A Blog by the Wild and Woolly Walker.
It’s always such a pleasure to visit anywhere in the Lake District and I always feel so grateful for the privilege of being able to explore its beauty. By far my favourite place to be in the whole world is the Langdale Valley; there’s something so mesmerising about the Langdale Pikes!
As we staying so close to the Langdale Pikes, in Chapel Stile, Dan was keen to capture sunrise over the Langdale Pikes from the Langdale Boulders. He got up first thing and ventured the 100 meters down the road to capture these images of the Langdale Pikes from the Langdale Boulders.
While the weather was dry first thing, we didn’t pick the best weekend to venture up the Pikes, with storm Dennis blustering through the Langdale valley; but we were really quite determined to get to the top of the Langdale Pikes! As luck would have it, the winds did calm slightly for us so we decided to park at the National Trust car park close to the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel and make our break for the summit.
We had decided to go off on the footpath behind the Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, cross the Dungeon Ghyll stream and ascend via Mark Gate up to Loft Crag. Sadly, as storm Dennis had dropped so much rain the day before, the ghyll was much higher and faster that normal which meant it was much harder to cross. Rather than take the risk, we decided to ascend via Pike Howe, going up to the path between Harrison Stickle and Loft Crag. This path was fairly sheltered from the wind too, so a good path for us to choose!
Once on the top, the sun came out briefly meaning that Dan could capture some specular images!
Then we decided to venture across to Pike Of Stickle. This was much more exposed and the wind became stronger as the footpath went around the corner. We therefore decided it was much wiser to not attempt the last little scramble to the summit. Scrambling in high wind isn’t much fun!
Harrison Stickle was the last to climb, and the most challenging in terms of staying on your feet in the wind! Due to the wind, we decided not to hang around on the top for long. We descended towards Pavey Ark where the snow was much deeper; so we stopped for a break and to put on our Microspikes. Microspikes are a must have for those hiking in snow!
Believe it or not, I looked down to find my Mum and Dad climbing up the path from Stickle Tarn! So we sauntered across to Pavey Ark together with a view to descend via Easy Gully. As we approached the top of Easy Gully, it became clear that it wasn’t safe – the wind had caused an upward snow drift and the snow at the top of the path wasn’t safe. We made the decision to turn around and descend down to stickle tarn on the footpath between Harrison Stickle and Pavey Ark – this was much safer and more sheltered.
This route down was an easy one, with a good footpath all the way down. The Stickle Ghyll was again quite higher and fast flowing, so we decided to follow the footpath all the way down to the bottom rather than cross onto the other side. All in all, a fantastic day of climbing up the Langdale Pikes. I was very thankful to have our OS Map though for the various re-routing we had to do, my Microspikes for the snow and my thermals to protect against the wind chill. Without these, our climb wouldn’t have been half as fun! Check out the links below to buy via Amazon, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
OS Active Explorer Map (OL6) – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0319469247/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=danmearstv-21&camp=1634&creative=6738&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0319469247&linkId=613a48fd42205d0c17022f4031fbd9c9
Ice Breaker Merino 260 Base Layer (Top) – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078W6J3SD/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=danmearstv-21&camp=1634&creative=6738&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B078W6J3SD&linkId=974224fcaf33393edefbee62d04ec6ec
Ice Breaker Merino 260 Base Layer (Bottoms) – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078WFKGTL/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=danmearstv-21&camp=1634&creative=6738&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B078WFKGTL&linkId=c1903645ef1a766b925eb35da8a3a243
Dan finished the day off up at Elterwater Common, with the aim of capturing the Langdale Pikes from there. As luck would have it, when he arrived there was a snow storm over Wetherlam which caught his interest and produced the fantastic image below.
All the images in this blog will be available soon as high quality prints for you to enjoy in your own home from the Lake District Print Collection.