Kirk Fell

It was my turn to drive and we were planning one of the walks I had been dreading since we did Yewbarrow back in August 2013.  I remember sitting at a great bait stop on Yewbarrow overlooking Kirk Fell thinking that is going to be a tough walk.  As I set off for Peter before 6 am it was pouring with rain although the forecast was for showers and clear spells with heavy rain late in the day.

We arrived at Honister Slate Mine on the Honister Pass just before 8.30 again in heavy rain.  The rain seemed to stop for a minute and then start up again so we sat in the car for maybe half an hour.  It seemed to clear enough for us to start walking although we had waterproofs on from the start.

The start of the walk is one we have done many times up the old tramway towards Drum House.

On the track up to Drum House

When we reached Drum House we turned left, heading in the direction of Brandreth to join Moses Trod.

Looking back down the track from Drum House

Our path from Drum House

We were beginning to climb slowly again and whilst it was still cloudy there were signs of some clearer spells too.

Looking back to Haystacks (the dark mountain on the left) and Buttermere and Crummock Water beyond.

The path levelled out and we had a long spell of walking on the flat and even slightly descending.

Long, steady path took us to our first bait stop

The path took us to our first bait stop almost 2.5 hours into the walk.

Our first sight of Kirk Fell

Our bait stop gave us our first sight of Kirk Fell although if it had been clearer we would have been able to see if for the past hour. Also immediately behind us was Great Gable.  We stopped for 20 minutes, fuelled up ready for the big push to the summit.

View of Wasdale

As we set off from the bait stop we descended rapidly towards Beck Head Tarn with Kirk Fell right behind it.

Kirk Fell in all its glory with Beck Head Tarn in front

From this point it looked a very steep climb to the summit and I said I hope it is easier than it looks.  As it turned out it was easier than it looked.  It was a steep climb and loose under foot in places but an hour after the photo above we were at the summit.

The summit getting closer

and closer

and closer

We arrived at the summit at 12.30 with some great views.

Great Gable from Kirk Fell summit

Panorama of the north western fells including Grasmoor, Skiddaw and Blencathra

As usual it was windy at the top so we headed back down on the same path.  The hardest part of the descent was right ahead with the drop back down to Beck Head Tarn and back up to our bait stop.  We stopped at the same bait stop again with a slightly different view.  Now that the cloud had cleared, we could see the path we were going to take from right to left.

Our high level path back to the car

We set off on the path and could now see the might of Kirk Fell.  To be honest if we had seen this view earlier in the morning it may have been more daunting.

Kirk Fell

Panorama showing Haystacks, High Crag behind, Buttermere, Crummock Water and Fleetwith Pike

We got back to the car at 3.50 pm so a long walk, 30,000 steps according to my Fitbit and just under 7.5 miles as the stats below show.

Stats from Viewranger

Graph from Viewranger showing Speed, distance and altitude

Kirk Fell was a great top to bag out of the final eight and strangely in spite of the long distance, I felt the best I have felt after a walk in a long time.  Only the "magnificent" seven left to do now.  We are hoping to get Catstycam done this year and that leaves Scafell, Lingmell, Pillar, Scoat Fell, Haycock and Iron Crag.

See you on the next one.

Ill Bell

The second walk of the year and hopefully we will have completed the 63rd top out of 71 by the end of the day.  Peter picked me up at 6.00 am and it was already a sunny morning as we set off for Kentmere, a little village near Windermere.  There are not many parking spaces in Kentmere, just a handful at the Village Hall and most of them were taken, even at 7.45 am.  We got one of the last spaces alongside the Hall, put our boots on and started walking at 8.00 am with scotch eggs in hand.  The first part of the walk was on a road as we walked out of the village to the Nook where we turned right to head up the Garburn Pass.

Pointing us in the right direction

The road was now unmade and quite rocky as we began to gently climb up Garburn Pass for about a mile and a half.

