KYQ4: Harter Fell and Green Crag

Harter Fell summit

Thursday, 4 July 2024

Ascent: 722 metres
Distance: 13 kilometres
Time: 3 hours 34 minutes

Harter Fell 653m 1hr 7mins
Green Crags 489m 2hrs 21mins

General election day was laced with heavy rains and low clouds. We managed a walk to Skelwith Bridge alongside the surging River Brathay, slithering down the wet rocks to observe the Skelwith Force. After an early lunch at Chesters, we continued on Aileen's favourite walk to Colwith and back to Langdale in another heavy shower. In this crazy summer, there was lots to keep us occupied - the Tour de France, Wimbledon, and the General Election. By 5pm the rains had abated and we decided to seize the evening for a late foray into the hills.

I naively thought we could knock off Harter Fell and Green Crag in two and a half hours as we set off over Wrynose Pass and down the Duddon Valley to the car park by the Froth Pot. Neither of us had loaded the OS map onto our phones and it was a cellular dead zone so it took a while before we found the right car park, then by examining the forestry notices we figured out a possible route to Harter Fell. It was a kilometre along the track through the Dunnerdale forest. to a clearing at Birks and it was by happenchance that we spotted a post with an arrow at the start of a barely noticeable path that we assumed to be the way to Harter Fell summit.

The path meandered through a boggy heather-lined undergrowth and then began to rise steeply up a stony gulley that doubled as a stream. After recent rains, there was no escape from wading up the water course. There was dense tree cover and little respite, so I was reduced to taking a rest after every 100 steps, the altimeter on my watch was showing that this was giving over 20 metres of ascent. Gregor had charged ahead after we agreed we should meet as he descended Green Crag as I ascended. He could collect the car key and change into his road running shoes if he decided to run back over Wrynose Pass.

I was relieved to arrive at a gate at the top of the wooded climb and the gradient became easier over a short grassy path that twisted towards the splendid summit of Harter Fell. The Eskdale fells including the Scafells appeared and the coastal plain was visible towards Sellafield. There was also phone reception so that the OS map could be loaded. There was no path shown on the map to the edge of a forested area to the south-west but there was a path in that direction that I took and it did lead down to the edge of the forest from where a good but boggy path continued to Grassguards Gill and a gate leading to the wide water covered path towards Green Crag.

I met Gregor who was on his way down, he had decided to run over Wrynose to the Three Shires Hotel. I had another 30 minutes climbing the ankle-deep bog to the summit of Green Crag. It was time for a drink and sit down as I surveyed the views. I took a slightly different descent route that had a good path initially but deteriorated into a bog on long grass. It was with some relief that I reached the Dunnerdale forest and a good track that skirted around Harter Fell for 3 kilometres and back to the car park over the River Duddon.

It was a twenty-minute drive over Wrynose to the Three Shires Inn in Little Langdale. Gregor had run it after a 13-kilometre hill walk over some really tough terrain and then managed to get the Strava Crown for the ascent of Wrynose. We got back to Langdale with just enough time for a shower and some food before the big reveal of the Exit Poll at 10pm. We would have a Labour government elected with a landslide majority. I normally stay up for election results but after an hour of listening to politicians spinning their tales of exhilaration and excuses, and having utmost trust in John Curtice, I turned in. I woke at 3am in time to watch the demise of Grant Shapps, Jacob Rees Mogg and Liz Truss. After that sleep was easy.