Steeple and others from Wasdale

Date: 27-May-2010

Map: Landranger 89, OL4

Weather: Sunshine eventually with clouds buzzing past.

 

From Overbeck Bridge up the valley to Dore Head, up to Red PIke, along the ridge and around to Steeple and Great Scoat Fell. Down and across to Haycock and onto Caw Fell. Returning via Haycock and Scoat Tarn, Low Tarn and Overbeck: 11.8 miles as measured on Satmap GPS

 I've been off work for a while now and have had plenty of good walks in the Lake District, Wales and Scotland. I also knocked off the first short long walk - The Herriot Way. I picked out the best day of the week for this one, a little chill in the wind, but in and out of the sunshine all day.  I've got a really long walk coming up in June so needed to keep the old legs moving. Wasdale is the home of the best view in Britain supposedly, but there are plenty of other places I could pin the same title on - but the view up the valley as you drive in never fails to inspire. I walked here in late February in whiteout conditions and vowed to return for the views - I got them in spades today. I parked at the small car park at Overbeck Bridge - it has a National Trust honesty box for parking, so I fed it the usual change. I met a workmate on the plane to Norway and he told me that the best views were actually from Great Gable looking down Wasdale - I think I'll save that one for later, maybe my last one? I got ready and had a good glug of water and some Ibubrofen for the knees and set off on what would be an uphill pull all the way up to Red Pike.

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 the view up Over Beck

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 looking up to Dore Head ahead

Yewbarrow looked very steep, as it is and the initial path forks left away from the higher ground. Down to my left the beck has cut steeply into the hillside, a cool gorge in the height of summer and plenty of ferns abound here. There was a thin track through the bracken, and it must be tight  in the summer with the odd tick as well, as plenty of sheep use this trod. My route crossed the beck by a small footbridge after about a mile or so, and there were plenty of dark clouds scudding higher up over the fells. The big boys across the valley were topped with cloud and it didn't look like clearing anytime soon. The steady grind up the valley gave me plenty of time to consider my route - originally I was going to add on Seatallan and Middle Fell, but I needed 2 cars to avoid a long road walk back from Glendale to Overbeck. So I decided to save those two for another day, which was just as well as I did more than enough ascent at over 4300ft. Walking up the left side of Overbeck I had good views of Yewbarrow without cricking my neck looking up and I stayed higher up the valley side.

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 the weather looked threatening

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 looking over to Dore Head with Great Gable beyond

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 on my way up to Red Pike

As I approached the head of the valley I decided to chop off the corner of the ascent to Red Pike and contoured around the hillside. It made the route a bit more fun, but I did miss out on staring over the edge at Dore Head. As with all steep sided valleys in the lakes the ground around the becks tends to be a bit moist and this was no different - expect boggy ground if you're up here in the rainy months. I was in the company of raptors today, I could here the piercing cries up on Yewbarrow but couldn't see them against the crags. Up at the head of the valley I paused for some refreshments and reflection, with stunning views all around I waited to see if the clouds would clear up around the Scafells. No joy for a while but I had a great vista of Pillar, Kirk Fell, Great Gable, the Scafells, and beyond that Knott stood out under glowering skies.

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 looking over to Wind Gap and Pillar

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 another view of Kirk Fell in front of Great Gable

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 still no rain yet

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 on top of Red Pike

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 the summit cairn on Red Pike

There's drama here looking over deep valleys, I could pick out a few of the buildings down at Wasdale Head. Majestic surroundings these mountains - not hills - mountains, Englands roof. The clouds scudding darkly across the fells bring out the character of the slopes not climbed - looking steep and unassailable from adjacent fells - easily walked when you actually get there. Past the hause at Dore Head I knew it wasn't too far up to Red Pike and the views kept me occupied. The thought was with me that once I was up, I was up - but it was a bit like the Grand Old Duke of York - plenty more ups and downs. The summit of Red Pike is quite long and has a vertiginous drop to the north of the summit cairn. It has commanding views all around and I studied the ground around Scoat Tarn to get some idea of my route later in the day. I had a good study of my map on the top as it would be easy to be misled by the siren calls of Wind Gap and Pillar away to the north.

