Walkhighlands

Two weeks on from my Munro compleation and I hadn't been out walking. I was thinking about my next project and what to do. For me the backpacking season was over for the year and I didn't fancy the long trek to Scotland to either start a second round or the Corbetts. The Wainwrights came to mind. I've been going to the Lakes for over 45 yrs and never thought about a Wainwright round. I tend to treat the Lakes, as its 2 hrs max drive, as a training day and rarely go for more than one day at a time. In the 45 yrs I must have walked my favourites Pillar, Fairfield, the Scafells, Helvellyn at least 50+ times each. A check of my Wainwrights map showed a figure of 144 and the ones to do were the outliers.
I had done Skiddaw from Skiddaw house before and had looked at Great Calva then and had fancied doing it. From the YH Great Calva, in my opinion has the look of a northern Cairngorm with smooth gradual heather clad slopes so I looked at the map and hatched a route taking in Great Calva and another 4 Wainwrights.

Parked up on the outskirts of Mosedale and walked the road for about 1 mile to the start of the path up Carrock Fell. In reality I could have parked a little closer and would have cut maybe a 1 1/2 off the day. The path up Carrock Fell is a steep start particularly if you feel out of sorts. The valley was cool and still with a frost on the ground but I quickly warmed up. From the top of the first rise the gradient eases and soon the top is reached. Its an excellent viewpoint over to Skiddaw and Blencathra



Fine viewpoint from Carrock fell , the view towards the Back o Skidda



and the back of Blencathra



From Carrock Fell the path is easy over towards High Pike. The ground was frozen making the walking easier. I would imagine in the damp it would require a few detours to keep on track. High Pike was reached quickly as the walk over is fairly level and the rise to High Pike about 300 feet. Again there are excellent views over the Solway Firth towards Galloway. By now a chilly wind blowing from the NE had picked up lowering the temp.

Path from Carrock fell to High Pike



High Pike



From High Pike I dropped down and picked up the Cumbria Way walking towards a hut/ bothy I hadn't known existed. From the hut it was a straight easy climb up to Knott. The views are extensive, west towards Skiddaw and north towards the Solway. From Knott its a quick drop down to Great Scafell which in reality is an outlier of Knott. From Great Scafell however its more miles to take in the Wainwrights north of it and the easiest thing for me to do was to return to Knott and then take the path to Great Calva initially dropping around 400 feet to the col and then ascending Great Calva on muddy tracks

Cumbria way from High Pike



View from Knott to the Back o Skidda



The top of Great Calva has a strange cairn, reminiscent of Harter Fell with its bits of twisted metal in amongst the rocks. From the top I followed the fence line S for about 200 yards. The viewpoint from here is the path all the way down to the YH and gives a fine appreciation of height. From the fence line I followed the path down to the east which takes you straight down to the footbridge on the Cumbria way which is followed for 2 miles along the valley before hitting the road and back to Mosedale.

Top of Great Calva



Route down



and from below



Looking back up the valley from the road to Mosedale



A fine round, just shy of 15 miles on good tracks. As for the Wainwrights I'm not quite sure. I'm on 149 so that 65 to do of mainly outliers and not sure at the minute if a can be bothered with all the research, driving, car parks and their charges. We will have to see..

Damn decent walk GM well done you I recently did Carrock and High Pike in clag and no frozen ground so yet another plus for your walk in these hills

Great walk that, good going. Haven't been on those fells for some years; your photos remind how nice it can be up there. I do seem to remember the path up Carrock from Mosedale being quite steep though!

Completing the Wainwrights seems a good idea to me, especially with only 65 to go! It shouldn't take you very long and you can always be a bit sly with your parking

Great report GM.

Hey congrats on the munro completion guinnessman This was a fair old wander and in great conditions by the look of it. It's a shame that the car park costs are so ludicrous now that they even figure into our wandering habits at all Isn't there some sort of annual pass for frequent visitors?