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.

Great Borne

The last walk left "unlucky" 13 tops to do so it would be good to move on to the final 12 as quickly as possible!  We did Seatallan last time out and fully intended doing Haycock today, just a little further on.  However in the car on the way there I said to Peter I had a cold coming on so thought we would do the smallest top out of the 71, Great Borne.  The idea being it would be easy enough to get up and down fairly quickly, well its only 2021 feet after all!  So we headed to the Fish Inn at Buttermere and we were going to walk around Crummock Water and go up the way we came down when we did Starling Dodd back in May 2015.  We arrived at the Fish around 8.30 and with my knee strapped up and full of scotch egg, ready to walk around 8.45.

Early morning Crummock Water

Crummock Water

We walked between Buttermere and Crummock Water, alongside Buttermere Dubs heading towards Scale Force.  It was a clear and quite warm morning for early October, actually much warmer than our last walk in July.

Crummock Water on the left, Buttermere on the right

Scale Force

We crossed the bridge at Scale Force and begun to climb towards Hen Comb and Whiteoak Moss.

Crummock Water Panorama with Grasmoor in the distance

Whiteoak Moss was very boggy, in fact most of the walk was wet under foot, just as well it was a fine day.

Flautern Tarn and the final climb to the summit

We climbed above the boggy area towards Flautern Tarn just under Great Borne, it was now just before midday as we looked up at the final ascent to the summit.  It appeared a steep walk but had to be done as we were so close to another top.

At the bottom of this final push we met an older guy, only the fourth person we had met on the whole walk.  Not a very popular walk this, unless you had to do it!

Looking towards the coast from the climb to Great Borne

As it turned out the climb was not as tough as it looked and we reached the summit around 1pm.  A little over 4 hours walking and around 20,000 steps so far.  So much for the shortish walk to the lowest summit!

The summit with Red Pike on the left and Great Gable in the centre

Even at the summit it was still quite warm.  We now had to decide what was the quickest way down. That final ascent would be a tough descent and we didn't fancy crossing the bog again so we headed towards Starling Dodd to descend the same way we did back in May 2015.

Looking back to Great Borne

We knew there was still some distance to be covered to get back to the car but it was a nice day and we had plenty of light left.  We walked around Starling Dodd, just missing the top, heading in the direction of Red Pike.  We took a left dropping down to find the path which would lead us back down towards Scale Force.  It was a tough path, not too steep but rocky and a few difficult parts around the waterfall.  Also by now this was becoming the longest walk we had done so the legs were very tired.

Fitbit stats showing almost 9 hour walk!

A new record for a day

We got back to the car about 5.20 almost 9 hours after we had set off, very tired but satisfied that another one was chalked off, only 12 left to do now.

High Stile and Starling Dodd

This is our first walk of 2015 surprisingly.  Peter picked me up at 6.15am to head over to Buttermere.  We had been here twice before, once in late 2014 but it was just too windy to attempt on that day and then again in January but I didn't feel well on the climb after about half an hour so we turned back.  This time there were clear blue skies and no sign of a head cold from me so I was looking to get at least one maybe two tops chalked off.  We parked in the public car park behind The Fish and set off walking with the usual Angus the butcher steak and kidney pies.  We walked around the edge of Buttermere, crossed a little bridge and entered the woods and immediately started to climb.  It took about 20 minutes to walk through the woods onto the open fell.  Once onto the fell we continued to climb steadily towards Bleaberry Tarn.  It was here that we turned back on that windy day in November.  Today was much calmer as we sat and had some bait at the tarn.  There was a clear path heading up from the tarn towards Red Pike which we took.  This path started off quite easy and then the second half was scree and very steep.  We eventually reached the top just below the summit of Red Pike and turned left towards High Stile.  It was now a fairly easy walk to the summit.

Looking back to Bleaberry tarn and Crummock Water beyond

Summit just ahead

We sat at the top just out of the wind for some time having lunch and looking back down to Bleaberry Tarn, Buttermere and across to Grasmoor and further to the right Robinson with Skiddaw and Blencathra in the distance.  It was a clear day and we got a great view of the surrounding fells.

Great bait stop this

The path we followed from the tarn on my left shoulder, Crummock Water in the distance

High Stile ridge

 We walked along the ridge and then turned back towards Starling Dodd.  We were either going to tackle this one as well or turn right and head back down to the car.

Our next destination - Starling Dodd centre of picture 

As we walked around Red Pike and dropped towards the start of Starling Dodd it seemed well within reach and it made sense to do this one too.  It would be nice to only have 18 tops left after today.  It was a fairly short but steep climb to the summit in what was now a biting cold wind.

Starling Dodd with Red Pike and High Stile behind, Pillar on the right

We just grabbed a quick picture and came straight back down.  We turned left and crossed some heather heading towards a stream which we followed all the way down to Crummock Water.  It was a really steady descent, fairly easy on the knees today.  Once down, we walked around Crummock Water towards Buttermere and then back to the car.  We arrived back at the car just before 5.00 pm so a long day, just short of 30,000 steps and over 11 miles.  Most importantly only 18 to go now!

See you on the next one.