KYQ4: Loadpot and Wether Hills

Thursday, 7 November 2024

Loadpot and Wether Hills

Wether Hill summit

Tuesday, 5 November 2024

Ascent: 624 metres
Distance: 12 kilometres
Time: 3 hours 9 minutes

Wether Hill 675m 1hr 13mins
Loadpot Hill 672m 1hr 40mins

On our final day of the November fog fest, we decided to clear some Wainwright hills east of Ullswater, I had two to climb and Keith had four. We dumped John's car at the car park east of Pooley Bridge where the High Street ridge emerges and I drove us up to Howtown where I found a parking space after the cattle grid half a kilometre beyond the hotel. We walked up to the hotel and followed a concrete track alongside Fusedale Beck, Steel Knotts to our right, Bonscale Pike to our left and our objectives for today lost in the low clouds ahead.

Beyond Cote Farm, the track gives way to a path that climbs steadily initially. Hundreds of birds took off from some rowan trees along the beck and swarmed in what would have been a murmuration had they been Starlings. My Merlin app on bird sounds confirmed that they were smaller and skittish Redwings. The incline of the grassy path increased and we entered the clouds as we reached 500 metres and began the final ascent to the ridge a few hundred metres south of the undistinguished Wether Hill. There were not even sufficient stones to rebuild a small cairn. It was colder on the summit ridge and we began the simple trot across to Loadpot Hill which boasted a trig point and little else. We ate some food whilst waiting for Keith to search for the true summit on the plateau that serves as the high point. John and Keith continued to Bonscale Pike and Arthur's Pike whilst I returned to find the path back to Fusedale.

The descent was quicker than I had expected, after emerging from the cloud there were reasonable views of Steel Knotts and Beda Fell, which I had hoped to climb but I had assumed Keith and John would be back at his car about the same time as I would arrive in Pooley Bridge. I dawdled through Howtown recalling the beautiful summer's day when we had lunched there with Aileen after she had dropped us at the Kirkstone Pass so that Gregor and I could run the High Street ridge. My Merlin app identified both Fieldfare and Redwing above the woodland. The journey to Pooley Bridge was held up by a flock of sheep but I was still there before 2pm, an hour and a quarter before the others arrived. I could have climbed Beda Fell.

I drove Keith back to Glasgow, pleased that I had finally fitted an adapter and holder for my phone that could be used as a satnav device in the car. I was home by 6pm, the golden hour, but I could hardly see a thing in the mix of fog and nightfall. November high pressures may keep the wind at bay and temperatures reasonable but they make you realise that visibility is the most important condition for hill walking.