Author Topic: TR Day 1 Fleetwith Pike, Haystacks and Seat wild camp Sat 4 Jul 15  (Read 2517 times)

April

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We thought we would take it easy last weekend and do a few fells normally done in a day walk but do it over two days with a wild camp overnight. We got to Gatesgarth with the promise of cloud above the tops by midday and the strong gusty wind would decrease as the day went on and be light by about five or six pm. We discovered the forecast wasn’t very accurate as the day went on  ;D The first fell was to be Fleetwith Pike then Haystacks and we wanted to pitch on Seat then do High Crag, High Stile and Red Pike on Sunday. As sometimes happens things didn’t work out as planned.

At the start of the climb up to Fleetwith Pike and a sheep who wanted to have its photo taken. It walked into view as I was taking the shot


The Fanny Mercer memorial, the white cross below Low Raven Crag


On the way up Fleetwith Edge looking back at the view of Buttermere


The cloud was down over the higher tops but it was dry. It was a tad breezy  :D

Rocky steps on the way up


The lovely route up Fleetwith Edge


Looking over at Haystacks, Seat and High Crag


The dizzy view down to the road and Gatesgarthdale Beck


Another look back at Buttermere and Crummock Water higher up the Edge


We didn’t see anyone except sheep all the way up, we had the ridge all to ourselves  :)

Beefy getting his camera ready on the summit


The view from the summit


On the way toward Black Star


We had taken our time, we were in no hurry and we wanted to enjoy the views and take it all in. There were a few groups of people on top of Black Star and we assumed they’d just done the via ferrata, they were wearing helmets. The first people we had seen on the walk, amazing. We stopped for our lunch beside Black Star and looked forward to the cloud lifting above the tops. It was midday and that was when the forecast had said it would. Instead what we got was cloud lowering over the fells and we ate our lunch in mist with no views at all  ;D We descended toward the mine and the tramway in the mist.
 
Dubs Hut and the mist had lifted a bit


This is where the walk changed from hardly any people to a lot of people about, they were everywhere.

The way to Haystacks passes on the right side of Little Round How


At Blackbeck Tarn everyone was going up the normal route to Innominate Tarn, we decided to circle Blackbeck Tarn and take the less populated route to the south side of Innominate Tarn and Haystacks summit.
 
On the people free side of Blackbeck Tarn  :)


AW’s perched boulder. He wrote in his Western Fells guide book “note the profile in shadow, some women have faces like that”


The same boulder from the other side. Note the shape of the right hand side of the rock. Some men have faces like that  ;)


Innominate Tarn


We had another break here looking over the tarn and hoped the blustery wind would die down by the time we wanted to pitch our tent.

Green Gable and Great Gable in close up. The cloud had lifted above the tops, eventually!


There were a lot of people on Haystack summit and a group were hogging the summit cairn. It was difficult to get anywhere near the cairn and they took a while to take notice of my hints that I wanted to take a photo of Beefy without them in it.
 
Beefy on the summit of Haystacks. The people did move eventually.


High Crag and the summit tarn on Haystacks


We’d heard the tragic news about the woman who had died on Haystacks a few days earlier from John the Caldbeck Rambler bus driver that morning and our thoughts were with her and her family as we left the summit.

Pillar, Ennerdale and Seat from Haystacks


On the way down to Scarth Gap from Haystacks, High Crag and Grasmoor are the highest fells seen


The wind instead of abating as the day went on actually got stronger and the gusts blew me off my feet a couple of times on the way down to Scarth Gap. We began to question if we would be able to pitch on Seat. The wind direction was supposed to be from the south west but it was coming at us from all directions. We got onto Seat and checked out possible pitching spots. It was now after five and the wind didn’t show any sign it wanted to leave so we descended down the rough fell side toward High Wax Knott to see if we could find shelter further down. It was steep and rough going down and when we reached the wall we followed it going toward High Crag Buttress. It seemed to take ages but we eventually found a flat pitch with a nice view of Fleetwith Pike and Haystacks. The wind was still gusty but not as bad as higher up. We pitched our tent and had some food and wine and we added duff weather forecasts to the banned list. Again. Where we were we wouldn’t get a view of the sunset but it was too cold to sit out in the wind anyway so we enjoyed the views we did have from the tent and enjoyed more wine.

Our pitch on the slopes of High Crag with Fleetwith Pike and Haysyacks in shot


Fleetwith Pike in the evening sunshine


The wind eventually calmed a bit but it was well after 9pm.

The route was Gatesgarth - Fleetwith Edge - Black Star - Hopper Quarry - Dubs Hut - Blackbeck Tarn - Perched Boulder - Innominate Tarn - Haystacks - Seat - High Wax Knott - pitch below High Crag Buttress. 9km with 974m of ascent and 711m of descent.

We found it hard to believe we’d only walked 9km. The route down to High Wax Knott had been really tiring and had tested our patience and we didn’t fancy reversing the route to get back onto Seat the next day.

Day 2 to follow...
Hate will never win

beefy

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excellent pics and write up ape ...  O0
weather forecast is on the banned list ...  ;D
the wind was strong enough to pull one of the guy lines off the tent
even down beside the wall ...  :(
we were lucky to find a reasonably flat pitch eh Ape ...  8)

Leave only footprints, take only photographs, kill only time ...

pleb

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I know what you mean about weather forecasts being wrong! >:( as in getting drenched out in an electrical storm with no cover............
the tarn pic on haystacks looks idyllic....but I cant see the wind I suppose!
Whinging Moaning Old Fart

beefy

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just read this again...
blooming brilliant pic this one ...  O0


Leave only footprints, take only photographs, kill only time ...

