Reverse Misty Mosedale Horseshoe 19^th May 2007

The forecast was for plenty of rain again, and it was predictably dull and misty on the hill tops when I parked the car on the green at Wasdale Head. I always prefer to get the tarmac bashing done first, so I walked down the valley road to the parking area at Over Beck Bridge; there was quite a strong breeze causing the surface of Wastwater to be quite choppy. If you walk through the car park you will gate leading onto a path that starts to climb almost immediately; the bracken jungle that used to exist seems to have been trodden out of existence.

On your right you will see your first objective; the pointed, rocky summit of Yewbarrow, that is visible for the length of Wasdale and cries out to be climbed. At first you follow the fence straight up the crest of the ridge, walking on good but fairly steep ground; at this time of year the many sheep with their young lambs will complain about having to move out of your way. Eventually you reach the first of the rocky outcrops; you don't start climbing yet; a wooden barrier helps you to decide not to go directly up the ridge, but to climb over the substantial ladder stile onto the other side of the wall.

Once again you have substantial landmarks to guide you; Dropping Crag, a significant rocky outcrop on the left, and Bell Rib, looking like a real mountain summit, on the right hand skyline. There is no need to worry about finding your way between the crags, just make sure you take the higher path where the path forks; to be fair, the higher path is more obvious these days and it would be difficult to spot the lower alternative. There is a short section of reconstructed path that takes you to the base of Dropping Crag; from there onwards you start the real climb of Yewbarrow on a steep, eroded, stony path.

The initial climb up the eroded path brings you to the top of a gully; on the other side of the fully is a grassy platform on the top of Dropping Crag where you will see a short stone wall, presumably built to stop the dropping of sheep over the edge of the crag. You can cross the top of the gully and find a way upwards without handling too much hands-on being required; the connoisseurs route is to carry on up the rugged, rocky gully straight in front of you. If you are brave and confident you could make your way directly upwards, but some of the steps are quite high and the handholds indistinct; the wet rock is an added interest. I put my inner gloves on because it was quite cool and I didn't want my hands to get too cold with handling the wet rock.

Shortly after entering the gully, you can clamber up onto the left hand rim; the scramble is still strenuous and interesting but you are unlikely to get into somewhere you can't get out of. At the top of that section you will reach grass and a small cairn, where you have a view of Brimfull Beck on the fellside on the other side of Over Beck. If you carry on over the grassy crest you will find a stony path that will take you up to Great Door; the connoisseurs route is to turn right and climb up the stony gully on your right. The small gully is steep and the rocks are loose and will come away in your hands; it is more comfortable if you climb up onto the heathery left-hand rim of the gully until further upward progress becomes awkward.

At this point you can clamber back down into the gully, the easier ground being on the right hand side, and climb up to the skyline for the Surprise View. Having climbed that gully on several occasions before, I decided to follow what looked like a small path into the next gully; I could see a very narrow cleft on the skyline and scrambled up to take a look. I did try to get through the six-inch gap but it was too narrow and I did consider climbing up onto the rocks on the left but there was no room to manoeuvre my long legs; I had to retreat and climb up to the Surprise View as usual. It isn't so much of a surprise to me these days, but when I first reached the small gap in the rocks on the skyline, the steep view down to Wastwater took my breath away and it is still a spectacular view.

There is a path on the ridge that you can climb up on; on the right, above the narrow rock gully I couldn't squeeze through, is an exposed rocky scramble up to the top of Bell Rib that I will make one day when the rock is dry. On the left is a greasy rock slab that needs a couple of large strides to get over, before you climb up to a grassy ridge leading to Great Door. You have to scramble down more rock which is usually greasy; I find the direct route downwards isn't as difficult as it looks and I find it preferable to the steep grassy alternative. Great Door is the notch in Yewbarrow's skyline that you can see from the valley road, it is a fantastic, airy place with a great view on a good day; this time it was misty and a bit too airy, the cool breeze was picking up strength.

You still have more climbing to do up a steep obvious path; it is mainly grassy but with some rock outcrops to step over and a short, easy scramble up to a cairn at the start of the summit ridge. The breeze had reached the stage where walking was becoming difficult; after struggling along on an easy, grassy gradient I was hanging on at times; buffeted by the strong wind on the final, more-rugged climb up to the summit of Yewbarrow. As soon as I got to the other side of the summit cairn the wind just stopped; for the majority of the walk along the broad ridge the breeze was barely noticeable, it just got a bit stronger at the bottom of the dip in the middle of the ridge. The breeze was also cold as well as strong; I put some bigger gloves on too so that I had some feeling in my hands for when I reached the descent that I knew lay in wait for me.

