Christmasesque - No photos today
It's Christmas Eve, there is so much to do, there is so little time. I thought about none of those things as I was driving up to the Lake District. It was still quite dark when I passed through Ambleside and it was raining, by the time I got to the Old Dungeon Gill Hotel it was raining with a vengeance, it doesn't get any wetter than this.
It will probably rain all day. Oh no it won't! Oh yes it will!
I set off through Stool End farm, it's so wet that they even put the horse inside one of the farm buildings. The path up The Band is in excellent condition these days after extensive repairs, I can see many white ribbons of water rushing down the side of Pike o' Blisco into Mickleden.
The wind gets stronger as I climb higher, the path moves to the other side of the ridge, strangely the steep sides of Langdale Fell don't carry any of the swollen torrents of water that seem to be popular today. The path switches back to the other side of the ridge and there a two groups of cairns that seem to have little purpose these days. The wind gets stronger and the rain gets harder, stinging my face when it gets through my defences.
The gradient eases for a while and the ground is very boggy, I'm wondering if I've missed my turn but a quick walk across to the other side of the ridge shows no sign of any other path. Back to the path and further along you can see where Bowfell is and the path slants up the fellside to Three Tarns. Before the path starts to climb again there is the vague start of another path bearing off to the left, walk across the wet ground until a small path materialises.
The path comes and goes rising over wet, stoney ground and an unlikely reconstructed path is found, continue upwards until reaching a rock outcrop. I was going to shelter from the wind and rain here but a sheep is already has the same idea. She was there first so I carry on for a while to the start of the Climber's Traverse path, at least on this side of the fell I'm sheltered from the worst of the wind. The path is quite good but I am very aware of the ground dropping steeply and deeply down to the right.
After only a few minutes you pass behind an outcrop of rock on the right, almost like going through a doorway and you are in another room, full of high crags. I don't know about trying to locate Cambridge Crag by the spring issuing from its base, the whole mountain is a spring with water gushing from every nook and cranny. I am slightly disoriented and can't remember where my next right turn is, maybe I haven't gone far enough so I carry on for a bit. Past the crags on the right then past moss covered rocks with water gushing over the top, some ice cascades remain between the flowing water.
Then I find Cambridge Crag, its spring dispensing barely more water than in the height of summer. Going further along the path only leads to scree and misery, the path I want slants steeply upwards from the base of Cambridge Crag, over boulders and stones. This path is a splendid rocky place, the Great Slab is a splendid piece of rock, even though I can't see that far today. The path leads upto the main path across Bowfell, follow the cairns to the right and clamber over boulders to the summit of Bowfell, unusually I've got it to myself today.
Compass required here, find a group of three cairns at the base of the summit rocks and, go northwards to find a line of cairns over a stoney path. After a large rock outcrop on the left the path is difficult to see, cairns are present but are sometimes difficult to make out against the background of rocks, but soon you arrive at the Ore Gap crossroads. I had thought about descending from here but I feel fit and warm so I decided to carry on and climb Esk Pike.
An interesting rocky climb upto an interesting rocky summit that makes me want to climb to the top of every rock outcrop in good weather. There is no mistaking the highest point where a ten foot high rock wall has had a stone shelter extension getting me out of the wind for the first time today. I took the opportunity to put on my spare dry outer gloves, the wet ones adding quite some weight to my rucksack. The summit cairn is at the top of rock scramble over to the right but there's no view today to justify the effort.
The path on the other side of the summit is far less obvious and eventually fizzles out, it was only my built-in Esk Hause detector that stopped me from walking down the pathless grass slope down to Eskdale. A well built cairn on top of a slight rise caught my eye and having climbed up to it Esk Hause was only a few yards away.
Past the X-shaped shelter taking the path on the right down towards Angle Tarn, easy walking makes the rain and wind an enjoyable experience because I'm warm and dry even though I have to batten down my hood to keep the stinging rain out.
The large stepping stones over Angletarn Gill at the outflow of Angle Tarn are almost under water, the stones usually stand at least a foot above the water line. Over to the top of Rossett Gill, the repaired old path leads you cleverly away from the eroded bed of the gill and the awkward corner of the path has also been repaired making a pleasant descent down to Mickleden. The only problem was in crossing a couple of gills where the torrent was rushing over the usual stepping stones and I had to walk upstream a little bit to find a less risky crossing place. I was glad to see the footbridge over Stake Gill was still in place, that one would be too wide to step over.
A final march over level ground back to the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, for the first time in over six hours I see other people, I haven't even been aware of anybody else on the fells. It's still raining just as hard.
Andy Wallace 24th December 2002