Arnison Crag, Birks and St Sunday Crag

A very wet drive to Patterdale with thoughts that our planned walk may have to be altered. However things improved as we started, despite leaving the maps at home and the expense of (yet another) OS map from the local store. Our route took us round the back of the Patterdale Hotel and then, on reaching a wall heading up towards Arnison crag reaching the rocky summit in sunshine. A nice stoll then, parallel to but high above the wall to our right reachin Tongue Head and then the ascent up to Birks and on to St Sunday Crag. By now the weather had changed, very windy in the mist so not a place to linger. We descended direct to Paterdale folowing the track on the north flank of the ridge we had ascended with views back across to Arnison Crag

Time 5 hrs 30mns

Grade Excellent

Memories

• Sunny, rocky top of Arnison Crag


• Windy and misty on Summit of St Sunday Crag

Completed 106 to go 108

Red Pike, High Stile and High Crag

A beautiful autumn day we set off from the Fish Inn and, a last minute decision, decided instead of ascending Red Pike directly we would go via Scales Falls avoiding the scree up the eastern ridge near the summit. Beautiful views in warm sunshine as we headed north by Crummock Water but underfoot was hard going with bog and boulders for a good part of the way. We had underestimated the time it would take us to get to the waterfall, just over one hour. The path up the side of Scale Beck was initially good but very little in the way of views of the Force, much hidden by trees. As the steep section ended the path became very bouldery again and a walking rhythm was difficult to establish until we bared left and headed up the track to the summit ridge. From here Red Pike impressively towered above us and although already tired we followed the path along the ridge, which kept very close to the sheer drops on the west, and the up to the summit. Still glorious weather but like yesterday quite a strong and cold wind. High Stile beckoned to the south the path again keeping very close to the edge. We stopped for lunch just before the final ascent to the summit. Initially the lower High Crag was not visible but a quick compass reading soon put us right, the top we were on was marked at 806m the actual summit was 807m slightly north west. From here the long undulating ridge to High Crag was now obvious. The sky still clear, the details of the rock Pillar to our right were completely silhouetted out as the strong sun beamed from behind the bulk of the mountain. The views across to the Scafells were awesome. We knew from previous walks that the descent of High Crag down Gamlin End was steep scree. However the laid path to the left side of the scree made things much easier and we were soon down at Scarth Gap then Buttermere. This time although tired we had a lovely walk back to the Fish Inn along the shore of the lake.

Time 7 hrs

Grade Excellent

Memories

• Long walk in


• Excellent ridge walk


• Glorious autumn day

Completed 103 To go 111

Fleetwith Pike and Hay Stacks (100)

Who could go to Buttermere without aspiring to climb the North Ridge of Fleetwith Pike rising sharply form Gatesgarth at the southern end of the lake? Many years ago we climbed this ridge with our children in the mist. a few hundred feet from the top we met a party coming down, not sure where they heading. They asked my son (aged about 8) where we had started from. Informatively he answered "down there" pointing down the path disappearing onto the mist! Today there was no mist, good visibility but a gusty wind. The ascent involves some mild scrambling but is at no tome difficult. After a couple of 'false tops' we eventually reached the summit. Instead of heading straight down towards Hay Stacks we carried along the cliff edge to the top of Honister crag where there is talk of put a zip wire down to Honister path. Not sure if a decision has been made yet but if it gets the go ahead I hope it is done very sensitively without scarring the views of the crag from afar. Evidence of workings in the Honister slate mine soon became apparent as we descended to Dubs Quarry, a bright yellow digger perched on top of a mound of slate, which could obviously been seen for miles around. Crossing the stream was not as easy as expected but soon we we heading up passed Blackbeck tarn, with superb views down Blackbeck along the Buttermere Valley, to the famous Innominate tarn, where we had a late lunch stop. Finally we climbed up onto the summit of Hay Stacks a milestone in our quest, the 100th summit. The wind was now quite blustery and we took care picking our way down, again with some mild scrambling, north towards Scarth Gap and then down the main path to Buttermere and Gatesgarth

Time 6 hrs

Grade Excellent

Memories

• 100th Summit


• Fleetwith Pike ridge ascent


• Crossing Warnscale beck!


• Views cross to Gables, Scafell and across Ennerdale

Completed 100 To go 114