Lake District Sept 2019
Finishing Wainwright’s Northern Fells
Avid readers of this blog will have noticed that I haven’t posted anything here for a while. The middle part of the year has been a specially difficult time for me and I’m only just starting to get my life back on some sort of track. As part of the process I took the opportunity of a few days with a reasonable weather forecast to head to the Lake District to walk the fells (and tick a few more Wainwrights in the process).
- Thursday 5 Sept
- Bannerdale Crags. A quick walk through Mousethwaite Coombe and along the River Glenderamackin to Bannerdale Crags, a top I inadvertently missed on my last visit. (Actually I walked straight past the turn last time, forgetting I meant to go there.)
- Friday 6 Sept
- Great Cockup. Another one I missed out last time, but deliberately. One of the best names too.
- Saturday 7 Sept
- Lonscale Fell, Skiddaw Little Man, Skiddaw, Bakestall. This was a great day! I’d climbed Skiddaw before via Ullock Pike, by-passing these subsidiary Wainwright fells. The weather was perfect – sunny, warm but not hot, enough cloud to add interest to the views. Bakestall, over the back of Skiddaw, completed my Northern Fells in the Wainwright series. Even the long walk back along the Skiddaw House road was pleasant going and not even the company of a trail-running event joining my path for the last 3km or so could spoil the day.
- Sunday 8 Sept
- Wansfell, Little Mell Fell. Looking for an easy day I headed over the Kirkstone Pass for Troutbeck and Wansfell via the delightfully-named Nanny Lane. Heading back to my rented cottage I took the chance to nip up Little Mell Fell too. Wainwright doesn’t have a good word to say about this little outlier, but I and the two people I met on the top disagree with the old curmudgeon. It’s a sweet little hill and the glimpse of Ullswater to the east adds to its charm.
- Monday 9 Sept
- No Wainwrights today, but after raiding some gear shops in Keswick I tested out the new boots I bought from George Fisher by walking from Portinscale to Seatoller. I was on paths all the way except for a very short bit of road at the foot of Catbells. The boots passed the test, and the bus took me back to Keswick.