hiking | Jims Walking Journey

A walk up Ullscarf from Thirlmere

My last visit to Ullscarf was thwarted when the clouds which had been hovering above it all day decided to lower onto the summit plateau just as I reached it. As I have a rule that I will be able to see the view from each top on my journey through the Wainwright’s this unfortunately meant a return visit. At least going up again gives me a chance to try a different route and today I’ll be ascending via Harrop Tarn and returning down the Wythburn valley which means I don’t have to walk back on myself.

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Book One The Eastern Fells

All the hills of Wainwrights Book One The Eastern Fells listed in height order with the sixteen walks that took me over them and interactive map showing hill location and route. Click on the hill or the walk to read the post. Scroll down to use the interactive map.

1.Helvellyn 950m 3,117ft	8.Great Dodd 857m 2,812ft	15.Great Rigg 766m 2,513ft	22.Middle Dodd 654 m 2,146 ft	29.Low Pike 508m 1,667ft
2.Nethermost Pike 891m 2,923ft	9.Stybarrow Dodd 843m 2,766ft	16.Hart Side 756m 2,480ft	23.Little Hart Crag 637m 2,090ft	30.Little Mell Fell 505m 1,657ft
3.Catstycam 890m 2,920ft	10.St Sunday Crag 841m 2,759ft	17.Seat Sandal 736m 2,415ft	24.Birks 622m 2,041ft	31.Stone Arthur 500m 1,640ft
4.Raise 883m 2,897ft	11.Hart Crag 822m 2,697ft	18.Clough Head 726m 2,382ft	25.Heron Pike 612m 2,008ft	32.Gowbarrow Fell 481m 1,578ft
5.Fairfield 873m 2,864ft	12.Dove Crag 792m 2,598ft	19.Birkhouse Moor 718 m 2,356 ft	26.Hartsop above How 570m 1,870ft	33.Nab Scar 450m 1,476ft
6.White Side 863m 2,831ft	13.Watson’s Dodd 789m 2,589ft	20.Sheffield Pike, 675 m 2,215 ft	27.Great Mell Fell 537m 1,762ft	34.Glenridding Dodd 442m 1,450ft
7.Dollywaggon Pike 858m 2,815ft	14.Red Screes 776m 2,546ft	21.High Pike, 656 m 2,152 ft	28.High Hartsop Dodd 519m 1,703ft	35.Arnison Crag 433m 1,421ft

My Journey Through the Wainwright’s, One Book at a Time.

My first visit to the Lake District was in 1982 and from that day on, ...

A Winter’s Walk up Hart Side

I arrive early at the National Trust car park just South of Dockray and am ...

A Mell Fell Double

So today is the day. The day when I start my quest to complete all ...

Glenridding Dodd and Sheffield Pike from Glenridding

Glenridding Dodd and Sheffield Pike, the objects of today’s walk form the northern wall of ...

A walk along the Dodds

It’s a bright, sunny morning and the birds are singing as I’m dropped off at ...

Aira Force and Gowbarrow Fell

I last walked up Gowbarrow Fell in the summer of 1992. We were stopping in ...

St Sunday Crag via Arnison Crag and Birks

As I leave Side Farm campsite I can see the three hills of my intended ...

A walk up Seat Sandal

The cloud is hanging low in the valleys as I leave the campsite. It is ...

The Helvellyn Ridge, Dollywaggon Pike to Raise

Starting today’s walk at Dunmail Raise, nearly 800ft above sea level does seem a little ...

Hartsop above How and Dovedale

Last night I stepped out of the campervan at Aira Force and was greeted by ...

High Hartsop Dodd and Little Hart Crag in the Snow

Standing on top of High Hartsop Dodd with the snowfall becoming increasingly heavy I wondered ...

Red Screes and Middle Dodd

I’m back at Sykeside campsite to complete a walk that was cut short a few ...

A Walk up Stone Arthur

It’s not often, hardly ever in fact that you get to see the summit of ...

The Pikes and Dove Crag from Ambleside

It’s my first trip to Lakeland this year. The busyness of life has kept me ...

Hart Crag and Fairfield from Dovedale

Having had the pleasure of walking down Dovedale last summer after climbing Hartsop Above How, ...

Great Rigg, Heron Pike and Nab Scar

Gazing out at the glorious views of Lakeland from the summit of Great Rigg I ...

Birkhouse Moor and Catstyecam

It’s the Queens Platinum Jubilee Weekend and Seventy years of Her Majesty on the Throne ...

