This is our first walk of 2015 surprisingly.  Peter picked me up at 6.15am to head over to Buttermere.  We had been here twice before, once in late 2014 but it was just too windy to attempt on that day and then again in January but I didn’t feel well on the climb after about half an hour so we turned back.  This time there were clear blue skies and no sign of a head cold from me so I was looking to get at least High Stile, maybe Starling Dodd chalked off.  We parked in the public car park behind The Fish and set off walking with the usual Angus the butcher steak and kidney pies.

We walked around the edge of Buttermere, crossed a little bridge and entered the woods and immediately started to climb.  It took about 20 minutes to walk through the woods onto the open fell.  Once onto the fell we continued to climb steadily towards Bleaberry Tarn.  It was here that we turned back on that windy day in November.  Today was much calmer as we sat and had some bait at the tarn.  There was a clear path heading up from the tarn towards Red Pike which we took.  This path started off quite easy and then the second half was scree and very steep.  We eventually reached the top just below the summit of Red Pike and turned left towards High Stile.  It was now a fairly easy walk to the summit.

We sat at the top just out of the wind for some time having lunch and looking back down to Bleaberry Tarn, Buttermere and across to Grasmoor and further to the right Robinson with Skiddaw and Blencathra in the distance.  It was a clear day and we got a great view of the surrounding fells.

As we walked around Red Pike and dropped towards the start of Starling Dodd it seemed well within reach and it made sense to do this one too.  It would be nice to only have 18 tops left after today.  It was a fairly short but steep climb to the summit in what was now a biting cold wind.

We just grabbed a quick picture and came straight back down.  We turned left and crossed some heather heading towards a stream which we followed all the way down to Crummock Water.  It was a really steady descent, fairly easy on the knees today.  Once down, we walked around Crummock Water towards Buttermere and then back to the car.  We arrived back at the car just before 5.00 pm so a long day, just short of 30,000 steps and over 11 miles.  Most importantly only 18 to go now!

See you on the next one.