Although todays walk was quite short in time and distance, it still managed to climb 3 Wainwrights and I was either walking up or down, never level apart from a short section near Stickle Tarn. A plus about this though was that the recent rainfall in the area went straight down the hill and meant no real standing water or soggy sections of paths, just a few slippery rocks.
I parked up at New Dungeon Ghyll and it was uphill straight from the start, soon waking my legs up. I had done this walk before but I ended up in the clouds nearly all the way and saw no scenery and took no photos so today it was nice to see just what I had missed. As I started to gain height, I looked around and saw plenty snow on the surrounding higher hills which made the scenery even nicer. The long walk to Loft Crag would see me turning around often to take in the views, and have a breather.
Despite the snow in the area and the cool conditions, by now I had stopped to take my jacket off in the sunny morning, soon it would be back on plus hat and gloves. The path up to Loft Crag was pretty straightforward and easy to follow, mainly on good stony paths and some stone steps and it gained height quite quickly without it being too steep, the views back down the valley towards Chapel Stile and down to Old Dungeon Ghyll told you how high you had climbed. As I got nearer the summit the skies got darker and a short burst of snow soon followed, so much for my plans for a nice early summers day walk.
The snow didn't come too much and didn't really make the rocky paths slippery thankfully as I soon reached the summit and stood facing the nearby Pike Of Stickle, which looks a lot worse than it really was. A short downhill section saw me at the start of the climb, which started on stone steps and curved it's way around the back of the imposing hill, some of the path was loose rock and then the last bit involved a bit of scrambling, which I don't really like. I'm too used to long distance walking and being able to stride out, not pulling myself up short climbs on wet rocks.
Luckily it wasn't too far and there was a hint of a path and the views from the top certainly made up for it. After a short break I headed down again, I hate scrambling down hills even more, especially as the rocks were quite slippery today. I was relieved to finally reach a more level path that descended towards the last hill of the day, Harrison Stickle. As I headed down I noticed a few walkers heading up Harrison Stickle, I hadn't seen anyone all day until then.
Once I reached the low point, the path just started to head up straight away, you were either going up or down today with very little level bits. The stony path zig zagged it's way up the hill, sometimes I lost sight of the path but the general idea was just to keep heading upwards with the occasional scrambling thrown in. It wasn't too long before I reached the summit and took in the views around, especially down to Stickle Tarn which looked impressive far below me.
I knew now that it was basically all downhill from there to the end but it wouldn't be a gentle descent, it would be quite steep down to the Tarn and lots of slippery rocks to look out for. It was nice to see these views after missing them in clouds the last time but I was quite relieved to finally reach the Tarn and a short section of level ground, I had a short break looking up towards Pavey Ark, a hill I had climbed before. ( You can read about it HERE )
I knew I didn't have far to go down, and a path to the side of Stickle Ghyll would take me back to the start. Again, the rocks were wet so I took care, there was no hurry. I had hardly seen anyone all day but there were lots of people around the Tarn and making their way up the path beside the Ghyll towards it, some on the same path as me and some over the other side of the fast flowing Ghyll who then had to try and cross it on the wet rocks, some did this better than others judging by the wet trousers I occasionally saw heading past me. The noise of the water flowing fast downwards over small waterfalls told you that a lot of water had fallen on these hills recently.
It wasn't long before I saw the car park not too far away, to be honest I was just looking forward to some level ground rather than slippery rocky ups and downs. Todays walk wasn't long lengthwise or timewise but it still packed a lot into a short walk, the 3 hills, the lovely Tarn and impressive views all around and paths that were reasonably dry, nothing boggy. It's certainly a nice half day walk, with a refreshing drink at the pub at the end if you fancy it.
