North West Skiddaw - Photo Gallery

It isn't quite so dark in the morning these days and I could tell that the sky was clear although it was foggy as usual around Kendal. I left the car in the single small parking space in the village of Millbeck in the shadow of Skiddaw, there was a fantastic clear view of the snow-topped North Western fells. I walked westwards along the road and almost where it rejoins the A591 there is a lay-by at the back of which a small path leads into the forest. There are many paths and forest roads in the mature conifer plantations around Dodd and it is almost impossible to match the one you are on with the myriad of dotted lines on the map.

I followed the small path through the large trees hoping rather than expecting that I could keeping going upwards without too many diversions. I have found from experience that the forest is too dense and too difficult to get through if you don't follow some sort of path. The first hairpin bend arrived quite soon, this was obviously going to be a zigzagging ascent but it kept things at a reasonable gradient. After another couple of hairpin bends I came to a point where it seemed the pathmakers had tired of the long way round and suddenly gone straight up a small avenue between the trees.

As I started the steep climb I noticed that the path did actually continue on a more gentle ascent and that this was probably a fire break, it was more likely that walkers had tired of the long way round. Although it was steep the ground was good underfoot at first but as I got towards the light at the top it became increasingly wet and muddy, was I going to end up in a bog in the middle of trees with no way out? I carried on anyway because I didn't fancy going back down and starting again and after a final wet scramble I found that the gap in the trees was because I had reached a forest road. I have been on this forest road before and on that occasion I ended up struggling steeply uphill through a plantation of young conifers on top of harvested tree debris – not something I wished to repeat.

The road is level with no clues as to which way is up but I decided to turn right in the direction of Scalebeck Gill to try to find a footpath going upwards. The road crossed over the gill and shortly afterwards ended in a muddy terminus at a clearing in the trees, deep tyre tracks in the mud indicating that this would not be a good place to bring a vehicle. On the edge of the clearing there was a vague flattening of grass that could be a path going through a small gap in the trees, I was less than convinced that I should go that way but there were not any other options.

Once I got into the trees the path became much more visible and it was a very pleasant walk in the woods on an easy gradient until the path crossed over the gill again and it all got very muddy. In the middle of the muddiness there was another clearing as the path seemed to head off in the wrong direction and there was evidence of a less obvious path going up by the side of the gill. I climbed the less obvious path which was steep and wet over previously harvested tree debris but I was now out in the sunshine. The was a final steep wet scramble to get onto another forest road close to a large plastic drainage pipe issuing a good stream of water.

The summit of Dodd was dead ahead if you ignored the fact that it was straight upwards through a much younger plantation planted on the remains of its predecessors. Thank you but I'm not doing that again, I followed the road towards Long Doors – the col between Dodd and Carl Side. The road follows the contours and it bends around the front of Dodd on its way downhill but just as I thought I was going to have to make a tortuous struggle upwards another road joined from the left. If I had gone to the junction I would have seen the signpost “Dodd Summit” but it seemed to be the right thing to do anyway.

I could see the summit of Dodd directly ahead but the road zigged and zagged before being replaced by a made footpath that also zigged and zagged but led directly to the slate column at the summit. Dodd has a great location as a viewpoint, it's a pity the light wasn't a bit better for the photographs. By now I had become very warm and I had to take my jacket off; the slog I had made getting up the road and path to the summit was evened out by the easy walk back down to Long Doors.

After retracing my steps for a short while along the main Dodd road I came to the step stile that gives access to Carl Side. You can follow the wall ahead and that takes you to the main path on Carl Side but I followed the other path taking you uphill through the heather. With only one exception there are no interesting routes to Carl Side, you can have steep scree, steep heather, a steep path or steep grass. The path I was on was a slightly less steep one through heather until I reached a large cairn on a larger path; I could have turned right towards White Stones but I decided to turn left to see if there was a better ascent of Carl Side.

I should have known better of course, the nice path following the contours was going to follow them too far. I took the straight up path that I came across which had obviously been created by walkers when they realised the path they were on was going nowhere near the summit. Eventually the path over grass met the main path coming up from White Stones and there wasn't too much further to go before reaching the summit of Carl Side. Skiddaw was now fully in view with a covering of snow, it seems my intended route over pathless scree might be more interesting than I had anticipated.

I looked at the map for ten minutes to consider the options I had, if I didn't do the planned route then I would end up doing a short walk and that would never do. I decided to go and have a look at the conditions of the route anyway, at least in the bright sunshine and good visibility I couldn't go wrong with the direction. I had got cold whilst standing looking at the map so I put my jacket back on as I set off on Carl Side's good side, making a beeline for Long Side. It didn't take much time or effort to get to the highest point of Longside Edge and then to the summit of Ullock Pike. It had turned into a lovely afternoon for walking while I was looking at Skiddaw, I decided I would find a way up Broad End rather than risk the steep uncharted scree while it was covered in snow.

Things get quite interesting after you get past the summit of Ullock Pike, it is quite a scrambly descent over rock - unusual for Skiddaw's satellites. I got as far down the ridge as Kiln Potts before deciding it was safe enough to descend to Southerndale, the valley bottom wasn't too wet and the beck wasn't too wide to cross. The sun was very warm on my face and my jacket came off again before I started to climb up to the north west ridge of Skiddaw. I had decided that Broad End was too far away at this time and it looked like it was more steep than my original route anyway.

I joined the ridge just before Buzzard Knott and the closer I got to Randel Crag the larger it looked, at least there was a faint path here on reasonable ground and no snow. Shortly after starting to climb Randel Crag its nature changed from grass to the more familiar slate and scree that you expect on Skiddaw, the mist came in too making it seem even more like Skiddaw. By the time I reached the cairn at the top of the Randel Crag ridge it was very misty, this was not what I wanted given the route I now had to take. The large flat grassy area did nothing to help with the navigation, I was going to be on a compass bearing only on a forty degree slope over snow covered scree.

I put on my jacket, gloves and crampons and got my ice axe out, this was going to be quite strenuous and cold even if I got the navigation right. The surface was as I feared, stony and loose in places and with a covering of wet snow is not good when the slope is as steep as Skiddaw. My crampons enabled me to kick a foothold into the stones and stopped me from sliding downwards when I stopped to rest, it would have been far more difficult without them. The convex slope is steeper at the bottom where conditions were most difficult and as I gained height the snow became firmer and the gradient eased.

As I got towards the summit the mist cleared too as I reached the ridge exactly at the summit. The dozens of people I had seen earlier in the day had all gone so I had Skiddaw all to myself. I kept my crampons on not for the ridge but for the descent to Carlside Tarn, snow always collects in paths and I suspect that particular route might be quite slippery by now. After following the crest of the ridge past a couple of large cairns you reach a shelter cairn and on the right you should see a smaller cairn showing the start of the path downwards. Once you reach the cairn the path becomes obvious and as I suspected the trodden compacted snow on this steep path would have been more difficult and time consuming without crampons.

As I descended the mist cleared, giving me some interesting sunset views on the far horizon and showing my route along Longside Edge. The path was quite muddy by the time I reached the col but the crampons are equally as good in mud as in snow but it makes them quite mucky to put away once you take them off. You have to climb to Carl Side summit again but from there it is downhill all the way, it is a quick descent but it does that by being steep. At first the stony path is just steep and a bit loose at it begins to have an effect on your knees. White Stones describes itself precisely, white boulders that you have to scramble over but still steeply downwards.

The final section is the worst and even my knees were willing the grassy slope to end, this is Carl Side though and there is no other way. The good thing about this way down is that it brought me right back to where I left the car.

Andy Wallace 18th February 2006