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.

High Spy

Back in January 2011 we walked 3/4 of the Newlands Round, missing out the final top of High Spy.  When I spoke to Peter earlier this week and explained I was doing the Swimathon on Sunday and wanted an easy-ish walk we decided on High Spy.  It wasn't too high and a fairly easy ascent and descent.  My turn to drive so I picked Peter up just after 6.30 am and set off in the direction of Keswick.  We arrived at Little Town around 8.30.  We had both brought Scotch Eggs for breakfast so we had one each for breakfast and kept the other 2 for lunch later.  

Shot Of Great Gable

Summit of High Spy

We started this walk the way we finished the walk in 2011, walking back up the road from the car park and turned right up the hill and then walked along the valley.  We were walking for around 30 or 40 minutes and then began to climb very slowly.  It was a steady climb up towards the pass which you can see in the picture on the right.  The last 50 yards or so up to the pass became a little steeper.  We found a little shelter and decided to stop for our first bait stop, had a cuppa and the other scotch egg.  As we were sitting it started to rain so we put the water proof jackets on and set off again.  As we reached the top of the pass the rain had stopped and it was actually getting warmer so the water proofs came off and we turned left towards High Spy.  This part of the climb was a little steeper and we reached the summit at 11.00 am.  

There were great views from here of the Scafels, Great Gable and Great End.  Then to the north Blencathra and Skiddaw and many others.  The weather was also clearing up so we could see for miles.

Skiddaw and Blencathra from High Spy

There was still a little bit of snow on some of the tops but nothing here today.  Looking around from the summit we could also see Dale Head and Hindscarth with Robinson behind, the other 3 tops on the Newlands Round walk.  

We set off back towards the car, walking on the flat for a little while and then beginning to drop towards Derwent Water with Keswick behind.

The walk was beginning to get busier as we descended.  This is a very popular walk with Cat Bells just below.

Looking back to High Spy

The car is down there somewhere

Derwent Water with the summit of Cat Bells centre left

As we descended Derwent Water and Keswick came into view and they were looking very good in the April sunshine.

A little further and the popular Cat Bells walk looked very busy today.

Cat Bells looking busy today

We walked towards the bottom of Cat Bells as can be seen on the left and then turned left down the slope towards the car.

Would be a nice stop in the summer!

Back at the car for around 1.00 pm and time for a quick drink at the Sportsmans.

Next walk planned towards the end of May.  See you then.

Great End and Esk Pike

Only 3 weeks since the last walk but we wanted to get out this weekend as it may be a while before the next one with Easter coming up and holidays etc. Steve couldn't make it so only Peter and myself on this walk. We probably picked the worst weekend to walk as the clocks went forward so we lost an hours sleep! To compensate for this Peter picked me up at 6.30 am (BST!) and we were on our way to Borrowdale. On the way we decided to park at Seathwaite and walk up to Esk Hause and then decide which tops to do, we had a choice of Glaramara, Great End, Esk Pike or indeed the Scafells. The Australian Grand Prix was on the radio for the journey and we arrived at Seathwaite about 8.30 am, got ready, tucked into the Angus Steak pies and set off walking about 8.45. The car park was already starting to fill up. It was cloudy on the tops at this stage but even this early we could tell it was going to clear later. We considered going up Taylorgill Force but thought we were going out of the way a little so went over Stockley Bridge and straight up Grains Gill. We had our first bait stop at the foot of Sprinkling Crags.

After a cuppa we set off and walked a little further until we were at the foot of Great End. A great slab of rock right in front of us with a large gully in the middle (Central Gully) covered in snow and a smaller gully (Custs Gully) to the right as we looked at it.

From this point we could see where the path joined us had we taken the route up Taylorgill Force. There was also a great view of

Great Gable from this point.

The path took us round to the left and up to Esk Hause where we would turn right up to the summit. Esk Hause seemed to be a very busy junction where lots of walks criss crossed. There was one guy stood there who said he was not going to the top as he couldn't see anything, seemed a shame as he was so close to several great tops from this point. We carried on our way to the summit reaching it just after 11.30.

We were still in cloud at this stage but it was clearing from time to time. We dropped down off the top and found ourselves looking down Central Gully which we had been looking up not long ago.

We walked round the top of Great End and stopped for another cuppa and it was now starting to clear.

The shot on the left is looking back towards Glaramara and the one on the right is looking across Esk Hause to Esk Pike with Bowfell behind it. We decided at this stage that we would head towards Esk Pike meaning we would get 2 top 10 mountains chalked off today.

We stopped a while, had some more bait and a good look around at the clearing summits, it was a great view from here. We then set off down to the Hause and up the short, rocky climb to Esk Pike.

We reached the 2nd summit of the day just after 1pm. Both mountains are in excess of 2900 feet so a satisfying morning! This was a really good walk with lots to see. The picture below is from the summit of Esk Pike looking towards the Scafells

We descended Esk Pike on exactly the same path as the ascent, back down to Esk Hause. By now it was like Piccadilly Circus here, with lots of fell runners out today and a very busy walking day! We walked around Great End and down Grains Gill. We stopped at the foot of Great End again for a final bait stop in very warm sunshine. We set off for the car and with very tired legs made it back just after 3.30.

A very good day on the fells although it will probably be May before we can get the next walk in. I am now half way through my challenge of 71 tops.

See you on the next walk.

Great Gable 30th October 2010

Well it has been a while since we have been for a walk so we were all looking forward to this one. I picked Steve and Peter up at 5.45 am and 6.00 am respectively, as I had forgotten to fill up with petrol the night before, we called into the petrol station and we were on the road by about 6.20 am.

The weather forecast was a fine day - everywhere except the Lake District!! Although it was supposed to dry up after about 9.00 am. Also it was supposed to be slightly better in the Northern Fells than the Southern Fells so we decided to head to the North and the first top

mentioned was Great Gable. As we chalked off a top ten last time out it seemed a good idea to do another one this time as well. We arrived at the Honister Mine car park just after 8 and tucked into the Angus steak and kidney pie, (I had bought 2 the day before so was looking forward to one for tea as well!) and got ready for the walk.

It was quite misty as we set off around 8.30 towards Fleetwith Pike. As the car park is around 1000 feet we had already taken out quite a bit of height but there was still plenty ahead. It was a very steady walk up to our first bait stop around 10.15 seen on the right. It was a shame it was so misty as we could not see the top of Gable and it is such an impressive mountain.

We could see the path we were going to take from the bait stop and set off towards the more

strenuous part of the walk. When we reached what we thought was Windy Gap we could not see very much at all and were unsure which direction to take.

After much discussion and compass viewing, the mist cleared very briefly, giving us a better view and we decided to turn to the left. With hindsight that was the right decision as the other option would have taken us to Kirk Fell. However it was a very steep climb from here and I was regretting missing some stepper sessions!! There was a fair bit of scrambling over large rocks and apparently we had taken the hardest route to the top. Well I suppose if you are going to do it you might as well do it the hard way!

We reached the summit about 12.15, there is a WW2 memorial at the top with a plaque and a basket of poppies. We stopped for a couple of photos and then set off back down. As expected as this is a top 10 mountain the descent was not the easiest on the knees. Also the promised weather forecast did not come true, in fact it got wetter and wetter!

We stopped for another bait stop on the way down and a chance for another couple of pictures as the mist cleared occasionally. We got back to the car about 3.00pm and headed for home. We have arranged a date for the Christmas walk of 11th December and everyone has their list of stuff to bring.

Great to get another top 10 chalked off despite the weather and looking forward to the next one.

See you in December.