An Outer Langdale Round

‘If I should bow my head let it be to a high mountain’ Maori Proverb

I’m back in Great Langdale just a couple of weeks after my previous visit when I was fortunate to walk the Langdale Pikes in glorious weather. The weather isn’t so good today but it’s dry and the tops are clear which is what matters. I’m heading for a group of hills that form an outer circle around the rather compact Pikes, Blea Rigg, Sergeant Man, High Raise and Thunacar Knott. And in visiting these, I’ll also bring to a conclusion my journey through Wainwright’s Book Three, The Central Fells.

The path up Stickle Ghyll is familiar but this time instead of crossing the bridge I carry along the footpath that climbs up the left side of the Ghyll. Having now walked both paths I can say that in my opinion, the western, left hand side path up Stickle Ghyll is the easiest. There is a good path all the way to the tarn, no need to cross the Ghyll and only one small rock scramble which is after the point the Ghyll has to be crossed from the other side anyway.

On arrival at Stickle Tarn I park myself in exactly the same spot as I did before. The view before me is the same but different. A slightly stronger breeze ripples the tarn making the reflection less defined and thin high cirrus cloud replaces the bright sunshine of two weeks ago bringing a duller light, making the crags of Pavey Ark seem more foreboding. Small changes providing a different scene. Claude Monet painted Rouen Cathedral over thirty times at different times of the day and year throughout 1892 and 1893 in order to capture the different light cast on its facade. I wonder if anybody has done that with a Lakeland viewpoint.

I part company with Stickle Tarn at the stepping stones at the far end and head off across boggy ground towards my first hill of the day, Blea Rigg. A few fell runners are out and a group, red faced and legs covered in mud race past me on the way down to the tarn.

The path winds its way across wet and undulating ground speckled with rocky outcrops until it climbs upwards to the cairned summit of Blea Rigg. The summit is merely the highest outcrop amongst many outcrops but the views beyond the foreground are extensive with Windermere, The Coniston Fells and the Helvellyn ridge, free of the cloud blanket that covered it two weeks ago, all vying for attention.

Leaving Blea Rigg I retrace my steps for a short distance before branching off onto a faint path that follows the bumpy ridge to Sergeant Man. The path is often indistinct and attention is needed to follow it in the boggy, rocky terrain and although Sergeant Man can be seen in the distance I’m grateful for GPS technology to keep me on track.

On approach, Sergeant Man has the look of Pike of Stickle about it, rounded and poking above the surrounding ground. There is no scramble up though and the top is broader and not as airily exposed, merging into the moorland with just a short drop on its northern side.

It’s a busy little top with families and couples and I have some hot chocolate and a bite to eat enjoying the views whilst waiting for a people free picture opportunity. The weather has turned and an autumn breeze brings a slight chill in the air.

One couple seem to have set up home right on the summit and don’t look like moving any time soon so they have now been immortalised in my summit video. Oxymoronically, mountains are great levellers. Anybody and everybody is free to enjoy them, without payment or permission, in whatever way they see fit within their own capabilities. There is just a tiny bit of me though that wishes the summits were sacrosanct and treated like the Lying in State of some great official or king. People should shuffle up, bow their head reverently, pay their respects and then move on to eat their sandwiches elsewhere allowing other worshipers uncluttered access.

Just as I have given up hope and am preparing to move on myself the couple depart so I get my uncluttered picture after all. No doubt whilst I’m snapping someone behind me is wondering why that selfish photographer is taking so long. ‘you’re not stuck in traffic, you are traffic’, an apt metaphor for the irony.

High Raise can almost, but not quite be seen from Sergeant Man, across a vast expanse of slowly rising marshy grass which I trudge across until the summit shelter and trig point come into view. Along with Ullscarf, High Raise is generally accepted as being the most central part of Lakeland and looking around me all of the main ranges can be seen in a 360 degree twirl.

The track to Thunacar Knott is another long squelchy trek, mostly downhill across the grass heading back towards the Langdale Pikes. From its summit there is a good rear view of the Pikes although this is far less dramatic than the front view of them from the valley or Stickle Tarn.

And it is on Thunacar Knott that I conclude my journey through Wainwright’s Book Three, The Central Fells. Already, across the valley my eye is being drawn toward the giants of Book Four, one of which is England’s highest, Scafell Pike.

But the days walking is not finished yet and after walking down the rather knee crunching Thorn Crag path two weeks ago I’m trying the alternative Pike Howe path today.

The path heads into Dungeon Ghyll and after a day of grass and hands in pocket gentle slopes it’s a shock to the system to suddenly find myself on a narrow ledged path with a plunging drop into Dungeon Ghyll to my right and the vertical crags of Harrison Stickle rising up to my left.

I force myself to stop for a moment at the top of the Ghyll just to reset my mental approach and make myself alert to risk after the abrupt change from gentle grass to rocky ledge. But the route is clear enough and although there are some minor hands on step downs it provides a dramatic and scenic descent underneath the towering rock face of Harrison Stickle with views deep into the chasm of Dungeon Ghyll, its roaring waterfalls crashing down sheer drops in the narrow ravine.

After maybe three hundred metres the exposure ends as the steep confines of the Ghyll are left behind and a good path is then followed all the way down, passing Pike Howe back to the start.

Having walked up and down the Langdales twice in as many weeks, todays route, up the left hand side of Stickle Ghyll and down the Pike Howe path will certainly be my preferred option should I ever return.

As I pull out of the car park at New Dungeon Ghyll, autumn leaves are falling on the van windscreen and the night is drawing in. I look right and catch a glimpse of Bowfell and Crinkle Crags in the fading light. The Southern Fells are waiting for me.

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