Silver How and Lang How

Monday 21st August 2023

The weather forecast was not great for this walk so my original plan of going up the Crinkle Crags, which I was never really enthusiastic about, was quietly abandoned and instead I headed along the ridge that I seemingly always do when staying at High Close, the Langdale Youth Hostel. This lovely ridge starts at Sergeant Man and passes over Blea Rigg and Silver How before reaching its lowest point at High Close, where there is a road crossing, and then swells again into the mass that is Loughrigg Fell. Wainwright praised the ridge saying of the route from Silver How to Loughrigg that “there are few more beautiful and interesting” but I came down this ridge from Sergeant Man two years ago so I didn’t want to walk far on this occasion. It was already raining when I left the hostel but it didn’t last long which left me free to enjoy the walk along the ridge through bracken while trying to follow the clearest path that keeps to the highest point on the ridge. Despite low clouds I soon had good views, north to Grasmere, south to Elterwater and south-west all the way to Windermere and this made the walk worthwhile. My first steep ascent brought me to the top of Huntingstile Crag and from there the ridge undulated until eventually another climb took me to the top of Dow Bank whose multiple tops were decorated with cairns. After crossing one of the many paths that traverse this ridge I climbed up to the top of Spedding Crag and was amazed at the complex terrain and the many paths on this ridge.

This ridge is best done from Sergeant Man heading east, downhill, as it can become tedious in the other direction and navigation is very difficult whenever the mist is down, as I had now. Nevertheless, I kept going and after passing the Megs Gill path I climbed up into the clouds and headed towards the top of Silver How. My goal on this holiday was to de-stress, for a rest and recuperation, so I had nowhere I particularly wanted to go and was happy to just wander around wherever I felt like going, perhaps visiting fells I hadn’t done in a while, but I was not going to go out of my way to bag certain fells. Therefore, I was not frustrated by this bad weather and was just happy to wander around. The low cloud and faint paths didn’t make the ascent easy, but the gradient was gentle up grassy slopes and before I reached the top the clouds lifted briefly to reveal a complex undulating plateau with no prominent tops and all too soon the clouds dropped again so I continued on up to the top of Silver How. Although I was enjoying my traverse of this ridge, I didn’t want to stay on it for much longer, espesically as I had seen from that glimpse that the terrain would now be much more difficult to navigate and I knew that the weather was forecast to worsen. For now I kept going along the ridge aiming for Lang How and soon the cloud lifted to confirm that I was going in the right direction.

Steep ground forced me, and the path, around Lang How, but if I was going to reach the top I needed to come off the path to climb the grassy slopes until eventually I reached the cairn that marks the top. Unlike Silver How, Lang How is rarely visited, I am not even sure if I have ever visited the top before, even though it is higher. From Lang How I made my way to a prominent cairn, further west, near Swinescar Pike, though maybe not at the top, which seemed to be unadorned. Beyond there the ground rises about a hundred metres to the Castle How tops, but the wind was now beginning to pick up and soon it started to rain so I decided that it was time to come off the ridge and take a route that I’ve never taken before and descends via Blindtarn Moss. As the rain fell more heavily I followed a slender path past a scattering of stunted juniper trees through an area of the Lake District that sees few people, despite being near Grasmere, above the flat bed of Bindtarn Moss. Later, swathes of tall bracken made for a trickier descent past a waterfall to eventually reach Blindtarn House and enter Easedale where I joined the path from Easedale Tarn which I followed all the way into Grasmere where the rain finally eased. I didn’t stay, but quickly passed through the village and Dove Cottage to join the path known as the Coffin Route that links Grasmere and Rydal.

At a convenient bench I stopped to have my lunch and by the time I set off again it had started to rain. Once the Coffin Route left tarmac behind this was a fantastic walk with a lovely stony surface underfoot and seemed astonishingly popular with many people on it, and since the path was quite narrow it was a tricky to get past everybody. Eventually I reached Rydal and I couldn’t resist taking a look at the picturesque view of the waterfalls at Rydal Hall before continuing on to Ambleside. With the rain now falling intermittently I tried to make my back to the Youth Hostel, which wouldn’t have been a problem if I had been in a car, but I was walking and I did not take a good route. Google Maps suggests going via Loughrigg Terrace, which is an excellent idea and I wish I had gone that way, but instead I followed the narrow A593 road, which doesn’t have a footpath and does have blind corners. I thank all of the drivers who managed to avoid me and for those who came close to hitting me, I don’t blame you. I should never have been there. Eventually I reached the safety of an overgrown path and soon after that I came to a quiet side road, signposted to High Close and the Youth Hostel, so I was then thankfully able to safely make my way up the hill and back to the Youth Hostel. I loved the start of this walk along the ridge over Silver How and Lang How, but once it started raining I lost all enjoyment in the walk and by the end I was soaked.

