Something a little different for me, a walk with some friends who wanted to join in on a Lake District trek. I had stayed in Ingleton the night previous with some of these friends, following my Mell Fells walk. So the journey to Martindale was much shorter than my usual early morning drive.
Leaving Martindale all kitted up, picking up the path behind the church soon saw the ascent to Bonscale Pike commence. The path near Mellguards at the base of Bonscale Pike shown on the OS map was a little difficult to find, being somewhat obscured by running water and a little marshy area. The climb from the start was quite steep but thankfully at about a half way point it seemed to level a little. The path then split, one branch took a very steep winding route the other a lesser gradient but in the general direction of Bonscale. So it was this route that we took. Unfortunately this path did not quite take you to the summit and the last section had to be done off-piste, over a steep gradient covered with a few inches of crisp snow - first use of the ice axe! I have to admit I enjoy that sort of terrain even though it can be quite hard going on the legs.
Bonscale was reached eventually and the view across Ullswater was quite something else, despite the lowering cloudbase. It's views like this which make you realise why AW added them to his books
The trip across to Arthurs Pike was much less eventful with the highlight crossing the small but deep gullies. These were full of snow and as soon as you started to cross the area you sank thigh deep, but the path across was easy to trace despite the snow covered ground. Arriving at Arthurs Pike the cold wind became a bit more pronounced so it was a quick stop, long enough to grab a piccy and a 'Wainwright Winegum', then plod on.
Travelling across to Loadpot Hill I wanted to have a go at some map and compass practice - following High Street should make things easy too. Navigating in the snow with the ever decreasing cloudbase seemed like a little bit of a challenge.. and it was. I completely under-estimated the time it would take to get to Loadpot, I guess because of plodding through the snow - sometimes deep, sometimes patchy. The time on my watch said we should be there, but as we were still travelling up hill on a bearing with which I felt pretty confident about revealed otherwise. We did eventually get to Loadpot Hill, about 20mins later than I had calculated - ooops! The cloudbase was now below us so we were enveloped in a white out.
It was shame that the views were obscured because looking at the relief of the terrain on the map, the views should have been magnificent. Taking pictures seemed a little pointless, however I did manage one pic on the ascent:
Thankfully I had my GPS too so we were never in the situation where we would become lost... he says boldy!!! It seems as though the 'Official' Wainwright location of Loadpot Hill is not at the Trig point so after using the GPS to locate said place we walked SE to pick up the path to Wether Hill. This path leaves to the left of the trig point when heading southwards. Passing a small tarn on our left was a good feature to see to reinforce our track. Thankfully the ground was frozen solid too as I can well imagine the path there can be a bit boggy at times.
The visibility was getting worse arriving at Wether Hill so it was literally a case of walk over the summit and pick up a path, dropping down WNW towards Steel Knotts and Pikeawassa. That was easier said than done and I had to revert to the GPS to put us on the path. The snow was really deep in the gully so we walked on a small ridge running adjacent to the stream, the grass and heather were visible here so it was quite nice tramping along hearing the crunch of the thin layer of snow under-foot. Before long the snow cleared, quite quickly too, and passing two derect buildings (as shown on the map) Brownthwaite Crag came into view and eventually Steel Knotts. Ascending Steel Knotts (why is this also called Pikeawassa??) was definetly worth the little bit of effort. There were some really nice views standing ontop of the rocky outcrop even in the low cloud
Beda Fell was next, dropping down into Howe Grain, the path meeting the Old Church of St Martin at Christy Bridge.
Leaving the church behind and a quick scoot up the path that seems to pass around Nickles winding it's way up to the Beda Fell ridgeline path. Sadly the clouds were really low now and the summit of Beda Fell was not visible but the paths to the summit were easy to follow. A couple heading down from Beda warned us of the dreaded bog in the saddle between Allen Crag and Beda head. Upon arrival at this area we merely found a bit of soggy-boggy ground but nothing worth worrying about. We just walked straight over it with no issues at all. I wish the views had been better, but hopefully in a couple of weeks when I hope to walk from Hartsop to Place Fell and Angle tarn I will at least be able to see where I have been.
A quick descent, back to the car as I needed to be home taking in the last view of Howe Grain, looking toward the Nab.
A very enjoyable days walking despite the poor visibility, a bit more experience and a bit more confidence gained. I can't wait for my next walk now.