A walk to Glenashdale Falls, Isle of Arran

The Isle of Arran is often referred to as ‘Scotland in Miniature’ because the north of the island is mountainous whereas the south is more pastoral. We’ve brought the van over from Ardrossan and are enjoying a mini road trip around the island, mini because Arran is only twenty miles long and nine miles wide. But what it lacks in acreage it more than makes up for in natural scenery and human history with an abundance of beaches, waterfalls and wildlife, castles, distillery’s and ancient monuments.

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Walking in The Arches National Park, Utah

The Arches National Park is like no place I have ever walked in before. Set high on the desert plateau of Utah, there is little vegetation and the sparse trees are stunted and gnarled by the harsh environment. It’s a raw and exposed place, baking in the day and freezing at night. It is literally the Wild West. What draws visitors to the park are the natural sandstone arches, thousands of them. Fifteen million years of erosion created them and we’re here today to walk among them. It’s as different a landscape to the UK as chalk is to cheese.

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A walk along the Bisse du Torrent Neuf, Switzerland

The ‘Bisses’ of the Valais region of Switzerland are long irrigation channels, many of them hundreds of years old, built to channel water from high mountain streams down to pasture land in the valleys below. Carved out from rock along the valley sides many of them follow a precipitous route with dizzying drops below and vertical cliffs above. The Bisse du Torrent Neuf in the central Valais dates back to the 15th century. Thankfully it’s been restored since and today it offers a spectacular out and back walk along the cliff edges, past sheer rock faces and over wobbly suspension bridges.

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A walk up Eagle Crag and Sergeant’s Crag

It’s the second time I’ve stopped at Chapel House Farm campsite in the last few weeks and the second time I find myself walking towards Stonethwaite looking to climb two Wainwright’s. Last time I was on my to Great Crag and Grange Fell. Today I’m looking towards Eagle Crag which rises up rather dauntingly from the valley floor and peeking out from behind it, Sergeant’s Crag.

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Silver How and Loughrigg Fell from Grasmere Village

It’s summer, or at least that brief moment in time that passes for summer these days. It’s also a Sunday on one of the hottest days of the year so I know today’s walk up Silver How and Loughrigg Fell, two of the lower lying and popular fells around Grasmere is likely to be a busy one.

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Great Crag and Grange Fell from Rosthwaite

Over the last few years I have become familiar with every twist and turn of the A592 and A591 as I have tramped over the Eastern and Far Eastern Fells. Today, I’m driving down the B5289 into lovely Borrowdale. Excited to be making progress I feel like an early pioneer heading slowly westwards into new territory. And road numbers aren’t the only change. I survived on mostly van meals in the more remote fells but the fleshpots of Keswick and Grasmere are already tempting me with easy access to beer and steak, coffee and cake. Like Odysseus I must resist their siren call if I’m not to finish the Central Fells heavier than when I started.

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Four Wainwright’s from Grasmere

I’ve had company over the last couple of days. A Robin arrives regularly at the van door looking for food and then repays my benevolence by demanding that I get off its territory. He needn’t worry as I’ll be gone today and he’s fatter than when I arrived. The murk of yesterday has gone and I can see today’s walk from my parking spot. The long southern ridge leading up Steel Fell, the curve around the head of Greenburn leading to Calf Crag, Gibson Knott and finally Helm Crag all look inviting in the morning sunshine. The most dangerous part will be crossing the A591.

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A walk up Tarn Crag (Easedale)

I have some personal rules which guide my journey through the Wainwright’s (here) one of these ‘I will get a view from each top’ has already entailed some return visits over the first two books. The awful weather and cancelled plans over the first months of the year have got me thinking that I may have to take more risks with the forecast if I am ever to finish my Wainwright journey before I go to rest with my ancestors. For a man who likes certainty and all his ducks in order it’s an uncomfortable prospect, but here I am, heading up Far Easedale looking up at a cloud topped Tarn Crag hoping that by the time I get there it will be clear. I can hear the roulette wheel spinning.

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A walk up High Rigg

From the campsite I can see a fair chunk of today’s walk from the van window. A short climb up through trees to a undulating ridge that eventually leads on to the summit of High Rigg. Stopping at High Bridge End gives me the rare treat of being able to walk from the campsite two days running and saves the hassle of packing the van up before setting off. In fact the Central Fells, being quite compact means I’m going to be able to do this often whilst working my way through book three. Life’s simple pleasures, or alternatively, simple things please simple minds, take your pick.

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A walk along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon

‘Don’t worry Mom, I know all about cannibalism, I saw it on TV’.

