Showing posts with label Lakes - Far Eastern Fells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lakes - Far Eastern Fells. Show all posts

Friday, 25 April 2014

A Misty Friday in the Eastern Lakeland Fells

Friday 4th April 2014

A circular walk up High Street from Troutbeck 

Distance: 24km; Ascent: 1290m; Misty with light winds; with Martin

It had been a while since I'd last been walking in the Lake District, so I made plans to head up to the Eastern Fells today in the company of Martin.  We set off walking from Church Bridge shortly before 10:30am and navigated (mainly successfully!) our way through a holiday park to reach a bridlepath, which ran roughly parallel to the main road on the other side of Trout Beck.  After a number of kilometres of reasonably level walking, we crossed Hagg Gill and ascended steeply into the mist to reach the summit of Troutbeck Tongue (Wainwright, Birkett).

Jesus Church, Troutbeck
Cairn on Troutbeck Tongue
A reasonably level ridge led northwards for around a kilometre and a half, before we picked up the line of the old High Street Roman Road and soon became to ascend steeply.   Around half way up the 500m ascent we took a short break for lunch in the mist before continuing on up to the summit of Thornthwaite Crag (Nuttall, Wainwright, Birkett).

We decided to detour northwards to visit the trigpoint on the summit of High Street (Nuttall, Marilyn, Wainwright, Birkett), before following the wall back in a SSW direction.

Thornthwaite Crag beacon
On the summit of Thornthwaite Crag
By the trig point on High Street
By the trig point on High Street
After almost re-ascending Thornthwaite Crag, we followed the ridge southwards in the mist to reach the summit of Froswick (Nuttall, Wainwright, Birkett).  It was relatively quiet on the fells today and so far we had only seen a handful of other walkers.  We stopped for a quick break on Froswick before continuing on to the twin cairns on the summit of Ill Bell (Nuttall, HuMP, Wainwright, Birkett).

Cairn on Ill Bell
Now we just had one 2000ft peak left for the day, and we soon reached the summit of Yoke (Nuttall, Wainwright, Birkett).

On the summit of Yoke
Descending the south slopes of Yoke we soon dropped out of the cloud :-)  We estimated that the cloud base was now at around 500m, having risen from below 300m when we set off walking this morning.  A pleasant walk across the Garburn Pass brought us to the summit of our next hill: Sallows (Dewey, Wainwright, Birkett).

Looking south towards Sallows
On the summit of Sallows
We followed a wall around the head of the Wardless coire with good views back to the cloud covered eastern fells.

Looking back north towards the High Street fells
Heading for Sour Howes
After a slippery stile crossing we reached the summit of Capple Howe (Birkett), our penultimate hill of the day.  A walk of a few hundred metres NW brought us to our last summit of the day: Sour Howes (Wainwright, Birkett).

On the summit of Sour Howes
Windermere from Sour Howes
We descended across Applethwaite Common with good views over Windermere to reach the Garburn Road, which we followed back down to the main road, emerging a short distance to the south of Church Bridge.

On the Garburn Road
It had been a good day's walking despite the low cloud.  Many thanks to Martin for the company; his somewhat more prompt account of today's walk can be found here.

Wednesday, 19 January 2011

Kentmere Horseshoe

Distance: 18.5km, Ascent: 1090m, Solo

See actual route in new window

After the washout that was the weekend, I decided to take a day off work and head up to the Lakes for a round of the Kentmere horseshoe, which I've walked previously in June 2003 and April 2009.

I set off from Kentmere at 10:15am and headed west up the Garburn Pass track in the winter sunshine, passing Badger Rock.  Once up in the coire, I left the path and headed up the slopes towards Buck Crag.  The ground soon levelled out into frozen bog, through which I followed a faint path towards Yoke, which soon met the main path alongside the wall.

Mist was still clinging on in the valleys even though it was late morning, so there were good views South over a mist covered Windermere.  I reached the summit of Yoke shortly after 11:30am and enjoyed some hot blackcurrant squash whilst taking in the excellent views.  I continued on over Ill Bell and stopped for lunch on the sunny summit of Froswick.  From this vantage point, I could see the majority of the southern and eastern fells, speckled with small patches of snow.

After lunch, I ascended north along the ridge before skirting the summits of Thornthwaite Crag and Mardale Ill Bell, staying near the coire edge.  On the descent to the Nan Bield Pass there was a significant patch of steep snow to avoid at one point.  As I ascended east from the pass, the views back over High Street were excellent.  Soon I reached the summit of Harter Fell, where I stopped for another well earned rest.

I headed south along the ridge to Kentmere Pike and then continued to Goat Scar, whose summit appeared to be an unmarked rock near the fence.  I then headed south to my final summit of the day, Shipman Knotts.  There were two knolls that seemed to be of similar height so I visited the tops of both of them just to be certain, before descended south to the bridleway.

There were good views of the sunset as I walked along the track and road back to the car, which I arrived back at just before 5pm.  It had been good to get out on a decent hill walk for the first time in a couple of months.

Saturday, 4 April 2009

Kentmere Horseshoe

Distance: ?km, Ascent: ?m, with Lynsey, Adam & Laura

We met Adam & Laura in Staveley, and travelled on to Kentmere in one car because of the limited parking.  We walked the horseshoe in a clockwise direction, starting with Yoke.

Written up in January 2011 from memories

Monday, 16 June 2003

Kentmere Horseshoe

Distance: ?km, Ascent: ?m, Solo

I'd recently finished my final year exams at university and so was trying to fit in as much walking and climbing as possible!  I had been visiting Lynsey for the weekend and decided to detour via the Lakes on my way back south to Leamington.  I had been warned that there was limited parking in Kentmere, so I decided that today would be a good day to do the Kentmere horseshoe.

I ascended Yoke first, and walked the horseshoe in a clockwise direction over: Ill Bell, Froswick, High Street, Harter Fell and finally Kentmere Pike.

Written up in January 2011 from memories