Great Langdale, Blea Tarn, Blake Rigg, Pike of Blisco, Crinkle Crags, Cumbria.
[ 16.1 km] Tue 04th Mar 2008

I drove along the Great Langdale Road passing the Old Dungeon Ghyll and up to the Blea Tarn road. I didn’t want to go too high and it turned out that I couldn’t anyway due to ice on the road higher up. I parked the car on a steep grassy patch by the road and jammed large boulders under the wheels, just in case. It was a wonderfully clear blue sky but the sun hadn’t risen high enough for it to reach me yet. I set off up the steep road towards the tarn. I was soon in sunshine and enjoyed the wonderful views and had to keep turning round to take it all in. A couple of school children were walking towards me from the direction of Bleatarn House. They must have been on their way to the school bus at the bottom of the hill.

On Bleaberry Knott

This would make their walk over a mile and I can’t think any other occasion in this country where I’ve seen children walking to school on such a remote road. Long may they continue? I took the tarn path opposite the car park and headed for the pinewoods, stopping to take some snaps on the way. I wanted to climb Blake Rigg and headed up a gulley up to Little Horse Crag. There was a thin coating of snow and I had to be careful on the steeper bits but once I was approaching the summit the gradient had eased and I had wonderful views and great walking all the way to the summit of Pike of Blisco.

It was rather windy on the top so I didn’t hang around and started my descent towards Red Tarn. I couldn’t find the path because of the snow cover so firstly found a nice sheltered spot to eat my sandwiches. Then I took the best route I could find through the boulders and snow which turned out to be way off the path. Never mind, I got to the main path below without incident and immediately set off up the Crinkle Crags path. There were now quite a few people about and some were going up and some coming down. The clear blue skies now had a few thin clouds in them but not enough to spoil things. Not many people had been over the crags so there wasn’t much of a path to follow in the snow. Route finding wasn’t all that easy in places. I got to the ‘Bad Step’, which I climbed without difficulty then over to ‘Three Tarns’.

On Crinkle Crags

I’d originally planned to descend down to Oxendale Beck by the faint path on the right side of Hell Gill but with the snow I couldn’t see any trace of it. So I took the main path down ‘The Band’ which was probably more sensible as the path is stepped and very well made. Lots of people were out now and it was good to see so many enjoying the good conditions. Through Stool End Farm I continued to the road then right and back to my car.