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The Fellwalker by Peter John Farnworth
WALK 41 SATURDAY APRIL 21st 1990This walk was supposed to take us to Wether Hill (100) which stands on the High Street range. This is the last summit in the top one hundred mountains the Lake District, according to my information. Of course, I could stand to be corrected on it. It depends on who says it, who writes it, or who believes it. You pays your money, and you makes your choice. When I mention summit altitude order, it's the top of the mountain I count. I know there other high points on the same mountain, and some people may count this in an altitude order below the one just climbed. As an example, Ill Crag, which is near Scafell Pike, could count in altitude order above say Skiddaw. But this is a high point, and not a mountain. Everyone interprets things differently. This is my interpretation, and I am sticking to it. The walk started at Hartsop, near Brothers Water on the Kirkstone Pass. When driving over the Pass the mist was down at the highest point, which sent out a warning sign to us. At least we were forewarned what to expect before we started the walk in the valley. Leaving our starting point, we headed for Hayeswater. We could now see the lay of the land and what to expect as the mist was rolling in on the high ground, which at least was lifting and falling as we headed up the zigzag path. As we arrived at the top of the fell the mist was thickening, but we had no problem at this point. We picked up the stone wall leading onto the summit of The Knott and as we arrived there the mist came down a little thicker. This concerned me a little, but not too much. Since we have been here two or three times, I knew what to look out for as from this point to the summit of High Street there runs a stone wall to follow at times like this if we had to change our minds. However, since we were going the other way, it made the situation that little bit more difficult as there is no stone wall to follow at times like this. Upon leaving the summit of The Knott, we had to walk East and avoid the crags on our left, which fell away to Rampgill Beck. We both walked away from the stone wall at the summit and had only covered about twenty yards or more, to position ourselves to pick the right direction with the compass for Rampgill Head, when we stopped dead in our tracks. With the mist well down by now, we could sense the hopelessness and the danger of it all, so it was an about turn and back to the summit of The Knott. When we arrived there, we had a meeting of two regarding what to do next. As I have said before, take a step back and think! We had a look at the map and other information we had with us, and we decided to walk to Caudale Moor. This one Mark had not been on, so it was a good opportunity for him to log it up.
Caudale Moor is at the opposite end of High Street via Thornthwaite Crag. When we arrived at the summit of High Street some snow was down and, in places, had drifted two feet deep near the stone walls. While we were here we had about twenty minutes rest and also a bite to eat, and I was looking skywards to see if the mist which was still with us could be clearing, but no way was it moving. While we were sitting here and considering the day it was, we must have seen about twenty fell walkers pass us in the time we were there. They, like us, were outfoxed with the weather when they left the valley. We were surprised to see them, as when we have been here before there was no-one about anywhere. If you turn back to Walk 18, you can see more about this area which may be helpful if you are in this situation. We left here, still following the stone wall, and after about twenty minutes of walking we arrived at Thornthwaite Crag with the mist still down. I would think it is about one mile plus from this summit to Caudale Moor, and you may not believe this, but it took us one hour and forty minutes to find that summit cairn. I will explain. We followed a very steep descent down to Threshthwaite Mouth, and an equal amount of ascent up the other side. When we reached level ground, the mist had dropped down to about ten to fifteen yards or even less. I was now giving the situation a lot of thought but we still had the stone wall with us, which would be a guide. When conditions are getting so bad that you cannot see where you are going, this is where care has got to be taken. As time went by with no sign of the summit, I decided that we had walked far enough. With the mist down the way it was, it is so easy to walk past these summits cairns because sometimes they only consist of a few rocks with no height to them. Since we had come this far in these poor conditions it would have been a real disappointment to both of us, more for Mark’s sake than mine, if we did not find the summit cairn, because it would have meant returning at a later date. And as the saying goes, Don't put off till tomorrow, what you can do today. So it was time to think. As we both stood there with the mist still down to ground level, we hit on a plan to find the summit cairn, which I knew was close by. I assumed that, given the time we had walked, we must have walked past it in the mist. So the plan was for us both to walk away from stone wall, but just near enough for Mark to see the wall and then stand his ground. I would then walk well away from him and when we were in a suitable position we would both walk up the fell side. Which we did. I could not see Mark, but I would shout over to him to keep in contact with him, and he would also be keeping one eye on the stone wall while I had a free roam (by now, you might have guessed what happened next.) We both proceeded up the fell side, still within earshot of each other. I could hear him shouting to me from my right-hand side, and I would answer back After a little more shouting to each other, I shouted over to him again, but this time I heard his voice coming from my left-hand side. Yes, you have guessed it. With conditions as they were and the poor visibility, I was soon disorientated, or in other words, I was walking in the opposite direction to Mark. After a bit more shouting to each other, we linked up and found the summit cairn some 100 yards back up the fell side from were we had walked. It made our day. We returned back to Threshthwaite Mouth, where we passed through the stone wall leading down and past Pasture Beck, and back to the car park. NOTE: We were glad we found the summit cairn in these conditions, but it proves one thing. Sometimes it is better to go onto the fells with someone else, than alone. Mountains walked that day: The Knott 65 High Street 25 Thornthwaite Crag 44 Caudale Moor 56 [[]] Diagram & Stats
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