Pike o'Blisco to Bowfell - Photo Gallery
I left the car in the National Trust car park at the Old Dungeon Ghyll hotel and it cost me £4.50 for a day's parking because I forgot to put my annual car parking ticket back in the glove compartment, I took it out because I'm trying to remember to get a new one. It was cold but the sky was blue and the sun was shining, I think I picked the right day for this walk. You walk out of the hotel car park and turn right at the road and follow it as it climbs uphill, after the first steep bend there is a path that leaves the road on the right hand side.
Follow the path over rough ground in the direction of Pike o' Blisco, this is the best view of the Langdale Pikes especially with them being lit up by the morning sun. This is the easy bit, after you cross a stream you get to a good reconstructed path, you now have a twenty minute slog up the steep hillside. Just keep your head down and get into a rhythm, it does no good to see how much further you have to go and eventually you will pass a large cairn.
The gradient eases and you are back on rough frozen ground, the rocky sections are less porous than the grass and the water freezes above ground so it is essential that you take care to avoid the ice. One of the attractions of this ascent of Pike o' Blisco are the scrambles up small rocky gullies but today they are full of ice so I'll take the diversion round to the left, mainly over rough grass. The final part of the climb takes you through boulders until you reach one of the rocky summit platforms.
As usual where you have two summits it is always the other one that looks higher but the other one is obviously higher here, you wouldn't build a superior cairn on an inferior height. Descend from the platform to a small icy col and climb up over the bare rock to the real summit of Pike o' Blisco. The view of Crinkle Crags and Bowfell from here always makes we wish I had gone straight there, the Langdale Pikes and the Coniston Fells are also well seen today.
Go back down to the col, be careful around the ice at the start of an eroded path down towards Red Tarn. The tarn itself is frozen but the outflow is still flowing and has to be crossed quite easily to get to the highway to Crinkle Crags. This popular path is also icy, snow always tends to fill the good paths and the large number of boots compresses and melts it during the day then the night frost turns it into something quite awkward after a few days.
You can see a standing boulder higher up on the flanks of Cold Pike to your left, walk until you are past it to a point where the gradient of the path eases. At this point turn left and head uphill over rough grass and between boulders, you will soon see a rock outcrop on the horizon that you should head towards. It was quite a surprise to see footprints in the snow, I didn't think anyone else was daft enough to ascend this way. On a good dry day you can scramble over the outcrop but you can also bypass it and ahead you can see the summit outcrop of Cold Pike. This is another hill with two summits, the first one you reach from this direction is the higher if the size of the cairn is anything to go by but you have to visit the other one just in case.
Skiddaw looks like a Christmas Pudding from this direction, a rich dark colour ready to serve with a white sauce on the top. I could retrace my steps off the summit but I usually go straight down, there is enough hard snow and ice to make the awkward manoeuvres over boulders just a bit more thought provoking. As you get off the summit you reach a fairly new electrified fence designed to teach the new sheep their heafs after the restocking following the foot and mouth epidemic. I didn't cross the fence but followed it over rough grass, I usually have to avoid the swampy areas but the walking is easier on the frozen ground as long as you avoid the ice sheets.
The highway to the Crinkles was always in sight but if there was any doubt the constant stream of walkers was also good evidence that I was going in the right direction. The big wide path will be made bigger and wider on days like this, the icy stretches being avoided by walking over the grass until you get to the start of the ridge. I decided I would put my crampons on at this stage, I reckoned the ridge path would be icy and particularly the bouldery ascents and descents between the summits.
The path probably wasn't as bad as I was expecting and certainly there were plenty of people coping without crampons, I also realised I wouldn't be able to climb the Bad Step wearing them. I suppose I felt reasonably justified when I saw people carefully clambering down the iced up rocky sections and using a fifth point of contact when necessary but the stony sections are not designed for crampons. I went to look at the Bad Step and although I didn't climb it myself I was able to show a couple of first timers where and how to get up.
I took the alternative route and although it is less exposed it is less direct, longer and just as strenuous as the Bad Step alternative. At the little cairn at the top of the wide scree filled gully turn right and follow the ridge to the highest summit of Crinkle Crags. Normally from here I would find the path heading towards Bowfell, now visible in all its glory, but in crampons I can just walk down the snow and ice anywhere. Once I had found the path I followed it mainly over stony ground but the descents and ascents of the bouldery sections were iced up as I had expected and my fifth point of contact stayed warm and dry.
At the end of the ridge of Crinkle Crags you start to descend towards Three Tarns and the first part of the descent is always wet and the rocks are frequently slippery. Today this was the iciest part of the walk and the ease with which I walked over the ice sheets was worth the effort of putting crampons on. As you approach Three Tarns you see the best side of Bowfell, huge buttresses of rock supporting an elegantly shaped summit.
I expected the steep climb to Bowfell to be snowed up and slippery but it felt very warm just here and with so many feet churning the deeper snow it had become mushy rather than icy, easier going up than down I think. The condition of the snow was better by the time I reached The Great Slab and the final ascent of Bowfell's bouldery summit crown was comfortable enough in crampons. This is definitely the best view of the Scafells either side of Mickledore ridge, Bowfell doesn't usually grant you the privilege of seeing it.
After clambering back down the boulders I was heading for Ore Gap, not using the well cairned path but following the ridge where although there isn't much of a path there are some substantial cairns. Once you start to descend there is more doubt as to whether this is a proper route but when Ore Gap is in sight there is nothing to worry about. If you get it right you pass a little cairn and then a small tarn before crossing rough stony ground to reach the path just before you get to Ore Gap.
Turn right now before you get to the cairn at the crossroads of Ore Gap, the covering of snow and ice quickly hides the path which is not the most obvious at the best of times. This is usually a very wet area anyway and you have to keep your eyes open for signs of the path, you shouldn't descend too soon and you don't want to climb any more than necessary. I'm not too worried about the path, still wearing crampons so the ice is no problem and I can see the path ahead and below that will take me to Angle Tarn.
I eventually reached the Angle Tarn path at a large cairn where I finally removed my crampons, the snow really was too soft by this stage. Turn right and there is a reconstructed path down to Angle Tarn, cross the outflow of the tarn using some large stepping stones for the final climb of the day to the top of Rossett Gill. These days almost everybody uses the new reconstructed path that bypasses the eroded gill itself but it is an interesting alternative in good weather.
It takes forty minutes to get to level ground and after you cross a springy wooden footbridge without handrails you have a forty minute march back to the Old Dungeon Ghyll hotel. I suppose I got my money's worth from the car park, almost nine hours.
Andy Wallace 12th March 2005