will eventually get wet, but it was not really wet enough for full waterproofs, though that didn’t stop me from wearing them almost all day. Slowly I climbed the Band, the broad ridge that climbs from Langdale all the way up to Bow Fell, and is a route that I have climbed only once before, in 2013, when I don’t think I enjoyed it, though it makes a great descent with the stunning views of Langdale in front of you. Unlike in 2013, I now ignored Bow Fell and made for Three Tarns sitting beside one of the tarns where I had my lunch and put my cagoule back on.

A path descends into Eskdale on the other side of the pass that I previously climbed in 2007, but I have no memory of it and now I couldn’t find the path. The Ordnance Survey map indicates that it starts north of the three tarns, but I had started from south of the three tarns, so I had to veer to my right until I could find a groove in the grass that was probably the path, though nothing clearer. The latest version of Wainwright’s guides says the path is rough and difficult to follow, which agrees with what I found, though ultimately all I wanted to do was descend and for that the way is clear enough. It is interesting to note how clear the path up the Band to Three Tarns is, since it is very popular, compared with the path on the other side of the pass into Eskdale, which is not very popular. I often lost the path only to find it again lower down and eventually abandoned any idea of following it so I could keep away from Lingcove Beck. I was heading towards Hard Knott so deliberated stayed high above the valley to prevent losing too much height while crossing the slopes below Crinkle Crags until eventually I reached the col at the head of Moasdale where I joined a faint path that crosses the col and slowly climbs the grassy slopes towards Hard Knott.

Eventually the terrain became more interesting with rocky outcrops scattered around as I slowly made my way up to the top of Hard Knott where I found a bank of thick cloud obscuring the view further south towards Harter Fell. This was a surprise as despite the heavy cloud cover, all the fells around Eskdale, including Scafell Pike, were clear, though this bank of cloud would soon envelope all the high fells, albeit temporarily. I had previously visited Hard Knott just once before, in 2011, and was one of the last Wainwright fells that I completed, but it is not a particularly interesting fell whose main redeeming quality is its awesome view of the Scafell Pikes range. Turning around I made my way back down the ridge veering left at the end to Lingcove Beck where I found some stepping stones across the river and a clear path beyond that passes below Pianet Knott and Long Crag ending at Great Moss opposite Cam Spout. Although it was very boggy, this was a fun path with stunning views of the great, surrounding mountains, but it is not marked on maps and was probably made by fellrunners, as are many of the new paths in the Lake District.

I once said Upper Eskdale is my favourite place, but it has been a long time since I was able to explore the area, so although the weather was not at its best on this walk, I was enjoying the opportunity to make its acquaintance again. After skirting the edge of Great Moss I crossed the River Esk and climbed the grassy hillside directly in front of me between High Scarth Crag and Horn Crag on a groove in the grass that indicated I was not the first person to ascend this way, but I have no idea whether my predecessors were fellrunners or merely sheep. Veering right I crossed increasingly steep, craggy ground below Horn Crag that I found very difficult to negotiate and required a lot of care, so I was relieved when I finally reached easier slopes and found the clear path known as the Terrace Route up Sca Fell. I climbed this path in 2002 finding it very tedious, but subsequently thoroughly enjoyed descending this way and had not climbed Sca Fell from Eskdale since 2002 until now. Even though I now had a proper path underfoot I struggled as I climbed, feeling very hot in my waterproofs as I slowly made my way up to Slight Side, an outlier of Sca Fell. I was soon revived by the stunning views that I saw from the top of Slight Side, despite the overcast weather, with the top of Sca Fell looking tantalisingly close.

There had hardly been any wind during this walk, which had contributed to overheating in my waterproofs, but now that made standing on Slight Side seem extra special where one would expect a strong wind. This gave the surroundings an ethereal quality and gave me bountiful amounts of energy that soon had me climbing again towards Sca Fell across a fabulous, rocky landscape that reminded me of Scottish mountains and kept drawing me on. Since it was now early evening and I was climbing to three thousand feet it was much cooler and I did not have the overheating problems that I’d had earlier, so I just kept climbing. Sca Fell is a proper mountain, vastly superior to all the smaller fells that I had climbed earlier in my holiday as this was a Munro-sized mountain and it felt like it. There is no better feeling than being at the top of a mountain, especially when there is hardly any wind and I had a bit of that on Slight Side, but I really felt it at the top of Sca Fell. I had amazing views along the ridge to Scafell Pike while behind me I could see all the way to the sea where the setting sun was trying to make an appearance through the cloud and failing.

Eventually I tore myself away from the top of Sca Fell and descended the steep, craggy, western slopes for what seemed an age until I reached the top of the Lord’s Rake path and I was appalled at what I saw. It is ten years since I last traversed Lord’s Rake and since then the deterioration of the path that had already been advanced at that time, has continued leaving it in a terrible state so that from the exit, it looked horribly eroded and crumbly and not worth the attempt. Continuing my descent I tried to find somewhere to camp eventually stopping at the first level ground, just above Black Crag, where I was finally able to have a rest and get something to eat. This had been a very long and challenging walk that turned out completely differently to how I’d planned. I never imagined that I would climb Sca Fell on this walk and when I was having my lunch having only reached Three Tarns I thought I would never get anywhere near, but this walk turned out completely differently to how I’d planned. I had climbed a great mountain in Sca Fell and now I had tranquil evening in my tent half way down the mountain with hardly any wind and hardly any sound.