Baitstops Facts and Figures
Height: 726m
Height: 2382 feet
Bible Position: The Central Ridge
Conditions: Warm and sunny, then a little cloudy
Wainwright Facts and Figures
Book: The Central Fells
Position:
Other Wainwrights on this walk:
Time flies again, the last walk we said we were planning mid May and here it is the end of June. Since the last walk though, Sunderland managed to stay up yet again, Newcastle were relegated and we have had a Brexit from Europe. Time does indeed fly. Back to the business of chalking off these Lake District tops with only 15 to go now, we were aiming to get down to 14 today.
It was my turn to drive and as usual I was a little late for Peter, picking him up after 6.30. It was a very bright morning, blue skies and quite warm. We were heading for the Central Ridge and Ullscarf in particular. We drove through Keswick, around the lake towards Borrowdale but took a left to Watendlath. Up past Ashness Bridge, this was a nice little winding road that took us to
Watendlath, a tiny hamlet owned by the National Trust apparently.
Start of the walk
We had a scotch egg and a pasty to get us going and then started climbing more or less immediately out of the car park until we reached a gate at the top of the path and took a right here. We now walked by a wall through ferns and looked back down at the car park.
Start of the walk looking back down to the car park
The path was reasonably marked at this stage but became increasingly boggy and less obvious as we walked towards Blea Tarn. The weather was still fantastic, although as we passed Blea Tarn on our right, it became pleasantly cloudy. We were heading towards Standing Crag where we would turn right and climb towards Ullscarf.
A nice bait stop under Standing Crag looking back to Blea Tarn
Wainwright talks about this walk being “dull” and “featureless”. There were certainly not many landmarks or points of interest but on a nice day like today it was a great walk and very quiet, we only bumped into a handful of people. In mist, this would be a very difficult walk especially at the summit with only some old fenceposts to guide you to the summit.
The final ascent to the vast summit
Ullscarf summit
We reached the top just after noon. It was difficult to pick out the actual summit as it was a big flat top with multiple cairns.
The summit with some classics behind. Gable, Pillar, Kirkfell, Fleetwith Pike, Robinson and Grasmoor to name a few
The descent
We descended the other side of Blea tarn following the ridge over High Saddle and Low Saddle.
Looking down to Low Saddle, Derwent Water in the distance
Final bait stop
It was a long walk back to the car, seemed much longer than the ascent (although it wasn’t). Again it was very boggy and certainly the boots paid their way today. By the time we got back to the point of the first photo above, the knees were beginning to ache a little! We got back to the car just after 2.30 and checking our Fitbits had done around 25,000 steps and depending on which one you believed around 9-11 miles. So quite a long walk although fairly steady without either massive ascents or descents. Most important only 14 to go, hoping to get to 10 by the end of this year.
See you on the next one.
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