The Langdale Pikes

Just as autumn seemed to have arrived, summer sunshine and warmth has returned for one last hurrah and I’m fortunate to be in Great Langdale to enjoy it. The Langdale Pikes are an iconic group of hills whose relative accessibility, moderate height and interesting routes have made them emblematic of all that is attractive about the English Lake District. From the moment their shapely and unique outline is glimpsed across Windermere on the road to Ambleside you know you have entered into the heart of Lakeland with its mountains, lakes and rivers. It’s time to relax, breathe out, and for a while leave your workaday stresses behind and allow your heart to be stirred in anticipation of adventures that lie ahead. And today, in the sunshine, I’m walking the Langdale Pikes.

Not surprisingly the National Trust car park at New Dungeon Ghyll is filling up quickly when I arrive. The Langdale Pikes, like Helvellyn, Helm Crag and Cat Bells are crossover hills, hills that are not solely the preserve of the ‘hillwalker’ but attract that other type of visitor to the Lakes, ‘the tourist’ often accompanied by lots of other tourists on a big coach. As such the Langdale Pikes are not hills for quiet solitude and peaceful contemplation, thankfully there are plenty of others for that.

There is no gentle start and the car park leads straight onto the steep path up Stickle Ghyll where you will be climbing upwards for an hour or so. Ghyll scrambling has become a popular activity in recent years and Stickle Ghyll is perfect for it. Heading up I pass several groups on the lower reaches including a Primary School party whose joyful screeches I hear long before they come into view.

At the footbridge, there are options to take a path either side of the Ghyll. I take the path to the right of the stream knowing I’m coming back in a few weeks and can walk the other path. The right hand path does seem the most popular, maybe because the presence of a bridge naturally invites people to cross it. And from here the right hand route certainly looks the best way to go with a nicely laid stone path leading from it.

The path continues upwards, following the Ghyll and passing waterfalls which grow in length and impressiveness. Several rock steps need to be clambered over but eventually an impasse is reached. On the map there is a path all the way up on this side of the Ghyll but on the ground the rock steps have turned into rock buttresses and most people, including me decide to cross the Ghyll. As mentioned in a previous post I’m not a great fan of river crossings but there are many solid and dry rock steps to walk on.

Soon afterwards the uphill ends for a while at least when the little blue oasis of Stickle Tarn is reached. This delightful expanse of water is set in its own glacier carved bowl surrounded by the towering crags of Pavey Ark and Harrison Stickle. Today it’s almost flat calm, giving it a serenity it doesn’t always possess and making it good for a picture or two.

I sit on its bank, have something to eat and drink and gaze out over the water to my first hill of the day, Pavey Ark. I can see the diagonal groove of Jacks Rake going up it’s near vertical face bottom right to top left and remember a day, thirty plus years ago when three of us scrambled up that route to the top and then spent a liquid evening in the bar of the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel. Today I’ll be taking the less adventurous path up its east flank.

Suitably nourished, by food and views I walk around Stickle Tarn and make my way up the rocky, scrambly path that leads to the top of Pavey Ark. It’s positively warm now with hardly any wind so I’m thankful for the clouds that prevent a full on assault from the sun. Looking across to the eastern fells I see the tops on the Helvellyn ridge have a stubborn cloud bank laid across them like a white blanket and spare a thought for the poor souls who have laboured up to stare into the whiteness.

My next summit however, Harrison Stickle stands out clear rugged and proud against a backdrop of blue skies with only the small matter of a col separating us. The path drops off Pavey Ark, skirts around the contour of the col and then rises up to reach the summit.

Harrison Stickle is only 2,415ft (736m) high but that is enough to make it the highest of the Langdale Pikes. The views are quite superb, Stickle Tarn is far below and the almost vertical face of Pavey Ark looks impressive, it’s hard to believe from this angle that it can be scrambled up by walkers rather than by roped up climbers.

In the opposite direction, Pike of Stickle (Pike o’ Stickle if you prefer) and Loft Crag rise up across the flat ground of Harrison Combe and beyond them, across the chasm of Mickleden lie the higher tops of Crinkle Crags and Bowfell.

The walk across the Combe is a relaxed one in the sunshine and the closer I get to Pike of Stickle the more it resembles a giant molehill, thrust up from its surroundings and perched on the edge of a precipitous drop into the valley.

After a short hands on scramble the summit is reached and I park myself on a lovely grass ledge to admire the views. It really is the most perfect little top and its position right on the edge of the long drop down into Mickleden gives it an exposed, airy feeling with glorious views down Great Langdale and across the valley to the big mountains of the Scafells.

The walk to Loft Crag, the final summit of the Langdale Pikes is short and roughly follows the ridge line. The top gives a grand view of the crags of Harrison Stickle and lovely retrospective views back to Pike of Stickle, Bowfell and Crinkle Crags. After lazing a bit on the summit I take one last look around me at the vista and leave the high ground behind.

A small ravine takes me onto the Thorn Crag path, indicated by a big cairn and there follows a long and slightly knee jarring descent all the way down to the valley floor with ever decreasing views of Great Langdale.

Back at the start I find myself a bench outside Lanty Slee’s and get myself an ice cold beer. Sitting in the late summer sunshine looking up at the hills whose company I have just had the pleasure of enjoying, I contemplate life, health and my good fortune to be here on such a day.

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Mountain days are not always this good and hillwalkers take the rough with the smooth, but there is no doubt today has been a very satisfying day in the mountains of Lakeland.

Route Map, Walk Stats, Geolocated Pictures and 3D Flyover Video Below.

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