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Hoping for a weekend with half decent weather we booked a couple of nights in the Travelodge on the A591.
The plan was to do a few Wainwrights within easy reach, there were some untrodden hills in the central and southern fells which needed some attention.
A look at the map showed there was a fairly long walk above Grasmere that would include some of the fells we'd not done, starting on Silver How and ending on Tarn Crag.
We parked off the road near the church which offers limited bays that you pay for on a donation basis, the church asks for a fiver for all day which, considering its in the centre of Grasmere, is a bargain, we put the money in the box provided, got ready and were off at 8.45am.
Silver How was our first intended, we headed for Allan Bank and picked up the path which leads onto the north ridge of the hill.
Across towards Heron Pike.
Seat Sandal.
Helm Crag.
Gibson Knott, Calf Crag ridge
Not the brightest of days.
All of this is easy going and within an hour we were on the summit. The clouds were covering the higher fells but we could see Tarn Crag, most of High Raise, Helm Crag, Seat Sandal, Windermere and a bit of Rydal Water.
Summit shot, looking towards Fairfield.
A bit gloomy
High Raise in the cloud.
Windermere.
Mmmm, it could brighten up, Rydal Water.
From the summit we set off for Lang How heading for Blea Rigg. The path is good, it undulates, taking you over lumps and bumps, we kept thinking the next little cairn would be the top of Blea Rigg only to study the map and discover we'd not quite got there. It was an hour after leaving Silver How when we got to Blea Rigg, a little longer than I'd anticipated, I put it down to the age old excuse "it doesn't look that far on the map" but I guess the terrain didn't help.
Blea Rigg.
Clouds getting higher.
After a snack and a couple of photo's we set off for Sergeant Man. This was a nice section with Tarn Crag on the right and the Langdale Pikes on the left, in fact Pavy Ark looked really quite spectacular and mysterious with the cloud swirling around its crags, Sergeant Man kept appearing the closer we got and we could see loads of people around Stickle Tarn.
Langdale Pikes appearing.
High Raise in there somewhere.
Coniston Fells
To Bowfell and the Crinkles.
Pavy Ark.
It is getting brighter
Stickle Tarn.
I wonder if they're getting ready for Jacks Rake.
We were in the cloud on the top of Sergeant Man, shame really but it did look like it was thinning.
After a nibble and the usual photo shoot we set off for High Raise.
Sergeant Man.
Spot the people, there's three.
This is a bit of a featureless trek in the mist and a bit soggy in places, its only a short section though and 15 mins from the Man were were at the trig pillar on High Raise.
High Raise.
Now it was clearing and wow!, what great views, surprising the difference 15 minutes makes, I thought we'd be stumbling around in the mist for the rest of the day but no, this is what was appearing.
We had lunch up here taking in the views, the sun was out and we'd managed to get out of the breeze so it was a pleasant half hour break. We could see Sergeants Crag and Eagle Crag, we've not done those so the temptation was there to visit them but decided it would add too much to the day so put the idea to bed and after lunch we set off for our next intended, Ullscarf.
There are good paths up here, soggy in places but easy to follow, there's the added bonus of a sketchy line of old metal fenceposts on Greenup Edge but you can lose them in the dip between High Raise and Ullscarf, in mist and snow it could be a bit difficult to keep on track.
The climb on to Ullscarf is steady with views opening up.
On the way to Ullscarf, getting better.
Its central position gives good views of most of the high mountains in the Lake District, on a warm summers day it would be nice to spend a lot of time exploring.
Ullscarf summit.
Pano from Ullscarf, Scafell massif.
Dodds etc.
We retraced back to the dip between Ullscarf and High Raise and then took a rising traverse off piste towards Ash Crags. Mere Beck was the only part of this adventure that posed a problem as it was quite lively so we climbed up the hillside and found a more forgiving place to cross and then, apart from a few more ups and downs and another "it doesn't look that far on the map" episode we arrived at the first and smaller cairn on Tarn Crag, took a couple of piccys then walked over to the bigger one of the two and repeated the process, I'm not sure which one is classed as the Wainwright summit.
First Cairn.
Views.
Second Cairn.
From the top we picked up the path down the ridge and aimed for a spot to cross Sour Milk Gill at around NY316089, it was easy enough to cross at this point and we managed to keep the feet dry, any wetter and I think we'd be struggling.
From here it was back to Grasmere alongside Sour Milk Gill passing the nice waterfalls and then the pleasant walk through Easedale.
Water feature.
Zoomed.
We were back at the car at 4.45pm, quite a long day really and on reflection, including Sergeants Crag and Eagle Crag would have been pushing it if we wanted to get down in daylight, ah well, we'll just have to come back soon.
