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
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
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
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...