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.

Scafell Pike

So we had the weather on our side, the daylight was long, and we were staying close enough to get a decent car parking space.  Time for Scafell Pike.

Difficulty: 8
Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Grace (12), Evie (9), Poppy (6 1/2)
9:17, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (102)
13:59, 9.5km 4h41 1027m, Scafell Pike (978, Wainwright, Hewitt)
14:35, 10.1km 5h17 1071m, Broad Crag (934, Hewitt)
15:07, 10.9km 5h49 1107m, Ill Crag (935, Hewitt)
15:54, 12.2km 6h36 1166m, Great End (910, Wainwright, Hewitt)
16:42, 14.1km 7h24 1223m, Allen Crags (785, Wainwright, Hewitt)
17:51, 16.4km 8h33 1312m, Rossett Pike (651, Wainwright, Hewitt)
19:40, 22.0km 10h22 1329m, End (102)

We parked at the National Trust car park at Old Dungeon Ghyll, there were just a couple of spaces left at 9.15am when we go there.  You could tell there were lots of people heading the same way as us, but it wasn't actually too bad until the top.  We met a couple of groups several times, leapfrogging them on the water stops.  Exchanging more than a few words was great, one three-generation group taking their grandfather up to the top.

Up to Angle Tarn, with Esk Pike overlooking on the left.

After the hot climb up we decided to stop for lunch before getting to the summit, so got some peace and quiet before we hit the crowds...  There were several boulder fields to cross, which always slows things down.

Made it to the top, Poppy looking proud.  We got quite a few comments praising her for making it, although we never really had any doubts - she certainly is a star walker with years of practice. There were a load of people at the top - lots of people stopping to soak up the sunshine and recover.

Across to Ill Crag (having crossed more boulder fields via Broad Crag), with great views across to Scafell Pike.  We decided to try and catch a bunch of extra peaks on the way back, not surprisingly the crowds disappeared straight away on these diversions! 

Across to Great End, and met another couple at the summit who offered to take a rare family picture.

Along to Allen Crags.  We'd made sure we had plenty of water, unlike a couple of days earlier when we had run out in the sunshine.

Back to Esk Hause, looking down towards home.

We stopped for a while by Angle Tarn to finish off our last food supplies (maltloaf, appropriately for this blog).

And finally to Rossett Pike, for a last panorama of the growing shadows.

Langdales in the rain

So the forecast was some rain in the afternoon, but I was hoping that by the time we got to the group of peaks it would have cleared.  Best laid plans...  Still, it was another walk from the house, going up the path onto the fell side.

Difficulty: 6

Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Grace (12), Evie (9), Poppy (6 1/2)

9:49, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (96)

11:23, 3.0km 1h34 474m, Blea Rigg (541, Wainwright)

12:23, 5.3km 2h33 660m, Sergeant Man (736, Wainwright)

12:42, 6.3km 2h53 705m, High Raise (High White Stones) (762, Wainwright, Hewitt)

13:37, 8.1km 3h48 750m, Thunacar Knott (723, Wainwright)

13:56, 8.6km 4h07 752m, Pavey Ark (700, Wainwright)

14:41, 9.7km 4h52 826m, Harrison Stickle (736, Hewitt, Wainwright)

15:31, 10.7km 5h42 879m, Pike of Stickle (709, Wainwright, Hewitt)

16:08, 11.5km 6h19 926m, Loft Crag (680, Wainwright)

18:42, 16.5km 8h53 991m, End (98)

So first up Blea Rigg, conquered the day before, but en-route to Sergeant Man.

The morning was nice, warm and sunny.

Now at the top of Sergeant Man, the last steep climb up on this walk.

And now all the way to High Raise.  A little wet underfoot, but much less soggy than when Caroline and I had walked up here before.  With the wind direction most of the walk up the gradual slope was in shelter, but once at the top there was a very strong wind.  We took cover in the walled shelter at the top and had lunch.

Now along to Thunacar Knott, and it was starting to rain.  

Across to Pavey Arc, and the rain was only getting worse, with only occasional glimpses down the valley.

 A fairly easy climb up to Harrison Stickle, and it was really raining hard.

Quite a hard walk down to the bottom of the bowl and up again to Pike of Stickle - at this point Evie was really not having fun, and Poppy was soaked through as well.  Evie had not wanted her waterproof trousers on when it started to rain, and Poppy's weren't actually that waterproof, so it wasn't too surprising.  A pity, since scrambling up Pike of Stickle was something I hoped both of them would have enjoyed.  Caroline at least was having fun.

Getting down was a team exercise.

Finally onto the final peak of the day, Loft Crag.  

The view across to Pike of Stickle.  The weather was improving a little by now.

By the time we were down it had brightened up quite a bit.  We took the opportunity to start to dry out...

And finally the walk back to the house was lovely - the Langdale valley bathed in beautiful low sunshine.