A short notice meet arranged with Cogstar to take advantage of a decent forecast. We thought that Dibble wasn’t coming but she flew down the Borrowdale Road and arrived at Rosthwaite bang on time. She then rushed around thinking she was holding us up and proceeded up to leave us in her wake as she powered up the hill on our way to Brund Fell.
We had to have frequent stops to take pictures of course as the weather was so nice – crisp and cold. Lexi the collie was bounding ahead and patiently waiting for us – I should say me really. It was a little cloudy in places but the sun was shining up above us. The first two hills of the day – Brund Fell and Great Crag have magnificent views from the summits, especially down over Castle Crag and along Borrowdale to Skiddaw in the north. As usual the higher peaks were making their own cloud caps and most of them were covered all day. The ground up on top of the fell was a little boggy and we were grateful that it was partly frozen, and saved some wet feet. The walk over to Great Crag was the worst of the wet, but even that was ok as it was mostly in shadow and still cold. Another easy ascent saw us on top of the second wainwright and again enjoying the views, helped by a bit of warming sunshine.
I’d planned this walk to take in Bessyboot on Rosthwaite Fell, but the only downside of it was that we had to walk right down to the valley before heading steeply up the other side. There were a few questions asked by a doubting Thomas about the route up the other side, as we couldn’t see it on the ground and it looked very steep – but I had my Satmap programmed, and as there weren’t any quarries on route, I was confident..
We met a very pleasant shepherd on a quad bike, out looking for some sheep. He nearly got stuck in a boggy bit and Cogstar offered to help him out – I’d liked to have seen that one. The plunge down the side of the hill off Lingy End to Stonethwaite was very steep, but being on the sunny side of the valley was frost free. A small diversion to Stonethwaite to cross the beck and then back up the valley to the campsite wondering where the path was. We found it easily enough, opposite the toilet block across the lane, through the gate and up and away.
What a delight this route was to get up to Bessyboot – a well laid path, nicely stepped, but unrelenting in its steepness. It climbed up through trees and beyond the treeline the view back down Stonethwaite was superb. Cogstar shouted down to me ‘I feel like a Hobbit’ – I thought he said something else
. The path dipped a little at the top to a small dell before the ascent eased towards the top. Once up on top of the summit the views are superb and well worth the effort – Borrowdale to the north, the Honister Pass and down to the valleys below. We had a bit of lunch down by the Tarn at Leaves before heading back down beside Rottenstone Gill. Dibble had to get home, so she took her leave and sped off down the hillside, while Cogstar and self dawdled, trying to break the Guiness Book of Records for ‘most photos taken on a walk of the same view’ – it was nice though watching the late afternoon light change as the sun dropped behind the bigger fells.
A fantastic walk in good company (I highly recommend the walking forum meet ups) and as usual Alf Wainwright knew what he was doing when he picked these fells – well worth a visit.
