Taking The Wainwrights Onto The Fells

Like many other walkers, I like to head out onto the fells, moors and dales well prepared. Normally I have a clear idea of the route I want to take and I have the full range of navigational aides stuffed into rucksac and pockets - maps, GPS, compass and usually a guide book. In the case of trips in the Lake District this inevitably means having a Wainwright Pictorial Guide in the pocket of my walking trousers ready to refer to at any given time.

Having done a fair amount of Lake District walks I have now embarked on visiting fells in each of the 7 regions that Wainwright divided the fells into, and every now and again I've taken a picture of the guidebook somewhere near the summit, so here I'm pleased to share with you my gallery of Wainwrights on the Fells.

Book One: The Eastern Fells - enjoying the sunny summit of Great Dodd

Book Two: The Far Eastern Fells - lounging on the High Street

Book Three: The Central Fells - guiding us up Grange Fell

Book Four: The Southern Fells - enjoying the panorama from Wetherlam

Book Five: The Northern Fells - the sights are set on Bannerdale Crags

Book Six: The North Western Fells - a wander up Wandope

Book Seven: The Western Fells - visiting Haystacks

Buttermere Fells - High Crag to Red Pike

This is the second half of a circular walk which I made with Claire that started and finished at Gatesgarth Farm. You can read about the first half of the walk here.

Having walked to the summit of Haystacks it was time to tackle the High Stile ridge starting with High Crag. The ascent of High Crag is a challenge right from the outset.

High Crag and Seat

It starts off with a pleasant enough clamber up the hill called Seat, but you are conscious of the giant face of High Crag that faces you, and each person that you pass warns of the section of scree towards the top.

the steep path ahead

Whilst the climb up is a hard enough slog, stumbling up over the scree is real hard work. With the impending views the main consolation you just have to get your head down and keep going. I found this as hard going as the Ladder on the side of Ingleborough.

High Crag with Ennerdale Water in the distance

It's a pleasure to be off the scree and onto the large summit of High Crag. Fantastic views all around, over Buttermere and Crummock Water and great views out over Ennerdale and northwards to the Vale of Keswick and the North Western Fells beyond. To the west was the obvious path that would take us onwards.

looking from High Crag to High Stile

From here it was an easy walk along the ridge to High Stile, and it didn't take long to get there. We would have stopped a bit more often on this stretch to enjoy the views but pesky insects meant we pressed on.

Red Crag and Bleaberry Tarn

A quick stop to enjoy the view and we carried on along the ridge, finally heading downwards towards Red Pike. Again this was easy and pleasant walking, with the views way beyond Crummock Water being new to these eyes - lots more walking territory to be discovered and explored.

Red Crag and it's obvious why

The descent from Red Pike was really tough. Right off the summit you have to make your way down a bad scree slope, basically stumbling your way down and doing your best not to roll all the way down to Bleaberry Tarn. After quite a lot of walking this was hard work, and meant we didn't enjoy the views as much as we otherwise would have done.

The descent continued past Bleaberry Tarn and into woodland before coming out on the edge of Lake Buttermere, where I couldn't resist giving my hands and face a good wash and cool down.

spectacular view across Buttermere

The return walk along the shore of the lake is a fantastic walk in itself, with great views of the fells on the opposite shore as well as seeing where the walk started out as you walk with Fleetwith Pike directly ahead of you and the Honister Pass snaking its way into the distance. You join the long path that comes down from Haystacks at Janet's Bridge and from there it is a short walk across fields back to Gatesgarth Farm. Fantastic day out!

Fleetwith Pike viewed across Buttermere

Buttermere Fells - Fleetwith Pike to Haystacks

Here is part one of a walk Claire and I undertook recently tackling some of the fabulous fells that tower over Buttermere. Part two coming very soon.

Fleetwith Pike from the farm

This grand tour of Buttermere took us from Gatesgarth farm over five fells before returning via the scenic Lake shore. This ended up being a much harder walk than I expected, with three steep slopes to contend with and a lot of scree to slide up and down. Getting to the fells is an adventure in itself, at times driving in first gear around some of the corners of the Newlands Pass. We managed to grab the last parking space at Gatesgarth Farm and we were soon on our way.

memorial cross to Fanny Mercer

The ascent of Fleetwith Pike starts as it means to go on - straight up and not let up until the summit. There is no half a mile of gentle ascent here, you start right off on the steep path upwards, following the ridge of the fell.

looking back down Fleetwith Edge

It isn't until the last minute that you actually see the top of the fell, there being 3 other false summits on the way to the top. At times the ridge gets very narrow offering impressive sheer drops on either side.

looking back over Buttermere from the first false summit

But the walk is a real pleasure as every time you stop for breath you can turn around and enjoy the Buttermere panorama as it opens up.

Haystacks from the walk up Fleetwith Pike

As you gain height you draw level with the summit of Haystacks and this gives the confidence to push on. A few short scrambles are necessary but they are good natured ones.

Soon enough you find yourself on the summit plain, which comes entirely unexpected when you approach from the Buttermere side.

Haystacks and a distant Pillar from Fleetwith Pike summit

From here it is a nice walk over to Haystacks. You also have a great view of some of the highest peaks of Lakeland with the Scafell massif looming beyond Great Gable.

Great Gable andh the distant Scafell range

Heading down the south of Fleetwith Pike for Dubs Quarry you descend a few hundred feet coming to cross Warnscale Beck. The walk starts going back up as you start on the approach to Haystacks.

old mining buildings at Dubs Quarry

Having already walked up Haystacks a couple of years ago once this became familiar territory as we passed some familiar scenery. The walk is very varied and interesting as you swing back and forth behind crags, at times having views ofver the majestic fells of Great Gable, Kirk Fell and Pillar, before coming round Green Crag and moving to the fromt face of the crags for a short section offering great views from the head of Buttermere.

