Yewbarrow, and just one more

We'd walked the Yewbarrow ridge before, staying at Bowderdale three years earlier, but I hoped that we could fit in Red Pike as well this year.

Difficulty: 7

Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (16)

11:08, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (68)

13:19, 2.5km 2h10 614m, Yewbarrow (627, Wainwright, Hewitt)

13:46, 3.4km 2h37 647m, Yewbarrow North Top (Stirrup Crag) (616, Hewitt)

15:26, 6.6km 4h17 1116m, Red Pike (Wasdale) (826, Wainwright, Hewitt)

15:52, 7.7km 4h44 1199m, Scoat Fell (841, Wainwright, Hewitt)

16:07, 8.3km 4h58 1201m, Steeple (819, Wainwright)

16:40, 10.1km 5h31 1349m, Haycock (797, Wainwright, Hewitt)

18:35, 16.9km 7h26 1359m, End (68)

We parked at the car park just after the bridge on the left, right at the bottom of the Yewbarrow ridge path.

It's one of those paths, where you have no idea how it gets up the rocky part at the top, but you mainly focus on continuing to make progress up the steep section and ignore what the future has in store.

Nearing the top, for a view across Wastwater.

Looking down at Isabelle, and across to Middle Fell.

Evie at the top of Yewbarrow.

Poppy at the top of Yewbarrow North, a little like Cambridge North - it's there, and some people swear by it, but most people can pretty much ignore it's existence.

Heading down the steep section to Dore Head, the saddle point between Yewbarrow and Red Pike opposite.  Once we'd got everyone down this, we decided to split the party, with Jo taking the four smallest children back leaving myself, Caroline, Isabelle & Dave to make our way up to Red Pike to compete the planned walk.

We made it to Red Pike!  Surprisingly quickly given the lack of small children to encourage...

Caroline at Red Pike, the cliffs down the side are quite impressive from here.  At this point, given we were quite close to Scoat Fell, we decided to just do one more Wainwright.

Yes!  We managed to get to Scoat Fell without much difficulty.  This photos looks east towards Black Crag & Pillar.

Now at this point, I spotted the fairly accurately named Steeple, and we all decided that it didn't look too far away, so we really should to another Wainwright.

Panorama from Steeple, sweeping from Ennerdale at the left to the ridge with Pillar, Black Crag and Scoat Fell on the right.

From Steeple, looking back the way we'd come.  At this point we could make a circular walk of it, if we just headed a little more to the west.

Fortunately that path brought us 500m from Haycock, so we spent the extra 25min or so on a little diversion to our final Wainwright of the day.  Here looking towards Ennerdale.

So finally we headed down the path back towards Wastwater, turning directly into the very strong wind for the first section - my eyes were streaming so much I could barely see where to put my feet.

And finally we got to see Yewbarrow again, lit up in the late afternoon sunshine.

Yewbarrow

The first walk proper on this holiday was from the cottage we were staying in.  Possibly one of our favourites to date, this National Trust property was brilliant.  The obvious walk was up Yewbarrow, although in hindsight this was our nicest day and we should have gone up higher.  Still, we were partly concerned with how Poppy would fair, so didn't want to be too ambitious on the first day.

Difficulty: 3

Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (12), Grace (10), Evie (7), Poppy (4 1/2)

0.0km 0m, Start (111)

2.5km 539m, Yewbarrow (627)

7.6km 598m, End (112)

Setting off from the cottage, there was a long track from the farm down to the lakeside, with quite amazing views already.

Then the obvious ridge walk up to Yewbarrow visible.  The path follows the wall up the first section, and then we don't like to talk to much early on about what the next section might be like.

But first a little more walking around the edge of the lake.

Now this is the steeper section, and the girls were great about giving Poppy the guidance and support she needed.  She was well aware that she needed to climb it all herself to count though!

Finally we reached the top, with Evie - obvious very careful to not disturb the cairn.

One of the great things about this time of year, especially on some of the less famous peaks, is the lack of people.  You can get very spoilt being used to the whole fellside to yourselves.

The walk down got a little steep, with Caroline accusing me of planning it all along, but mainly it was a geography lesson for Isabelle.  She'd just done river formation, and was completely bowled over by being able to look down and see all the features laid out beneath her.

Hmm... this was the natural order for slopes such as this.  Evie at the bottom already, Grace not too far behind.  Isabelle more cautious but making sure that Poppy had some help finding the best route down, me just behind in case Poppy needed more help.  Caroline is no where to be seen, but if you listen carefully you can just hear her whimpering about 50m behind,

Onto flatter ground, heading down the valley back to Wast Water.

And finally walking back along the lake side to the cottage.  All in all a very successful walk!