KYQ4: High Street and Far Eastern Fells

Hartsop Dodd

For only the second time I started a walk in the Lakes from Hartsop. It was the perfect summer's day and Gregor had a bagatelle of smaller Wainwright hills east of Kirkstone to climb. It would involve a lot of zipping about so I suggested starting from Hartsop so that he could attempt them all. I could climb High Street and 7 adjacent Wainwright hills, I was 30% into my second round of Wainwrights and had greater scope to climb a group of hills. They were higher but closer together and had shorter ascents. Hopefully, we would meet back at Hartsop in 5 hours. Well, that was the plan.

Wednesday 3 July 2019

Ascent: 965 metres
Distance: 18 kilometres
Time: 4 hrs 58mins

Thornthwaite Crag 784m 1hr 50mins
Mardale Ill Bell 760m 2hrs 28mins
High Street 828m 2hrs 48mins
Rampsgill Head 792m 3hrs 17mins
High Raise 802m 3hrs 30mins
The Knott 739m 3hrs 53mins

After a lazy breakfast and the drive to Hartsop, we struggled to find a parking place and had to settle for a crowded space on the A592 north of Brother's Water. It was 11:30am before we were ready to walk and we agreed to try and get back by 4:30pm. We walked to Hartsop village and then split up, Gregor to climb the steep north ridge of Hartsop Dodd and me to take the path alongside Hayeswater Gill to Hayeswater.

I had only visited Hayeswater once before during the Karrimor International Mountain Marathon (KIMM) when the overnight camp for over 200 tents was at 500 metres on a boggy hillside. We were awakened at 6am the next morning by the race controller with a megaphone and a cruel sense of humour. He took great pleasure in wishing us good morning and then telling us that there had been six-inches of snow overnight and that the male and female latrines had collapsed under the weight of snow. We would have to use a couple of open trenches for morning ablutions. The route that morning started with a lung-bursting 1000ft climb to Thornthwaite Crag before a long convoluted route back to Threlkeld near Keswick.

I had wrongly assumed there would be a good path alongside Hayeswater and then on the climb to Thornthwaite Crag but this was not the case, it was an intermittant sheep trail. Hayeswater must be the only sheet of water in the Lakes without a path around it, which explained why there were only sheep in the dale. It would have been far quicker and less tiring to go with Gregor up Hartsop Dodd but at least I was able to confirm that the awfulness of the climb in the KIMM was an accurate memory. In the heat of the midday sun and with the insects biting it was a summertime reprise of the agony. Thornthwaite Crag possesses one of the largest cairns in the Lakes and provided a suitable perch for some lunch. Gregor must have passed through here half an hour earlier.

I walked out to Mardale Ill Bell, a slight detour but I had already walked all the Wainwright's Far Eastern Fells south of here. It was a breeze with hardly any ascent. Then I completed the triangle by heading north-west along a good path to High Street. There were quite a few walkers about, mainly older couples and everyone had a smile on their face to celebrate the conditions. I have seldom had such clear visibility in the Lakes, the Helvellyn range seemed within touching distance and even Mickledore on Scafell was distinctly visible.

The long stone wall to High Street took away any sense of remoteness. I did not stop at the summit, there were two clusters of walkers in animated conversation and Gregor had texted me to say that he was heading to Place Fell, his last hill of the day. I scampered on to Rampsgill Head, remembering the last time I walked here in 2003 with my eldest daughter we had seen a golden eagle. The last pair in England were to be found here but they have since disappeared and England is now bereft of eagles, I blame the government.

It is only five minutes from Rampsgill Head to Kidsty Pike but I gave it a miss, having wrongly assumed it was just an outlying top and not a Wainwright. I had decided to go over to High Raise instead to avoid making a long detour in the future from Wether Hill. It was worth the extra distance to meet two Mancunians who were lunching there. We launched into a conversation that captured everything that is good about hillwalking: common experiences, getting slower, people, places, butterflies and beer. I wrenched myself away after a quarter of an hour knowing that I would need to speed up to get back to the car for Gregor who had texted again to say he had completed his seven hills and was only 30 minutes away from the car.

I returned via Rampsgill Head and dropped down to The Knott where I met a couple at the summit. The man had also competed in the 1992 KIMM and we shared our experience of trying to find the control points near The Knott. I would have gladly spent another couple of hours on the fells but time was up so I abandoned my plan to climb Rest Dodd and The Nab and found the path down to Hayeswater Gill and from there back along the track to Hartsop. The views up Pasture Bottom that separates Hartsop Dodd from Gray Crag were enticing and just like the last visit to the hills around Hartsop it had been a perfect day on the fells. Gregor's seven hills had taken him less than 4 hours including a four mile run back to the car and he had the chance to take a walk round Brother's Water whilst I was on my way down. My anguish was as much about having dragged him up so many Munros whist he was still at school as it was of the inevitable reversal of our relative speed on the hills.