Pavey Ark by mistake - no photos today
Start from Grasmere, I can’t see the fell tops because of the mist so because there was some snow during the week I’ll take my ice axe and crampons with me, a considerable addition to the weight of my rucsac.
First to Silver How via Allan Bank, a pleasant ascent up the grassy slopes, some icy patches make me feel that the extra weight on my back is worthwhile. By the time I get near to the summit, the mist has rearranged itself, I am in the clear and I can see adjacent fells, the high fells are still completely hidden and the valley below is full of mist. As I sit on the summit of Silver How I am looking down on the clouds above Grasmere.
The path towards Blea Rigg ignores the many mini summits but I don’t, most of them have their own cairns and from the tops you can see a myriad of small, grassy paths heading in all directions. The small rock summit of Great Castle How is the highest and best of them, providing an excellent viewpoint of the valley below.
Over towards the ridge of Blea Rigg, with its many paths and summits with ancient looking cairns, the indirect route I take only visits a small proportion of the features of this ridge. By the time I am halfway across the ridge the weather becomes wetter and colder, the mist passes over in waves that reduce the visibility to a few yards.
There are quite a few people about around the “crossroads” at the start of the ascent towards Sergeant Man. The summit of Sergeant Man is as windy, cold and misty as usual, I decide to visit High White Stones, the summit of High Raise for some more wind and rain.
I make sure I note the position of the path as I approach the summit shelter and I am sure that I set off back along the same path, but it is soon obvious that it is not the same path. Sooner or later I’ll learn that however bad the conditions that I must use my compass if I want to get where I want to be, anyway I carry on – I can’t be that far away from Sergeant Man.
At the end of an obvious path that I don’t recognise where I am, one of the many other walkers says it is Pavey Ark – I really must use that compass next time. I know that I have to walk back to Sergeant Man but I don’t want to have to climb it again; I see that a path seems to traverse the front of it and I follow it more in hope than anticipation. The path leads to the crossroads of paths at the end of Blea Rigg, from where I can begin my descent.
The path down towards Codale Tarn has some very awkward moments, especially when the rocks are wet and the daylight is beginning to disappear. The last time I ended up at Pavey Ark instead of Sergeant Man (yes, I’ve done it before), the path down Easedale was icy so I had to slide on my bottom down almost as far as Easedale Tarn.
It is dark by the time I get back to Grasmere.
Andy Wallace 10th November 2001