Badger Rock

It wasn't 9 o'clock but it was already very warm and sunny.  We stopped a couple of times for drinks and we had also bumped into 3 or 4 people this early into the walk.  It looked like this was a popular walk as it formed part of the Kentmere Horseshoe.

View from a bait stop towards Yoke

There was a clear path all the way today so even in poor weather it would be a good walk to do.

Looking back down the path.  The trees centre right are where we turned right off Garburn Pass

Yoke was now in view and just ahead of us, we reached the summit just after 10.00 am.  We were now on the ridge and could see our target Ill Bell just ahead.  As we looked down to the right you could see Kentmere Reservoir and got a great view of the Kentmere Horseshoe.

Kentmere Reservoir

There was a short drop from Yoke and then a gentle climb up to Ill Bell. We reached the summit just after 10.30.

Approaching Ill Bell

Summit cairns, visited both just in case!

We sat on the summit for 20 - 25 minutes, had some bait and watched several walkers go by.  It was still quite early and with a fairly gentle descent ahead we had plenty of time.

Panorama from the summit taking in Thornthwaite Crag, High Street, Kidsty Pike, Mardale Ill Bell, Harter Fell and Kentmere Pike

Looking back to Yoke and Ill Bell

 The walk back to the car was very warm and we stopped another couple of times for more drinks and what was left of the bait.  We got back to the car just before 1.30 got changed and drove to the next village, Staveley for a pint in the Eagle and Child.

Only 8 tops left to do now and the end firmly in sight.

See you on the next walk.

Walk route and stats

High Raise (Martindale) and Rest Dodd

Last walk out we did High Raise in the central fells but there are two fells called High Raise, the second and higher of the two is in Martindale.  So High Raise version 2 was on our list today.  Looking at the maps another one of the eleven tops left to do (Rest Dodd), was not too far away, so we were hoping to potentially get two in today.

It was my turn to drive, with thunder and lightning forecast for the afternoon, I got to Peters early, 6.00 am so we could maximise the good weather.  We arrived at the car park at Hartsop about 7.45 and we were booted and ready to walk at exactly 8.00 am.  It was already very warm, shorts and tee-shirt day.  There was a very good path at the start of the walk towards Hayeswater, passing a sheep shearing hut early on.

Sheep shearing hut at the start of the walk

The first point of interest on the walk was the Hayeswater Treatment hut which we reached within the first half hour.

Hayeswater Treatment Hut

A great wall, someone worked hard on this one.

After the treatment hut there was a short, steep climb to a really good path which took us to Hayeswater.

Looking back down the valley

 We passed a couple of waterfalls coming from Hayeswater on the way up to the man made lake.

Waterfall from Hayeswater

Hayeswater

Once we got to Hayeswater we crossed the stream and began to climb a little steeper and a long slog towards The Knott.  The path was fairly clear for most of the walk and as we began to climb it was getting very warm and sunny.  We stopped for a drink part way up this climb.  As it began to level out a little we could see the potential second top of the day, Rest Dodd to our left.  From this point in the walk it looked easily achievable although we would have to drop quite a bit to climb again after High Raise! 

Passing Rest Dodd, we will be back later!

We continued to walk along The Knott and towards Rampsgill Head still steadily climbing all the way.  Eventually we were looking down on Rest Dodd.  As we got onto Rampsgill Head we could see our first summit of the day ahead.  We just had a short dip and another climb ahead of us to reach the top.

Not far now to first summit of the day

We reached the first top of the day at 10.50, our highest point today. Great views of the surrounding fells but also we could see some clouds gathering in the distance.  We retraced our path back to Rampsgill Head and began to drop down to where the path turned for Rest Dodd.

High Raise summit

Looking back to High Raise

At this point we were 1km from the summit of Rest Dodd and for the first time it began to rain lightly.  We put on our waterproof jackets for the descent.  When we got to the bottom, the rain had stopped and it was going to be too warm climbing with the jackets on so we took them off.  At the bottom we could have called it a day and headed back to the car.  The next top was so close though and we had to go for it.