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 a dramatic view over Mosedale down to Wasdale Head

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 the view over to Pillar on my way to Scoat Fell

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 Steeple appears high above Ennerdale

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 The Scafells still in cloud

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 a short diversion over to Steeple

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 the view from Steeple over to Pillar

The route off the top of Red Pike veered around towards Wind Gap but I wanted to be up on the left for Scoat Fell. Luckily I wasn't too far around and a quick scramble up the slope soon had me on top searching for a Scoat Fell of sorts, big or little, any would do. One of the delights of this walk was the approach to Steeple - a lovely little ridge out above Ennerdale. Very apt as I was walking here in a months time when I did my wobbly coast to coast path, so I had another good study of my surrounds. Steeple itself was fairly straightforward to - a little down on a scree path, and a little up to the summit - vice versa for the return up to Scoat Fell. The views were terrific again and I took the time to enjoy looking down over Ennerdale stretching east to west.

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 and the other way down Ennerdale to the sea beyond

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 Haycock is the next peak

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But I didn't dawdle too much as I didn't want to be too late getting away today. That's the only trouble with the western Lake District - it takes sometime to get over there. I was soon back up on Scoat Fell and from there was verging towards the western edge of the lakes - the character of the hills changing with the geology - becoming more ladylike, softer and rounder. Mind you Haycock had a hard edge to it, but I was quite pleased that the descent/ascent weren't too steep, just a reasonable slope up and down - not enough to groan, but enough to get the heart beat a little faster. Haycock and beyond started to remind me of the Pennines, albeit a little higher. I met up with a fellow walker on the summit, map in hand, with a puzzled look on his face. 'I'm just getting my bearings....what's that over there...' - Me: '...er...that's Scafell Pike' - Him - 'Oh...I'm going there soon'. I found out he lived locally but hadn't bothered walking up here until recently - hmmm should be against the law that. I sat down in the shelter on top of Haycock and it was really, really peaceful - so I thought to myself 'sod the drive, I'm in no rush, no cares, so enjoy' - so I did. One pack of Marmite crisps later I was off and trotting down the path to Caw Fell, a pretty non-descript sort of summit - Alfred what were you thinking? Needless to say I didn't wait around and about turned for Haycock.

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The Scafells were now in my view so I didn't have to look around all the time. I walked back up to Haycock, around it's splintered rocky summit with crags around it's south side. I stood on the summit once more and contemplated my route down - the advantage of clear days. Rather than go back up to Scoat Fell I dropped down to the col and a little way down the valley before skirting around the contours towards Scoat Tarn - that saved me another up and down. I had a look over to Seatallan and Middle Fell and committed their shape to memory for another day. I crossed over the outflow from Scoat Fell, a bit of a dribble today and passed by the weather station on my way up to the ridge below Red Pike. I also encountered some interesting geology on the way up, some ropey volcanics with gaseous lava enclosures - nice to look at and an excuse to draw breathe. Up on the top of the ridge the views were still good even though the Scafells had resumed their cloud cap, everything else was clear. Next stop was to drop down to Low Tarn - lower than Scoat Tarn and again slightly boggy ground. But the bonus of that was that the tussock grass was nice and springy on the way back. Cotton grass grew very well down here as the tarn sits in a bowl below Red Pike, I imagine that it's not a place to be when it's wet.

  

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A little further on it was a simple case of dropping back down to Overbeck and follow the path taken earlier. It turned out to be a fine walk, blessed with decent weather and great views all of the time, and at the death even the cloud lifted from the Scafells to say goodbye. Back at the car I glugged some water and a Red Bull, had a few snacks and sped off back to Manchester to sleep the sleep of the satisfied walker - brilliant.

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