Great Langdale Part 1

Great Langdale Part 1

Warton Crag, 25/8/13

This mission started with a re-visit to Warton Crag to spend an evening wild camping there, but first an evening walk from the car park on the edge of Warton village, so from the car park I walked into the woods with large outcrops of limestone. I had read also there are some small caves to found, so as I went through the woodland searching, but no luck, I started to make my way uphill to the summit, love these limestone woodlands of yew and hazel and I came out at the bacon, the last time I was here was in winter it was foggy then, but not today I could see across the bay to Black Combe. I decided to stop and watch the sunset from here, only another 20 minutes to go.    

      

And what a lovely sunset across, Morecambe Bay, the way down was a stumble in the twilight back to the car.

After my night of wild camping at Warton Crag, I took the car all the way into the Lake District National Park to the well-known valley of Great Langdale and found a car parking space near a bridge.

Great Langdale wildcamp

6 miles, 26/8/13

Great Langdale is a valley in the Lake District National Park. Great distinguishing it from the neighbouring valley of Little Langdale. The mouth of the valley is located at Skelwith Bridge, and the Langdale valley contains two villages, Elterwater and Chapel Stile. It is a U-shaped valley formed by glaciers, while Little Langdale is a hanging valley 

Pike o' Blisco   

For now, it was a day of sunny spells with the highest fell tops in a cloud, the one fell I was aiming for could be seen without cloud and that was Pike o' Blisco. I had found an area for the car to be parked up for the night. As I was planning a wild camp up in the mountains.So all packed up I followed the road to the Dungeon Ghyll Hotel and I took a footpath to Stool End and then the first climb up to Brown How, at Brown How I had my first rest enjoying the view as the valley started to open up around me.its here I came across a new species of plant Cryptogramma crispa Parsley fern an arctic-alpine fern found only in Snowdonia and the Lake District.

Parsley fern

The next section of the walk was up to Red Tarn, so named from the rich colour of the shale subsoil. At Red Tarn, I had another break and then I hid my rucksack in the rocks, so not to climb Pike o' Blisco with all the extra weight of the camping gear and has seen I was also returning back to Red Tarn.
The climb to the summit of Pike o' Blisco was easily done, the summit at 705 meters with two carns, the views were good even if the weather was not, at least the summits of Bowfell and the Crinkle Crags was clear with only wispy clouds skirting over there tops.

Pike o' Blisco

It was back down off the summit and back to Red Tarn to pick my rucksack up and head for my next summit Cold Pike the true south ridge of Crinkle Crags

Cold Pike from Pike o' Blisco

Cold Pike

I followed the Crinkle Crags path from Red Tarn then turned off it with Cold Pike in view I again hid my rucksack in the rocks and I made my way to the summit of Cold Pike at 701 meters, with no path to the summit, it shows most people bypass this summit, less you are Wainwright  bagging. From the summit of Cold Pike, I made my way back to the Crinkle Crags footpath I picked up my rucksack and my fate lay out in front of me in the form of Crinkle Crags.

Crinkle Crags and Bowfell

Crinkle Crags

Some mountains are obviously named by reference to their physical characteristics. Crinkle Crags is one of these. Made up of Borrowdale volcanic rock and squashed, bent and folded together by earth movement gives these rocks a rugged appearance.  

And in AW book The Southern Fells in the chapter on Crinkle Crags he does a splendid job of describing the route across the fells with a great detailed map of the south to north route and then again in reverse with a map.

I made it over the first crinkle and passed my first cairn and then came upon Bad Step, you need caution if descending, but I was not, and I was not intended to climb it with my big heavy rucksack.

Great Langdale from the first crinkle 

But there is an alternative path with an easy route up to the summit so I took this and made my way to the highest crinkle and the second crinkle out of five and it was also time to rest, there was also some more fell walkers on the summit.