Harrison Stickle and Ullscarf

Sunday 20th August 2023

On my second day in the Lake District I set myself a target of reaching Ullscarf, which is a hill that I had not climbed in a long time but was also a long way away from where I was staying. Another problem I had with where I was staying was that it was not far from the campsite that I had stayed at two years ago, the last time I spent a sizable time in the Lake District, so I was in danger of repeating what I had recently done. Soon after I left the Langdale Youth Hostel it started to rain, which at this point it looked like it was going to do a lot on this holiday, but fortunately the forecast for this walk was for the rain to clear so I proceeded with my planned walk despite the rain. After buying some things for lunch from the Chapel Stile shop I made my way through the village and past the campsite that I had stayed at two years ago. I was looking for some rest and recuperation from this holiday in the Lake District to help me recover from a stressful year, but if one is already stressed, then it is amazing how even seemingly innocuous things can have the potential to be a source of stress. If I had thought about my lunch earlier I would not have needed this diversion, but I tried to not let that stress me. From Baysbrown Campsite I followed the route of the Cumbria Way, which I have been using to get down Great Langdale for twenty years ever since I first came to the Lake District.

With the Langdale Pikes ahead of me I slowly made my way along the valley, including on the uncomfortable, bouldery path below Oak Howe so I was relieved when the conditions improved underfoot and with awesome views to the Langdale Pikes I descended back down to Great Langdale Beck and across the valley to the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel. When I was in Langdale two years ago I climbed almost all of the fells in the area, including the Langdale Pikes, so I was repeating myself, but before crossing the Dungeon Ghyll stream I branched off from my previous route and headed up to Pike Howe. I came down this way in 2013, but I had never climbed up this way before so I was looking forward to the ascent even after it started raining heavily. Slowly, I soldiered on up the steep path until eventually I reached the windswept top of Pike Howe where I turned my back on the views down Langdale towards Windermere to cross the grassy slopes below the impenetrable crags of Harrison Stickle. Throughout my climb I had great views into the ravine of Dungeon Ghyll and these continued as the path turned to cross the steep rocky ground between the waterfall-filled ravine and the cliff face looming above me.

Wainwright described a route up the ravine and I had considered ascending that way, but not in this weather and not in my condition. I was too tired for such a strenuous climb. After crossing the scree slope I entered the bowl that lies behind the Langdale Pikes with Harrison Stickle rising steeply on my right, but I ignored the rough paths that climb straight up in favour of a better, easier path that climbs to the col north of the summit. From there I turned back to reach the top of Harrison Stickle, which on previous occasions has been packed with people, but now was empty. Even though the rain had stopped it was still very windy, so I didn’t linger and headed back down to the col across the rocky terrain towards Thunacar Knott. I didn’t really need to visit this top, but it was on my way so I stopped at the summit cairn and then continued onto the dreary, grassy terrain that led me all the way up to High Raise. There, I took advantage of the shelter to have a quick lunch before continuing north, passing Low White Stones and descending to the broad plateau of Greenup Edge where the Coast to Coast path crosses from Borrowdale to Grasmere and now looks much clearer than I previously remember.

I crossed the path and headed towards Ullscarf which I have been avoiding for many years. I first crossed the horrendously wet quagmire to the south of Ullscarf in 2006 and only returned when there was snow on the ground in 2010. I have not been back since, which makes this the highest fell I have not visited in over ten years, but first I had to brave the bogs and my new walking boots helped me enormously to keep my feet dry. The sun was now beginning to break through the clouds and spurred me on through the swamp to eventually take me up to the summit of Ullscarf. The sun was now shining in the north and east of the Lake District, but dark clouds lingered in the south and west while I stood in the middle of the Lake District enjoying it all as I made my way across the top and onto a route that I have wanted to do for many years, probably ever since I first saw it on Wainwright’s guides. I knew it would be best in descent and that I would need good weather, which I had so with fantastic views north I aimed for the outcrop of High Saddle. Beyond, on Low Saddle, I had amazing views with Watendlath Tarn, Derwent Water and Bassenthwaite Lake appearing to line up one above another.

My onward route crossed dull, pathless, grassy slopes that led me all the way towards Great Crag which looked beautiful with its purple-flowering heather covering, but unfortunately the descent didn’t live up to long wait as the terrain below Low Saddle is too broad, though interest returned as I approached the heather covered ground around Green Combe. Despite this area east of Dock Tarn being little regarded, I explored the heather covered tops including one that is higher than Great Crag itself, before eventually wading through the heather to find a good path that would took me to Dock Tarn. From there I tried to reach the top of Great Crag, but somehow I ended up back at Dock Tarn which prompted me to expend much energy crashing through the heather until eventually I reached the cairn that marks the summit of Great Crag. This is another fell that I hadn’t visited in a long time, so I was happy to have returned, but soon I was descending off the fell and around a wetland area that had left the path itself waterlogged. When I eventually emerged from the bogs I realised that I was approaching Watendlath even though I had intended on taking the path to Puddingstone Bank and thence to Borrowdale.

Therefore once I reached Watendlath I had to turn around and take the bridleway that climbs back up to Puddingstone Bank before continuing down to Borrowdale. This was a fabulous walk even though the weather in the morning was not great, but after lunch the weather enabled me to enjoy a good walk over Ullscarf. I had not done a long walk since I had been in Scotland almost three months earlier due to various problems, mainly stress, so it was wonderful for me to do this walk which was exactly what I needed. Ideally I would now be staying in the youth hostel in Borrowdale, but for some reason it didn’t have any shared dormitories available so I needed to return to Langdale. At first I had planned to walk all the way back but eventually I realised that the best option was to catch a bus from Borrowdale and another from Keswick, which previously would have been prohibitively expensive, but now thanks to the bus fare cap, only cost me £4.