Crinkle Crags & Bad Step

After the short walk the day before it looked a good day to go for a longer trek, knowing that there were some short cuts nearer the end of the planned route.  It's a walk we had done before, although the last time Poppy had fallen over right next to a long drop down to a waterfall, we passed that point this time with more care!

Difficulty: 6

Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Grace (13), Evie (10), Poppy (7)

9:53, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (100)

12:54, 6.2km 3h01 731m, Crinkle Crags South Top (First Crinkle) (834, Hewitt)

13:17, 6.8km 3h23 787m, Crinkle Crags-Long Top (Second Crinkle) (859, Hewitt, Wainwright)

13:55, 7.5km 4h01 804m, Shelter Crags (815, Hewitt)

15:05, 9.4km 5h11 986m, Bowfell (902, Wainwright, Hewitt)

18:54, 17.9km 9h01 1093m, End (103)

We drove down and parked in the National Trust car park next to the Old Dungeon Ghyll hotel.

Setting off with an easy flat section with a great view of most of the walk to come.

Looking up the valley to the Crinkle Crags.

Evie, too cool for school.

Poppy, leading our friends up the relentless path.

And safely past the 'waterfall of near death', up to the flatter section, looking at the ridge to come.

Evie, still cool, with refreshments.

Crinkle Crags, the Hewitt, getting slightly colder and a little less view.

Moving on, looking towards the second crinkle.

Occasional views down the valley.

Poppy, looking at Grace who had (as ever) gone up ahead and was heading for the fun way up.

My girls working out how to get up the bad step.  Grace first, who then helped Poppy up.  Lily then found us half way up, and seeing that Poppy had made it up was determined to follow her, so Grace helped another one up.  I bravely followed, and was very proud I didn't need Grace's help!

Lily and Poppy at the Crinkle (the Wainwright), a little windy...

Myself at the Wainwright.

Panorama, looking down the valley with Lingmoor on the right hand side.

Shelter Crags, Grace is not looking impressed at having to wait for the rest of us.  At this point Jo turned right and headed back to the pub for a drink, the rest of us somehow decided that carrying on walking was the better plan.

So up we went, in the direction of Bow Fell.

The view from the top of Bow Fell was not, after all, worth climbing up for.

However, coming back down towards Angle Tarn, the clouds cleared and the low sun was amazing.

I have to admit I took quite a few versions of this photo, trying to capture the awesome green colours of the grass.

Angle Tarn, mirror like.

Slightly more disturbed now.

Poppy, contemplating just how far back we had to go to get to the car.

Back to flat ground, looking back across the valley floor to Lingmoor.

Great light again at the end of a long day.

Crinkle Crags and all the rest

After completing far more peaks than I'd anticipated the previous day, this was the only walk left - we could have split it into two, but with good conditions it could all be managed in a single day.  The weather report had a chance of rain after lunch, but we took those odds.  We could always have headed back early...

Difficulty: 8
Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Grace (12), Evie (9), Poppy (6 1/2)
9:19, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (100)
11:24, 4.5km 2h05 606m, Pike of Blisco (705, Wainwright, Hewitt)
12:23, 6.5km 3h03 768m, Cold Pike (701, Wainwright, Hewitt)
13:40, 8.6km 4h20 933m, Crinkle Crags South Top (First Crinkle) (834, Hewitt)
14:00, 9.2km 4h40 982m, Crinkle Crags (859, Wainwright, Hewitt)
14:32, 9.9km 5h12 995m, Shelter Crags (815, Hewitt)
15:34, 11.6km 6h14 1166m, Bowfell (902, Wainwright, Hewitt)
16:34, 13.3km 7h14 1268m, Esk Pike (885, Wainwright, Hewitt)
19:35, 21.0km 10h15 1358m, End (100)

Keen to avoid several miles of road walking, we parked at the Old Dungeon Ghyll NT car park.  Around the same time as the previous day, but the clouds meant lots of spaces.  

Along the valley floor, then starting the climb up, around 600m of ascent before the first peak, around two thirds of that to get to Red Tarn.

Top of Pike of Blisco, views across to Windermere, Red Tarn and the Langdale valley, and also to the Old Man of Coniston.

Now down to Red Tarn, and trying to avoid much of the bogs at the bottom, up to Cold Pike.  Poppy wasn't too happy - turned out her trousers were too tight, but we managed to find the actual path up to the ridge on the left - a big win over when Caroline and I had walked up here.  Meanwhile, Grace & Evie had decided on the direct ascent up the steepest route, and Caroline gamely followed them.  We were first to the top by a while...  The second photo shows the route to the Crinkle Crags.

After crossing much of the distance, we decided it was lunch time, so found a sheltered spot overlooking the valley.  It was pretty windy all along the ridge, I'm assuming it's always like this. 

Up to the first Crinkle Crag, Evie clearly not impressed by climbing merely a Hewitt.  Still, a good view down the valley.

Now to the second Crinkle, looking ahead here to the walk to come - along to Shelter Crags, and then up to Bowfell and Esk Pike all the way to the left of the picture.

Now at Shelter Crags, another Rhubarb and Custard each to distribute.

A rare non-peak shot, showing the walk ahead up to Bowfell.

I had great memories of the diagonal slabs of rock, which weren't as large as I'd remembered.  Clearly I've just grown since last time.

Now at the top of Esk Pike - the weather had held off, despite the cloud cover there had been no rain.  So we'd made the full walk, and had officially run out of Langdale peaks with a day to spare.

Time for the long walk back down the hill to the car.

Crinkle Crags

Another route that I've reconstructed from the photos.  I originally thought we'd done Esk Pike on this walk, but given the timing in the photos I'm pretty sure we went down from Ore Gap,

Walking out along the valley floor with most of the walk in sight.

Looking back after an hour or so.

Looking along the crags towards Bowfell.

Quite a dapper fellow.

Looking back from just before the first crinkle, with Pike O' Blisco on the left and Cold Pike near right.

Climbing up the first Crinkle.

We avoided the bad step to the second crinkle, pausing for lunch at the back before making our way up the top.

After making my way down the boulder field, this was the enticing view towards Bowfell. 

However, I needed to wait for Caroline first.  Here she is, coming down the same boulder field. 

Most of the way up Bowfell, looking back the ridge we had come up.

Top of Bowfell.

The way back down to Angle Tarn.

 And finally down via Rossett Gill.