18/06/2011 Langdale

Pike o' Blisco 2304" (wainwright/hewitt)
Cold Pike 2259" (wainwright/hewitt)
Crinkle Crags South Top 834m (hewitt)
Crinkle Crags (Long Top) 859m (wainwright/hewitt)
Shelter Crags 815 (hewitt)

Length: 8.81 miles  14.2 km, Ascent: +1079m, Naismith: 4h 38m

Somewhere new again. After about 3 hours drive (including a short and unintentional detour to Shap), We parked up at a small layby near Rosset Bridge. Geared up and off we went in the direction of Stool End (snigger). From there we took the left branch path into Oxendale and over the footbridge up, up, up towards Red Tarn. Just before Red Tarn, a path swings left to reach the summit of Pike o' Blisco and the view was worth the wait. Scafell was still hidden behind Crinkle Crags but we could see across to Coniston and north to Helvellyn. We didn't stop for long and it was back down to the pass and up to the rocky summit of Cold Pike.

Crinkle Crags from Cold Pike

From here the path to Crinkle Crags is a wee bit obvious. And tedious. But we got there in the end.

Pleasant scrambly walking takes you up and over the south top and from there you can see the infamous "bad step". This is the reason I opted to do this walk clockwise. This bad step can be avoided completely by following the obvious path to the left (west) We went for it in true hard core pepsi-max stylee. 2 moves later and it was all over. We even had an audience.

Brown fleeced sheep - if you can see them.

I had intended to do a complete circuit of Langdale from Pike o' Blisco, over Bow Fell and finishing on Harrison Stickle but it was hot and we were slow. So after much looking at watches, thinking up excuses and general faffing we continued along the ridge to the Three Tarns and from there we descended The Band back to Stool End (snigger).

Pike of Stickle is the prominent peak on the left, Loft crag is the large buttress on the right.

Excellent views from The Band across to Pike of Stickle and Loft Crags.

Looking down into Langdale from The Band.

It was probably the slightly convoluted start but it seemed to take ages to get anywhere despite moving steadily. I've checked the distances and our Coniston walk was 13 miles and at Langdale we covered 8 miles. It just felt that we weren't making progress all day, probably because we could see the car for most of the walk so didn't get that remote sensation that I feel is a big part of the experience. In contrast, the Coniston walk felt longer than 13. My feet thought it felt at least 18 and they are pretty good at this sort of thing.