Above the Clouds - Bowfell & Crinkle Crags
The weather forecast for the end of May Bank Holiday Weekend was as touch-and-go as always. I was initially planning a wild camp, but the forecast of heavy rain, and the possibilities of thunderstorms put an end to that idea. Sunday was forecast to be the best day of the 3 day weekend, so Sunday morning I jumped in my car and headed up the M6 motorway into the Lake District once again, to my favourite valley - Great Langdale.
Today's hike was to start at Dungeon Ghyll and head up to Bowfell - which at 2,960 feet is the 8th highest mountain in England - then across the ridge over Crinkle Crag's before descending down the flanks of Pike o' Blisco and back to Dungeon Ghyll. This would be two more Wainwright fells ticked off, numbers 54 & 55, with Bowfell also being my highest peak to date.
It was a great start to the walk, making my way on the footpath past the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, and through Stool End Farm, where the fields were full of native Herdwick sheep and there lambs relaxing in the buttercups.
Past the farm, the farmland terrain gives way to the rougher and rockier fellside of Oxendale. Following the footpath, it wasn't long before the ascent to Bowfell began. Crinkle Crags lay high above me, and at the time their tops were shouded in cloud which seemed to be flowing over them.
Further along the path, following the beck, I eventually came to a series of waterfalls and pools, situated above the largest cascade, known as Whorneyside force. I stopped to take a few snaps of the colourful rocks in the crystal clear mountain water.
Then the ascent took me by the side of the ominously named 'Hell Gill'. Luckily the path didn't enter the gully itself, its narrow and steep walls would have been impossible to escape. Instead a pitched path ran by the side of the ghyll and onto the fell-side plateau of Busco Sike. This was a wide expanse of fell-side, which narrowed futher ahead with a thin, intermittent, grassy path faintly visible. The towering Crinkle Crags looming over me on my left and the 'Band' ridge, the more popular Bowfell path, on my right.
Looking right in front, should have been the summit of Bowfell, but instead there was a wall of cloud heading towards me.....but it was onward and upwards, into the clouds....
Walking through the clouds was an eerie experience, sounds were very clear, the cloud seemingly stopping any echoes - its was like being in a soundproof room. Visibility was 100 meters at best, and sheep seemingly appeared out of nowhere, just turning to look at the fool climbing the mountain. Eventually I reached the junction with the path from the Band, and from then on it was a wide but rocky path, past the landmark junction of Three Tarns and up towards the Bowfell summit plataeu. As the ascent continued, cloud started to clear, then come back over, but it was looking like I was reaching the top of the cloud layer, and should soon have blue skies above me.
And I wasn't far wrong. Even more so, I really wasn't expecting the view that ended up appearing infront of me.
On the summit of Bowfell, I could look to the east, back over Great Langdale as clear as anything, with a sweeping view from Skiddaw and Blencathra in the north east, across the Langdale Pikes and Helvellyn range in the east, with the northern tip of lake Windermere catching the sunlight ahead of me.
Looking west was a completely different story.... a huge cloud inversion covered everything to the west,the tops of the clouds rolling like waves. There was no chance of a view of the Isle of Man today. The clouds were 'breaking' like waves over the ridge which ran north the south from Bowfell, along Crinkle Crags down to the Coniston fells. Every now and again the summit of Bowfell would become shrouded in cloud as the next wave of cloud 'broke', before clearing again to reveal the massive weather front.
After grabbing some lunch whilst capturing a time-lapse, I headed down of the surprisingly busy summit (it was a bank holiday, so quite a few people were out walking), and head back down towards the path juntcion of Three Tarns, but not before stopping to take in the view at the huge monolith known as the Great Slab. This is a huge rock formation which is a completely flat slab of rock, tilted at an angle.
There is another route of ascent up Bowfell called the 'climbers traverse' which makes its way up a narrow river of boulders on the nearside edge of the Great Slab, but the will be for another day.... for now my next stop will be the ridge line of Crinkle Crags.....
The path along the 'Crinkles' was an interesting one, winding itself up, over, and around the rock towers which formed the smaller Crinkles, and skirting round the Langdale valley side of the ridge, which offered fantastic views (when the cloud held back). But as the day pressed on, the cloud began to thin & receed back to the western side of the ridge.
The path continued to scrambled up the larger Crinkles, then decend back down the other side, and I made sure to visit the summit of each Crinkle, so as not to miss any out. Eventually I got to the summit of the highest Crinkle, known as 'Long Top'. Interestingly enough it has twin summit cairns, some hundred or so meters apart. I went for a wander along 'Long Top' and looking north could see the cloud slowly rolling back to reveal the summit of Scafell Pike in the distance, floating like an island in the clouds. There was a picturesque tarn on the summit, which made a fantastic foreground for a few snaps of Scafell Pike.
Using the zoom on my camera, I had a closer look at the Scafell Pike summit, and boy was it busy! It seemed every man & his dog had taken advantage of the bank holiday weekend to get to the top of the highest mountain in England.... to the point where it looked like there was a queue to get on the summit plinth. I'm hoping its not that busy when I get round to tackling it.
Back on the Crinkles, after having a breather for a few minutes, I headed down off Long Top. This was an exciting bit, as part of this route involved tackling the 'Bad Step'. Ordinarily the pat would drop down and through a gully, however the problem here is that there is a huge chock-stone cutting of the route, meaning a short scrambled is required to drop down the side of the gully and back onto the path. After weighing up the route, I slowly made the decent... three points of contact at all times, and slowly checking my footing before lowering myself down. At the bottom, looking up it didn't look as bad as it was, and was probably about a 10 to 12 foot scramble. Next time I head up this way, I'll be sure to ascend the Bad Step, then I've tackled it both ways.
There was just one smaller Crinkle to go, before the walk turned to the descent. The path then headed towards Red Tarn, which is nestled between Pike O' Blisco and Cold Pike, two fells I had summited earlier in the year. Last time I was up this way, I was hiking through snow, this time the sun was beating down, and it had turned into quite a hot day.
It was a long descent, and the path was all pitched so was like walking down rocky, steps, but the view in front of me took in the full route I had completed, and I could see Hell Gill, Bowfell, which had once again become shouded in cloud, and the fantastic ridge of Crinkle Crags.
The bottom of the path crossed Oxendale beck, where I took the opportunity to top up my water, before rejoining the path through lower Oxendale to Stool End Farm.
After tackling the walk, it came as no surprise to discover that Wainwright himself listed Bowfell within his top 10 best fell walks. He also described Crinkle Crags as 'Lakeland's best ridge mile', and I really can't argue with the great man.
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