Volume Six: The North Western Fells
One of the harder groups to get to for those based to the south. Also one where I struggle to remember individual days here.
The main group is based around Grisedale Pike and is relatively simple to pick up half a dozen tops in one of the less well known horseshoes in the district. There’s another horseshoe to the east around the Newlands Valley with another half dozen tops.
I think that most of my activity in this group has been the aforementioned Grisedale Pike and Grasmoor peaks. The former looks particularly fine from the Braithwaite direction and the east ridge is a fine and increasingly airy way to the summit. Once attained the remainder of the peaks are arranged around the saddle of Coledale Hause and readily accessible. Thus it’s more than likely that having done one I’ll have done the others on the same day.
The Newlands Horseshoe is mostly covered by the route of the Anniversary Waltz fell race but I’d done them all prior to first doing that race.
To the north of the main fells, essentially north of the road over Whinlatter Pass, lie a small group of fells around the valley of Wythop. They aren’t particularly big nor do they have much in the way of notable features - probably the best known is “The Bishop” a whitewashed boulder on the slopes of Barf overlooking the A66. The walking in all honesty isn’t much to write about, the views across to the Skiddaw fells being the only highlight.
This chapter was closed on a day when I did four different walks. The first took in Rannerdale Knotts, the second the isolated ridge of Knott Rigg and Aard Crags, then down the valley to nip up Outerside and Barrow before finishing the day with the lowest summit in the entire series, and the only one below 300m, Castle Crag in Borrowdale.