From the rugged summit of Crinkle Crags I made my way steadily to the other crinkles slowly descending and with a great view of Bowfell in front of me I descended to my wild camp base Three Tarns for the night and all the time the weather was improving for a decent evening of camping.

Bowfell

I made it to my base camp and dropped my rucksack and went for a stroll around the area, to see where to pitch and to find a stream of water. There was still some fell walkers passing through the area, but soon I will be alone. I set up my tent and got cooking thinking about my 6-mile walk I had done.

Wild camp

Bowfell. 2 miles

This is one mountain I have been looking forward to doing a shapely pyramid mountain what I have seen from many angles when on my other walks. So on this beautiful evening with the fell to myself and everyone safely back at base camp, I left my tent behind for the climb of the fell the route chosen was the Climbers Traverse Path and then to reach the summit by the way of Great Slab.

I found the narrow path of the climbers traverse path, this side of Bowfell was in shade but was clear, the views were good and route finding was good I found the scree path that took me up to the Great Slab.

Great Slab

From the Great Slab I made  my way to the summit, it was a still summer evening on the summit of Bowfell with all round clear views I sat there taking it all in, for miles about I was the only one to get these views and that's why a wild camp makes it all worthwhile

.

Summit view

I left the summit and made my way back down to the Three Tarns and my tent and I had made it as the sun was setting behind the Scafell range.

27/8/13

Next morning I woke up to the sound of ravens on the cliffs, not that I could see them as I got out of the tent this morning the cloud was low around me blocking all views so I  settled down to make breakfast. Last night I had amazing views of the night sky with no light pollution, just to see the consolations. This type of camping must be done again.

Today's mission was back into Great Langdale and not onto Scafell Pike as planned with all this extra weight, I had decided this because of the low cloud covering the fells, so with no views, what was the point'  so it was to head back down and to camp at the National Trust campsite, so after packing up, I took the path to the Brand and made my way down out of the cloud onto the Brand, I passed several fell walkers who were making their way up.

I reached the valley bottom and the sun was breaking out for another hot sunny day, the cloud was still covering the tops of the fells. I made my way to the campsite and pitched up.  On the campsite, while strolling about I noticed a Buddleia bush with a profusion of butterflies so I grabbed my camera and went to inspect.

      

Peacock, Red Admiral, and Tortoiseshell butterflies.

Lingmoor Fell    4.16 miles            

The word ling in Lingmoor is another word for heather so there should be some heather to see on this walk. I left the campsite for this two-mile hike up to the summit on this sunny afternoon with intentions of doing a circular walk, I left the road for a footpath to Wall End and as you about to meet the same road again another path takes you up to Side Pike and my first sight of heather on the walk.

Ling

This walk seems to be a popular walk with many people out today, as I made my way to the summit of Side Pike and a short rest to enjoy the view, then to retrace my steps so far down Side Pike looking for a narrow path, the path was narrow in places at one point you come to a great slab of upright rock what you have to squeeze between. 

The path then meets the main path up to Lingmoor Fell following a wall to the summit as you climb the views start to open and there is a nice view back to Side Pike. I arrived at the summit and found a sheltered spot to rest and have something to eat. After my rest spot I looked for my path of the summit and on went on AW alternative route and this path as some great views of the Langdale Pikes as you descend down to Blea Tarn, this path is such a joy, with no rush to get down, I take my time to soak up the views.

Side Pike

The descent path from Lingmoor Fell

Blea Tarn sits in a hanging valley and once fed into Great Langdale as a side tributary, and then the last Ice Age a glacier-cut further down than the tributary leaving it as a hanging valley.

I arrived at Blea Tarn on this sunny evening I took the footpath around the tarn stopping for a nice long rest in the sun, there were a few people around the tarn also enjoying the weather.

Blea Tarn

It was time to move on and finish the walk so I finished the walk around the tarn this then brought me back to the road and the footpath I used at the beginning of the walk to get me back to the campsite and end to another walk.