We had to go down to go back up!

The climb was tough, with one top weighing heavy in our legs and a steep climb by the wall, it was hard work, especially in warm sunshine.  But at 12 noon we reached the second summit of the day.  Very satisfying that we could get two done and we had managed to avoid the forecasted thunder storms.

View from the summit

Rest Dodd summit

We now just had to descend to Hayeswater and then it was a fairly steady drop back to the car.  Surprisingly my knee was holding out quite well today, not too much trouble on the descent at all.  We got back to the car at 1.50 pm, got changed and just as we set off it started to rain!  We stopped at the Brackenrigg Inn for a pint and some jockeys whips and as we were sat there we could see the storm coming along the valley towards us.  Within minutes we had torrential rain, thunder and lightning!

Route plan and stats for the walk.

A great walk, great weather and great company as always, most important only 9 left to do!

See you on the next walk.

High Raise - Central Fells

So we only have the dirty dozen left to do, 12 more tops to complete the challenge of 71 tops over 2000 feet.  Peter picked me up at 6.30 am and we had already decided to do one of the two High Raise mountains left to do.  This one is the smaller of the two in the Central Ridge, very close to Ullscarf which we had done back in June this year.

We arrived in the village of Stonethwaite just after 8.30, got the boots on as well as the warm layers and started walking about 8.45am, tucking into scotch eggs from Angus the butcher as we walked.  We crossed over Stonethwaite Beck and turned right and began walking along a clear path following the stream slowly up hill.

Looking back to Stonethwaite

As the main stream turned right we continued straight ahead following the path up Greenup Gill towards Eagle Crag and on to Lining Crag. We passed through two or three gates and crossed streams a number of times.  As we got through one gate, we saw lots of sheep up on the hillside waiting for their breakfast.

Sheep covering the hillside

A little further up the Gill was this waterfall with what would be a very inviting plunge pool in the summer but not today as it was very wet and cold.  It was around this point the snow started to fall as the temperature dropped.  We both thought this would be a very nice walk in the summer with plenty to see and some good bait stops.

Waterfall on Greenup Gill

We were heading towards Lining Crag although as were climbed we could not see the full scale of the crag in the poor weather conditions (see below for a photo on the way back down).  This was probably the hardest part of the walk, negotiating the path around to the left of the crag, scrambling over wet rocks.  Again as we got to the top of the crag we commented what a good rest point this would be in the summer.  Onwards and upwards today however as the snow was falling and we wanted to make sure we could find the path on the way back down.  This part of the walk was particularly boggy although partially frozen in places today.

Visibility was very poor as we approached the summit but a  handy app I had downloaded kept us on the right track.

Skyline on the Viewranger App showing the nearby mountains by distance

We reached the summit at exactly noon, just time for a quick photo, even taking our gloves off for a minute froze our hands so we wanted to get back down as quickly as possible.

A cold, wet and windy summit

We tried to get back down below the snow line as quickly as possible although with slippery, icy rocks under foot it was a tricky task.

Lining Crag

A closer look at the path around Lining Crag

As we got back down to Lining Crag, the descent was strangely slightly easier than the ascent as the path was a little clearer.  It still took up a little time however, slowing us down as we headed for Greenup Gill.

I had downloaded a new app to my iPhone called Viewranger which was fantastic.  You can track your walk as you go and using Skyline built into the App you can see what other Mountains are nearby.  As you can see from the track below, I forgot to start the app right at the beginning of the walk, missing the first 15 minutes but it is extremely accurate and especially in poor weather very useful.

The exact route we took thanks to Viewranger

We got back to the car about 3.45 so about 3 hours to ascend and just under 4 to descend.  Another long walk with Fitbit counting just over 30,000 steps and the accurate Viewranger app recording 6.5 miles.  Edging ever closer to the target of 71, this was my 60th top.  We are hoping to try to squeeze one more in this year, weather permitting.

See you on the next walk.