Like Danny in The Shining, it’s all too easy in a world of Ultra HD, Wide Screen and 4K to think we have seen and know all about the world and its wonders because we’ve seen it on our televisions. Thankfully there are still plenty of wonders that need to be seen in the flesh to be believed and experienced in all their fullness. Places that can take our breath away and make us stand in awe in their presence, silent and humbled by our smallness and their greatness. The Grand Canyon is one of those marvellous wonders of the world.

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Walking with giants, the coastal redwoods of northern California

Reading the news recently that there are now more redwoods in the U.K. than in California (read here) reminded me of my own encounter with these magnificent giants of the natural world on an RV tour of the seven most western states in the contiguous USA some years ago. Commitments, coughs and colds seem to be conspiring to keep me away from Lakeland at the moment so I figure now is as good a time as any to finally write up and share some of these RV experiences that have sat gathering dust in the bottom drawer…

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Tour du Mont Blanc – Tré Le Champ to Refuge la Flégère

Day 11 Tré Le Champ to Refuge la Flégère.

Stepping onto the wooden balcony that adjoins our room at 6am all is silent in the valley. The cool, still morning air fills my nostrils with the scent of pines and wood smoke. Dew glistens on the grass in the small camping field next to the refuge and people in the tents are stirring. I stand for a while in the stillness, looking up at Mont Blanc and reflecting on our walk so far. We have seen the mountain we are walking around from different aspects, from different countries and in different weather. It has been the central hub and ever present reminder of the reason for our journey, our very own ‘Tour du Mont Blanc‘. Today is our penultimate day and it promises to be a good one.

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Tour du Mont Blanc – Trient to Tre Le Champ

Day 10 Trient to Tre Le Champ.

Today we have the third and final border crossing of our Tour du Mont Blanc when we say goodbye to the forests of Switzerland and cross back into France at Col de Balme. It’s a Grand Old Duke of York walking day, a long steep walk up followed by a long steep walk down. Hill walking pared down to its simplest form, you’re going up or you’re going down, just keep putting one foot in front of the other and don’t forget to breathe. The reward for all this effort is we’ll get our first sight of Mont Blanc from the French side and we’ll also see the Chamonix valley, the end of our journey for the first time.

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Tour du Mont Blanc – Champex to Trient

Day 9 Champex to Trient.

When we step outside to boot up for day nine of our Tour du Mont Blanc there are ominous dark clouds drifting through the valley. A blanket of grey covers the mountain tops and mist hangs ethereally around the pines surrounding Auberge Gîte Bon Abri. Just as we are about to start walking the heavens open and a torrential downpour sends us for cover under the giant gazebo in the grounds of the Auberge. It’s going to be one of those days.

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A walk up Puig del Vilar, Mallorca

I am back for a second attempt at walking up Puig del Vilar. My first, halfhearted and unprepared effort was abandoned after having my legs scratched by thorn bushes and my hands scraped on the serrated, sandpaper like limestone that forms the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range in Mallorca. Thrust up from the seabed by the collision of Africa 170 million years ago and never ground smooth by any ice age, walking in these rough and rugged hills can be unforgiving, especially in the blazing sunshine.

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Tour du Mont Blanc – La Fouly to Champex

Day 8 La Fouly to Champex.

For the last week we’ve been in the heart of the mountains. Walking along narrow rugged trails surrounded by snow topped pinnacled peaks with precipitous drops. We’ve gazed in awe at long serrated ridges with sprawling ice blue glaciers creeping down from the heights. It’s been a full on, exciting and immersive mountain experience. The contrast with today’s walk from La Fouly to Champex is stark, the mountains are replaced by meadows and the sound of cow bells replaces the roaring rivers. We will be walking next to the mountains, with glimpses of them but we will not be walking in them.

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A walk up Walla Crag and Bleaberry Fell.

It’s the second day of a settled weather pattern that has brought crisp, calm and freezing weather to Lakeland. There is not a breath of wind and the bright sun shines down from a cloudless azure sky. The air clarity is as clear as crystal. It’s pretty much perfect walking weather and I’m looking forward to my first walk in the Central Fells, a walk up Walla Crag and Bleaberry Fell.

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Tour du Mont Blanc – Rifugio Bonatti to La Fouly

Day 7 Rifugio Bonatti to La Fouly.

Today we will enter the third country on our walk around Mont Blanc. This country is a land of mountains, cuckoo clocks and precision timing, holey cheese, delicious chocolate and secretive bank accounts. And of course the Swiss Army knife, one of which I have in my rucksack. We cross into Switzerland over Grand Col Ferret. At 2532m (8,307ft) the col will also be the highest point we will reach on our walk as we’re following the regular Tour du Mont Blanc route without variants.

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