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Determined to make the most of the brilliant weather, myself, Simo & Darren (son) decided now would be the perfect day to finally complete the Wainwrights, well, me and Simo at least. The recent dry spell meant doing these three fells wouldn't get us as wet as it might at other times. We parked at the top of Hardknott Pass and headed up Hardknott Gill.
- Harter Fell reflected in small tarn.
As we approached Border End, the Scafell range came in to view.
- Scafells from Border End.
Instead of heading straight for the summit, we decided to take a look at the Eskdale Needle.
- Eskdale Needle and Scafells.
- The Eskdale Needle.
Yew Bank, at the far end on Hard Knott was our next stop, a well known point for painters and photographers alike.
- Slightside to Great End from Yew Bank.
- Esk Pike, Bowfell & Crinkle Crags from Yew Bank.
The views up Eskdale from here are stunning, though again today, a slight haze slightly spoiled it for photo purposes
We headed back over and on to Hard Knott itself, 212 down, 2 to go
- Hard Knott summit.
To make things a bit easier, we headed back to the road and down to take in Hard Knott Roman Fort, or Mediobogdum. Can't imagine what life was like here back in the day, but it is still impressive to see nonetheless.
- Steep Hardknott Pass leading to Roman fort.
- The plaque.
- Nice view from the "back gate"
From here, we continued down Hardknott to Jubilee Bridge, before skirting the lower flanks of Harter Fell, to make our way across to Kepple Crag. The temperature was rising quicker than us at this point
and it felt really summery.
- Whin Rigg and Illgill Head over Eskdale.
- Up Eskdale to the Scafell Range.
From here, we made our way over Great Whinscale, Crook Crag and The Pike before ascending Green Crag.
- Harter Fell from Crook Crag.
- Green Crag summit.
And so, with one left to climb we set off across a relatively dry Ulpha Fell for Harter Fell. I can only imagine how sodden this place gets after prolonged rain
but today, it wasn't too bad
We took the path directly up the side of Harter Fell, quickly coming to the stony summit, and just like that, the Wainwrights were complete
- Harter Fells rocky top.
- Harter Fell summit cairn.
- Me & Simo atop our last Wainwright.
All that remained now was to amble back to the car, feeling quite pleased with ourselves. It has only taken 4yrs 2mths to complete
. The clarity was beginning to improve, as was the view of the Scafell range.
- Scafell range over Hard Knott.
A good day all round and a bit of a tan to boot. Lastly, I would like to thank Simo, as without his excellent planning of routes, digestion of information about where we were heading and constant prompting to do things differently, I might never have accomplished Wainwrights list, so, cheers mate
