Wildcamp on Grasmoor

DAY 1 - Saturday 6th May 2017 - It didn't quite go to plan to start with! I had an early finish on Friday, and was hoping to shoot off up to the Lake District that afternoon to spend Friday night on the Fells. Unfortunately the weather forecast didn't want to play along. Sure, it was clear & sunny, but it was also quite cold, with blustery winds...and those winds would only be stronger at altitude.

I checked the ever reliable Mountain Weather Information Service website, which advised that winds & cloud were easing from late Saturday afternoon to being a clear night, with Sunday being the best day of the weekend.

So, Saturday lunchtime I through my rucksack into the back of my car, and headed up the M6 to Cumbria.

Two hours later, I was heading over the Newlands Pass towards Buttermere, It was quite busy with cars lining the sides of the quite narrow roads. Luckily I was heading a bit further on, past Buttermere, along the road that ran along the edge of Crummock Water, towards the car park at Lanthwaite Green.

After 'booting up', I grabbed my pre-made packed lunch and headed down to Crummock Water's edge, following a pleasant footpath over a couple of fields and through some pleasant woodland onto the far side shoreline. From this point I could see the challenge that lay ahead. This was Grasmoor End. The mighty fell, at 2,791 feet seemingly erupting from the lakeshore.

After having my lunch, and snapping a few photos along the way, I returned to my car to pick up my 12kg rucksack and begin the trek. It wasn't a direct ascent of Grasmoor that I had planned. No, I had couple of peaks to reach before Grasmoor, with Grasmoor being the milestone 50th Wainwright I have summited.

First, I had to get to the top of Whiteside (Wainwright #49). This ascent was a beast. 1,885 feet over about 1½ miles, more or less right from the start. It was straight up all the way, with just a slight let up in the gradient around the subsidiary summit of Whin Ben. Quite a few folks were heading down.... I was the only one heading up. Some parts were a bit of a scramble, so had to take a bit of extra care, especially with a heavy pack. A slip or stumble, or a freak gust of wind could have ended in tears.

I'd given myself 2 hours to get to the summit, and I did it in just under that. On 'topping out' onto the summit I had a clearer view of my path along the ridge to Hopegill Head, a Wainwright i had previously visited in September 2016 as part of the Coledale Horseshoe route, then over Sand Hill down to Coledale Hause before the long slog to the summit of Grasmoor.

The ridge to Hopegill Head was quite blustery & so I tried to stay out of the worst of the wind by sticking to the path just below the ridge line. It was a 'flying visit' to Hopegill Head as it is a very exposed peak and was getting the full brunt of the wind, which didn't let up until I had crossed the topped of Sand Hill, descended the scree path down Sand Hill, and reached the beck on the far side of Coledale Hause.

Time for a quick break. I took the opportunity to wander down to the beck, get a bit of respite from the wind and fill up my water filter & water bottle, as this was the only water source on my route. Whilst there, I spotted another wild camper had already pitched there tent a hundred feet or so above me on Eel Crag. It was a very exposed pitch they had chosen, so no doubt they were feeling the wind as well. But what a view they had!

But for me, my next stop was the summit of Grasmoor, and to find a site to pitch my tent. Sunset was still a couple of hours off, so plenty of time. I'd read about a route to the Grasmoor summit, which spurs off the main path heading over the fells towards Buttermere, but this would be on a seldom used grass path. The route that I had read advised it was quite tricky to find the start of the grass path, and that more than likely you will have gone past the path before you look back and see it!

After a few minutes walking up the main Buttermere path, I checked my gps location on my OS map on my phone, and you guessed it, I had passed the start of the grass path... but honestly, it wasn't even there! I headed onto the fellside, tramping through the grass & jumping over the narrow beck, and after plodding through the grass I did eventually find what looked to be a path, and followed that. Every now and again you could make out boot-prints in the dried mussy patches, so I was on my way. Success!

After quite a pleasant stroll along the quite flat summit plateau, I finally reached the wind shelter on the top of Grasmoor, and that was my first 50 fells summited. Unfortunately this was no place to set up camp, as the plateau was strewn with rocks. I headed on, past the summit along the descending ridge to Grasmoor End, and a bit further along found the perfect rock-free, flat, grassy pitch to put my tent. The wind had died down by now (either that or the ridge behind me was sheltering me from it) and the cloud had cleared to leave an amazing view from where I could watch the sunset whilst I ate my dinner of chicken tikka curry and rice, washed down with a cider. Bliss!

DAY 2 - Sunday 7th May 2017 - My plan to get up during the middle of the night to have a go at some astro-photography never did materialise, and I woke at just after 6:00am, the sun already risen. But something interesting caught my eye on the eastern horizon. It was clear blue skies all around, but to the east: cloud, lots of thick cloud, below me!

Grasmoor was situated on the western edge of a cloud inversion which swamped all fells to the east, with only the highest peaks visible above the clouds. After a coffee & breakfast oat & fruit bar, the tent was packed, and I headed back along the Grasmoor summit ridge, east towards my next stop, Wandope (2,533ft). As I passed back over the Grasmoor summit path and dropped towards Wandope the views just got better, with the whole of the Lake District infront of me, covered in low lying cloud.

I stopped on Wandope to capture a timelapse of the cloud flowing across the fells, and whilst that was running, took the time to have a cheeky hot chocolate & biscuits.

Next stop was Whiteless Pike (2,165ft), and this was a gentle stroll from Wandope along a narrowing ridge towards the summit. As the sun rose in the sky, the cloud inversion slowly started to burn away, meaning the views were opening up on either side.

Looking down into the Newlands valley, I could hear people cheering and banging pots & pans from the parking area on Newlands Hause. It turns out they were cheering on the cyclists taking part in the annual Fred Whitton Challenge - a 112 mile cycle race which traverses over six of the Lake District's mountain passes: Kirkstone, Honister, Newlands, Whinlatter, Handknott & Wrynose, starting and ending in Grasmere.

After reaching Whiteless Pike summit, i decided to take a few minutes and watch the cyclists make there way over Newlands. Whilst there, I also heard a bit of commotion from some birds. On closer inspection I spotted two Ravens harassing a bird of prey, a hawk of some type. The Raven's eventually gave up, and i sat watching the hawk soar for a few minutes.

Eventually I made a move, and began the descent down Whiteless Breast to the hause with the ridge to Rannerdale Knotts, my final summit of the trip. This was a lowly 1,165ft summit, but the descent, especially with my 12kg rucksack meant my knees were taking some punishment, and the trek onto Rannerdale Knotts summit was slow, but I eventually made it, and from the summit, took in an amazing panormaic view of the Buttermere fells, and along Crummock Water. I could also see down into Rannderdale itself and see the bluebells from a height, and that would be my final destination before heading back to the car.

By the time I was heading down the path to the mouth of Rannerdale, the sun was high in the sky, and the cloud inversion had burnt away leaving clear blue skies, and a glorious, warm day.

That made the mass of bluebells even more spectacular. I was surprised by just how many there were, and how far they spread. Bluebells normally grow in woodland, however the Rannerdale bluebells are one of the unique locations where they grow on the open fellside.

Legend says that a battle once occured here, when Norman invaders were ambushed and massacred by Celtic and Norse forces. They say the bluebells are so prolific here because they grow in the blood of the defeated Normans. Gruesome!

There were quite a few people also enjoying the bluebells who had either wandered over from Buttermere village, or parked nearby.

My car was just under a mile up the road, back at Lanthwaite Green, so after snapping a few photos of the Rannderdale bluebells, I had a leisurely stroll back to the car. Another cracking wild-camp in the bag!

Mark