Rhino

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Great write up April and a very enjoyable read, your pictures are lovely and really show off that ridge route up Fleetwith Pike I keep promising myself to do one day. My favourite is the last one of Fleetwith Pike it looks so idyllic  :) and although ive been on Haystacks twice I haven't noticed the boulders before  :( but both times were in clag so I may have walked past them  ;D
Bit of a duff day on the forecast, I was only following it up to 1500ft and had all the summits around where I was walking on my met office app to check out what each one was doing but I did notice on the day the clag didn't lift until late afternoon on the higher fells.
Wainwrights Completed 12/12/15

April

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the wind was strong enough to pull one of the guy lines off the tent

The tent did us proud again  :)

the tarn pic on haystacks looks idyllic....but I cant see the wind I suppose!

It wasn't that windy on the summit oddly enough. It was on the descent to Scarth Gap and on Seat where it was blowing us over.

although ive been on Haystacks twice I haven't noticed the boulders before 

The perched boulder is on the other side of Blackbeck Tarn away from the main path so you can't see it unless you explore a bit. It is worth exploring all of the top of Haystacks with all its lovely rock tors and heather, no wonder AW loved it  :)
Hate will never win

Rhino

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The perched boulder is on the other side of Blackbeck Tarn away from the main path so you can't see it unless you explore a bit. It is worth exploring all of the top of Haystacks with all its lovely rock tors and heather, no wonder AW loved it  :)

Just goes to show how much can be missed if your not looking for it  :) I think my first 100 or so Wainwrights were summit and off to the next one, its only recently I have started to relax and enjoy it a lot more. Another note in my book for future reference  O0
Wainwrights Completed 12/12/15

karl h

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Brilliant TR and pics 'Ape. The view from your camp and the tarn on Haystacks are lovely O0

April

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Thanks Karl  O0
Hate will never win

Innominate Man

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Your weather may have been dodgy but you managed some fabulous photos - plenty of good ones, even those looking back to Buttermere with low cloud hanging atmospherically above  O0
I noticed the club handle which you tried to bury in the summit cairn on Beefy's photo - telling us you encouraged them to move out of shot, Pah !
I can see the headline now - " summit slugs suffer assault & battery on Haystacks " - we won't tell  :-X
Only a hill but all of life to me, up there between the sunset and the sea. 
Geoffrey Winthrop Young

April

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I noticed the club handle which you tried to bury in the summit cairn on Beefy's photo - telling us you encouraged them to move out of shot, Pah !
I can see the headline now - " summit slugs suffer assault & battery on Haystacks " - we won't tell  :-X

 ;D  Thanks IM  :)  Where you been, like?  ;)
Hate will never win

Innominate Man

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 ;D  Thanks IM  :)  Where you been, like?  ;)
Well, had a few days off work last week - so bit of a rush to get things sorted before leaving. We were lucky enough to get Wimbledon tickets so had a few days in London. Then back to catching up at work on Monday.
So last night was catching up with events around here. O0
Only a hill but all of life to me, up there between the sunset and the sea. 
Geoffrey Winthrop Young

April

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We were lucky enough to get Wimbledon tickets so had a few days in London.

  :) Which court, who did you watch play? I didn't see much of it this year, I saw a bit of Federer vs Murray. Federer was outstanding, he is so good to watch when he plays like that and I thought he would beat Djokovic in the final. I enjoyed the doubles semi final that Jamie Murray played in, I didn't see the final being pitched on Black Fell at the time  :D
Hate will never win

Innominate Man

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Our tickets were for last Friday at No.1 court. The main match was womens doubles - which included Martina Hingis (& partner). She was so much better than the other three, really classy. That was over in two sets. After a break was a senior mens invitational doubles match - that comprised Jeremy Bates & Chris (think it was Wilkinson) vs two Swedish guys. It was quite entertaining but they should retire gracefully, as we did for the second set !
There was so much going on in the other courts that we could just sit in on any match that took our fancy.
We knew there was to be a semi-final senior womens invitational doubles .... one team of which was Martina Navratolova - which we just had to see. Can't remember who she was partnered with but the lady was very good and you got the impression that Martina had flashes of brilliance and the rest of the time her partner was covering for her (protecting her almost). They were up against Davenport & Mary Joe Fernandes. Martina won !
She was a star and held court for long after the other three left. After all the crowd probably were only there to see her.
While sitting in the court for the Martina N game (and once it had finished) we could look across into No.2 court and watch the Murray match on the big monitors.
Watched Gasquet warming up before his game against Djokovic .......... so all in all it was a busy and enjoyable day. We probably walked about six miles just going around the place.


We had fun on the way down on Thursday, because it was the Underground strike as well as a really hot day. Starting out from Kings Cross aiming for Earls Court seemed a good idea at the time ..... ended in defeat in the back of a cab ! - We were saving ourselves for Friday, honest.
Anyway, I'm sure nobody wants a TR about Wimbledon.



Only a hill but all of life to me, up there between the sunset and the sea. 
Geoffrey Winthrop Young

Ridge

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Hi


Lovely report April, the picture which Beefy picked out is stunning.
I've been catching up on all your reports that I've missed over the last few days but haven't posted on them all as I thought it would clog up the forum. What I have not found yet is the report on Beefy's 214th.


Ridge

 

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