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I've not been very organised in my Wainwright collecting so it has has left me with a few hills scattered about the region, I needed to centralise my remaining hills so this weekend gave me the opportunity to tidy things up a bit. Our intended hills for Saturday and Sunday are the ones too far away from home to do in a day so another weekend in Cockermouth was booked.
Weather watching during the week showed Saturday going from good to bad then good again, when the weekend arrived Saturday had returned to bad so it looked like another day dodging showers ( we've all been there
)
I had a route planned starting off on Rannerdale Knotts and working round the hills we hadn't done to take in Knott Rigg, the last one for the day, before the walk back to the car, here's what we did.
We parked up in the little car park below Rannerdale Knotts, the weather was a bit grey but no rain as predicted, got booted and wrapped up from the breeze and set off up the pitched path from the road.
The start of the path can be seen just above the little sign.
The climb up Rannerdale Knotts is very straight forward and a little steep in parts, it gets the heart pumping that's for sure.
Views from the ascent are opening up Crummock Water.
On the summit the views are good, it maybe a little hill but with bigger hills surrounding you, you get the sense of scale.
Grasmoor under cloud, Whiteless Pike just out of it.
summit pose.
Towards Dale head.
Great Borne.
Millbreak left, Low fell in the distance.
From the summit we set off down the ridge, Low Bank, to the col to meet the path that comes up from Borrowdale heading for Whiteless Pike, our second hill today.
The climb up Whiteless Pike is on a good path and the views soon open up.
Ard Crags just right of centre.
Ascent
Wandope.
Haystacks.
wider view
Millbreak and Crummock Water, Loweswater in the distance
Robin Rigg windfarm in the water away in the distance.
We met some mountain bikers on their way down from the top, pretty brave as there's a scrambly bit near the summit where, I can imagine, it would look a bit daunting from the saddle of a bike, from below it didn't look like they dismounted
We entered the cloud momentarily on the summit, it cleared quickly though to reveal Whiteless Edge which looked interesting with the cloud swirling around a bit higher up and with Grasmoor in the cloud it looked Lost World-ish.
Summit Whiteless Pike, Whiteless Edge behind.
Grasmoor.
We met more mountain bikers as we left the summit, they'd come from Crag Hill.
Whiteless Edge is nice the views looking back are good but Grasmoor was still in cloud so we didn't get the full extent of the views, by the time we'd reached the summit of Wandope the cloud had cleared it's surprising how quickly things change, we got some nice views.
On the summit of Wandope we debated whether to go over Crag Hill and Sail on the way to Ard Crags but decided not to, we'd done 'em and we wanted to make sure we had the time to do the one's we hadn't so we set off down the little ridge above Addacomb Hole heading for the path that traverses around the hillsides above Sail Beck.
Wandope summit.
Grasmoor still claggy.
The ridge down.
Further down, weather improving.
There's some nice little waterfalls in Addacomb Beck and we could see them better from the main path once we reached it.
From here we followed the path to the saddle between Sail and Ard Crags.
It's a bit soggy here and the ascent to the summit of Ard Crags is slippy and steepish to start with, we both found this section a bit tiring and were glad to get to the top.
On the summit we were greeted by a fairly strong wind and cool with it, the forecast was given out for winds but this was the first we'd had of any strength and it was bloomin' cold as well.
Ard Crags summit.
Looking back to Wandope, Addacomb Hole clearly visible, we came down the left ridge.
The views were great but we didn't stop long, after a few photos we set off for Knott Rigg our final Wainwright of the day, the wind was strengthening so it made the walk along the connecting ridge a touch difficult in parts, on the summit it was a case of a couple of photo's and then let's gerroff.
Knott Rigg.
Knott Rigg view. I think thats the Dodds and Helvellyn in the distance.
Way down.
We set off down the steep side of the hill heading for a sheepfold at NY190187 in a bid to get out of the wind and also to make sure we could get across Sail Beck,
Our sheepfold.
I'd read somewhere that if in spate it could be a tad difficult to cross lower down near another sheepfold at NY187178 where a path leads down from Knott Rigg but decided not to risk it.
It was steep but easy enough.
Steep.
Red Pike and High Stile.
Lookin' up.
Craghill in the sunshine.
Two paths we're heading for the lower one.
At the sheepfold a path develops running just above the beck, this eventually meets the main path where, just above it at around NY186179, a path starts to run around Whiteless Breast back to the col below Low Bank, when we got there we had a short stop then set off down the path along Squat Beck, this takes you around the base of Rannerdale Knotts and back to the car park.
Looking down Squat Beck.
Views lower down.
Evening sun.
Fading.
We had a good day and as the day wore on the weather improved and turned into a nice afternoon.
In the summer when there's more daylight the temptation would be to extend this walk to include Grasmoor, Crag Hill and Sail with other combinations available as well, once up there you could stay high all day.