Green and Great Gable rising behind Innominate Tarn

You pass Blackbeck tarn and shortly before reaching the summit you reach Innominate Tarn, Wainwright's final resting place. A brief pause to enjoy the atmosphere and takin in the views over the water to the giants of the Western Fells and a few minutes later we were on the ridge that is the summit of Haystacks. A great place to be.

Haystacks summit

From here the walk took us upwards towards High Rise - to be continued next week....

Great Gable, Green Gable, Base Brown

Great Gable through the cloud from Green Gable

"Great Gable casts a spell. It starts as an honourable adversary and becomes a friend." - A.Wainwright

On the 14th May Claire and I participated in the Wainwright 1931 Tour Challenge, whereby Society Members retraced the footsteps as taken by Wainwright on his Whitsuntide walk in 1931. My section meant tackling Great Gable and my research had shown I had taken on quite a daunting task. Great Gable is the highest of the Western Fells, with a comandeering view in all directions. To get there we walked from Honister pass up via Green Gable.

looking down to Styhead Tarn from Green Gable

From the top of Green Gable we had to descend and cross Windy Gap and before climbing and scrambling our way back up the other side. Windy Gap lived up to its name but it was well worth pausing at the bottom to look down along Aaron Slack to Styhead tarn, and on the other side over the Black Sail Pass.

looking down Black Sail Pass from Windy Gap

The trek up the scree slopes of Great Gable wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, although the scree made it hard underfoot and there was a short scramble. We mad it to the summit of Great Gable, and stopped to view the Fell Rock & Climbing Club memorial tablet, before sitting down for a short while to enjoy a sandwich.

We had an incredible panorama ahead of us, looking down past Sprinkling Tarn and over to Harrison Pike and Pike O' Stickle with Lake Windermere in the distance. We must have been sitting in the exact spot where Wainwright sketched the view from East to South. Somewhere to the South was Scafell Pike, which remained shrouded in cloud the whole day.

from the summit of Great Gable with Langdale Pikes and Windermere in the distance

It would have been great to explore the famous rocks of Great Gable but we were on a fairly tight time schedule, so before long we headed back down and across Windy Gap. We reclimbed Green Gable before  following the ridge to Base Brown.

looking back to the path up Green Gable

Approaching Base Brown from this direction gave a similar impression to a walk we did descending from St. Sunday Crag to Birks in the Eastern Fells - it gave no appearance of being a fell having come off the higher ground. Looking back up from Seathwaite later on it looked very impressive!

Base Brown summit looking to Green Gable

The walk back down would have been easy but the constant rain meant that the rocks became very slippery underfoot, in particular the scrambles down alongside Sour Milk Gill were treacherous and we slid down the rough rocks on several occasions.

Base Brown from Seathwaite

This was such a picturesque spot but the weather and time meant we had to push on. We followed the road from Seathwaite back through to Seatoller before climbing back up the Honister Pass and the car. By this time we were soaked through and very tired, but warriors that we are we declined the offer of a ride in a mountain rescue car.

Green Gable from Honister through the clouds

This is the first section of a walk to Great Gable that Claire and I did as part of the Wainwright 1931 Charity Walk. Part Two coming in a few days. It was only my second visit to the Western Fells so I was really looking forward to this one.

looking back eastwards along the Honister Pass

We parked up at Honister Pass at a parking space just before Honister Slate Mine. Parking here meant that we started with a couple of hundred metres height already reached. This would have been a great energy saver, but our return route via Seathwaite meant we had to walk this anyway.

looking back down onto Honister Slate Mine

We climbed the steep path up the slopes of Grey Knotts and immediately got a taste of the weather to come - a cloud cover meant a sudden but short downpour which cleared in minutes, the sun almost but not quite getting though. It would change like this all day.

looking across Honister Pass to Dale Head

We quickly reached the summit of the Grey Knotts and as Wainwright writes it is a great summit, with distinct outcrops of rock and tarns sprinkled over the summit.

"five grey tors, all looking much alike, and four small sheets or water make the top of the fell very attractive"  - A.Wainwright

Grey Knotts summit

We didn't pause for long as it was getting windy and we had a lot of walking ahead of us. Our route to the summit of Brandreth was easy - as described in the Guidebook we simply had to follow the fence. As we were making the climb up to Brandreth the cloud decided to engulf us.

distant fells framed by cloud

It descended very quickly and within seconds we could barely see further than a few steps ahead of us! It got very cold and extremely disorientating and for the time being we were more than happy to have the fence as a guide.

great view from Brandreth to Buttermere and Crummock Water

After a while we had been descending rather than ascending for too long for my liking, the cloud briefly lifted and revealed us to have gone well past the summit of Brandreth and on our way back down towards Haystacks. A glance back in a break of cloud showed us where we should have been headed - Great Gable revealed its massive presence to us.

Great Gable hiding in cloud

We retraced our steps to a stile and crossed over the summit of Brandreth back on track headed for Green Gable.

Brandreth

The cloud and fog lifted only to be replaced by a howling wind and rain, but at least we could see where we were going! The views we had were amazing and the clouds made for spectacular views as they shifted and swirled around the fells - the top of Pillar over to our right was to remain in cloud throughout the day.

view of Green and Great Gable

The walk by now was easy going, having done the work getting up onto the ridge at Grey Knotts. A cloud swirled around us we soon made it to the summit of Green Gable, and the giant dome of Great Gable was directly ahead of us. To be continued....

path along the summit of Green Gable