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The Fellwalker by Peter John Farnworth
WALK 47 MONDAY AUGUST 5th 1991This walk took Mark and I to new ground, round the back of Skiddaw (Keswick.) The two mountains we will be climbing today are Great Calva and Knott. I have read that this area is one of quietest places to visit, and we shall soon find out. The day was a little damp thanks to the rain that had fallen overnight, but this would not put us off as we had our sights firmly fixed to climb these two summits. We had come a long way to achieve this, and to add to our list. The walk started at a place called Orthwaite, some one and a half miles from Bassenthwaite. We followed a path from the farm near to Peter House, which in turn led towards Dash Falls. By following this path, we reached the head of the valley. During the walk up the valley we gained altitude, and the dreaded mist was with us yet again, lifting and falling as we made our way towards Skiddaw House (YHA Hostel - I don't know if it’s open or not.) Due to the remoteness of this area, and because very few fell walkers walk this way, we were having difficulty finding the right approach to our first summit, Great Calva. At this point in time the mist, which was lifting and falling early on, had dropped down to maybe ten to fifteen yards. We knew that Great Calva was to our left from our present position, so we walked a while further on to see if we could find the path to the summit. But no joy. Now it was make your mind up time, which we did, opting to head straight up the fell side with the mist still falling. The fell side was covered in heather about twelve inches high and not very pleasant to walk up. After some considerable time and effort, and a lot of moaning from me, we made it to the summit. From here, it was one and half miles to our next summit, called Knott. Not to be confused with another summit called The Knott, which is on the High Street (Walk 18.) NOTE: Were it not the fact that we had come so far in poor conditions, and were determined to climb these two remote summits, we would have packed it all in there and then, but as they say, When the going gets tough, the tough get going. As we left this summit we dropped down in altitude, which was nice as we left the mist behind, plus we could see more of the landscape. This, however, was short lived, as we had to gain altitude to reach the summit of Knott and, by doing so, we were back into the mist. But this did not displease too much. The main thing was, we had achieved our goal. So we sat down and had a bite to eat and drink, and at the same time the mist lifted, which we were quite pleased about. It made me feel better. While we sat there, I got the map out to assess our position regarding a way off. Since we were there, and also because the weather had improved so much, we made the decision to walk over the other summits (the last one being Great Cockup) because we would not be coming back to this area again. We opted for this instead of our original route back down to the Col separating the two summits, and down to the path to Little Calva, from where we would descend to the valley floor. They say hindsight is a wonderful thing, and also that the best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go asunder. Well, we found this out later. We had been walking for about ten minutes on our way to Great Sca Fell when the mist returned, with very heavy rain. This was making the walk very difficult for us, in addition to which we could not see too well, but we kept on going, knowing we were not too far from the summit.
By this time, we were very wet indeed, outside and inside, since the weather was on the warm side and the condensation under our waterproofs was making us perspire. To be quite honest with you, I don't know how we found this summit with all this rain and mist down. And if you can call the top, which consisted of five to six rocks, the highest point, so be it! The rest of the ground was as flat as my cap, as they say. From here we dropped down in altitude with about 100ft of ascent, to the summit of Meal Fell, still in very bad conditions. There was no summit cairn, only a stone circular shelter which came in very handy while we got a reading for our next summit, Great Cockup. At this point in time we were having to draw on all our reserves, as the conditions were getting no better and we were getting wetter, plus we were making slow progress over these lower summits. If you have ever been in this situation yourself, you will know what we were going through. But you have to get on with it the best way you can. From here, we had to walk South over rough ground to the summit. After about fifteen minutes of walking, still struggling to see where we were, we dropped down to a place called Trusmadoor. This seemed to stop us dead in our tracks, with the mist and the rain still falling. How can this place be described? It was like looking into a void, the emptiness and the quietness of the place was unreal. Only a sheep path was visible, and this seemed to be going round in a circle. We stood there peering into the gloom, looking for a light at the end of the tunnel, or in this case, a way out of the abyss! On the side of this deep trough between the fells, I thought I could see a cart track, which gave me hope, but when I looked again it had gone, like a ship in the night. How your eyes can play tricks with you when the chips are down, as they say. In all the times I have been onto the fells this is only the second time I have been in this position, with all hell letting loose around us, when we had to study the Ordnance Survey map and put on our thinking-caps to find a way out of this situation. Hand on heart, we were really stuck in this dead, dammed place, still looking into the gloom. We saw only one way out of the situation, and it was to follow the stream running at the bottom of this deep trough. As we all know, water runs down to lower levels. Over crags, danger always lies! In desperate situations decisions have to be made, so we followed the stream very carefully down, but also well back from it and possible danger. After a lot of ins and outs on the way down, we finally reached the valley from where we started, very wet and also very glad that we were down safely. As I have said before, this can happen to the best of us, if we are honest enough to admit it. On reflection, I wouldn't like to be back in those circumstances again, but maybe one day we will go back just to see where we did go wrong. Still, it was all worthwhile. We were very pleased that we carried on and made it to those two summits. When you are stuck in the middle of the mountains, as we were, you have to keep a level head. And by the way, we never did see Windermere when we stood on the summit of Great Calva (read the write up about this on Walk 42 and I think you’ll know why.) Mountains walked that day: Great Calva 95 Knott 82 Great Sca Fell 113 Meal Fell 153 [[]] Diagram & Stats
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