After reaching the cairn on the northern summit the descent starts immediately; rugged but not too steep to begin with, the ground soon falls away dramatically at Stirrup Crag. It is probably easier to descend in mist when you usually just take the quickest route downwards rather than being able to see all of the alternative routes; the alternatives may look easier but they are not. In the mist I made good progress down the rock steps; I don't know how I would manage without my long legs, maybe with smaller feet you could use the less obvious footholds and wouldn't need to stretch as far as I do. After getting down the rock there is a more obvious, meaning very eroded, steep path down to the green plateau at Dore Head.

After being in the mist for so long there were brighter signs in the west, it could be the sun breaking through but it could be rain coming in. The mist cleared from Stirrup Crag long enough for me to see a group of walkers on the skyline, they seemed to be pondering and wondering how on earth they were going to get down. There is a faint path in the grass across Dore Head, but when you start to climb Red Pike it becomes more obvious; it is quite rugged at first and there are rock steps to climb where small streams find it the easiest way to get downhill. After the initial climb there is a less rugged section where an obvious path takes you up the grassy slope. There were large raindrops in the mist; either I was going to get wet very soon or the wind was blowing itself out.

The obvious path takes you to another rock outcrop, after the easy clamber up a rocky gully the ground is again more rugged; as you plod upwards on an increasingly eroded path you will become aware of higher ground on your left. Suddenly the eroded path disappears and you walk on grass up to a grassy ridge; you have to turn left to walk a short distance over bouldery ground to reach the summit of Red Pike. When you leave the summit to walk along the ridge, there are a couple of faint paths and it can be difficult to navigate in the mist, which was well settled by that time. I always keep close to the right edge of the ridge, you can't get lost and in good weather you have spectacular views down to Mosedale and across to the highest fells.

As I reached the cairn at the bottom of the col between Red Pike and Scoat Fell the sun made a brief appearance. There is an obvious path going around the head of Black Comb on the way to Pillar but it bypasses Scoat Fell; to get to the summit of Scoat Fell you have to head half-left from the cairn towards the skyline. There is a very faint path of flattened grass in places; there is much stony ground but if you keep on grass going upwards you can avoid the stones. The stones become boulders that are more difficult to avoid, but by that time you should be able to see the wall running along the summit ridge of Scoat Fell. When I get to the wall I usually I have to turn left to reach the summit; there are several gaps in the wall where you can get to the other side of it.

By the time I reach the small summit cairn, perched on top of the wall, the mist had reasserted itself. A group of three walkers on the same route as myself were consulting their map and asked if I was doing the Horseshoe; they were heading towards Caw Fell so I asked which horseshoe?. It was just as well I was there because they really wanted to make their way to Pillar, I wonder how far they would have got in the mist before realising they were in the wrong place. The summit of Scoat Fell is covered in large boulders in contrast to the easy ridge of Red Pike and easy gradient on the other side of the wall; the boulders are not such a surprise if you can see the ruggedness of Mirk Cove below the ridge. You have to hop across or squeeze between the boulders to get to the wall corner, there is a gap in the wall just below the ridge to get onto the equally rugged descent from the summit.

The boulders don't last for long and soon you reach grass, on a broad flat ridge a faint path heads towards Black Crag. I was following the other group of walkers on the path, we were below the ridge and it didn't feel quite right somehow; as more boulders came into view I walked back up to the ridge and found the more obvious and familiar path. The subsidiary summit of Black Crag is rugged and bouldery, with enough cairns and shelters to be a high summit; in the mist it had fooled another group of walkers who were there, they asked me which fell top it was and were reassured to know just where they were.

From the summit of Black Crag you carry on along the ridge, as unlikely as it looks it is the best way to descend; at least there is a reasonable way through the boulders that avoids having to stand on too many slippery ones. On the rugged descent from Black Crag the mist started to play games, giving me a glimpse of Ennerdale Water but not quite long enough for me to take a photograph; having got my camera it was awkward to press the shutter button quickly enough with my big gloves on. As I reached a cairn at the bottom of Wing Gap, Pillar loomed large as the mist cleared briefly; after a few hours walking this sudden steep ascent could be demoralising.

These days I enjoy the scramble up the ridge, you don't have to keep to the obvious route; the rock is good and there is no real exposure, and you get a view of Ennerdale Water if you are lucky. As the rockiness ends at the top of the steep slope, you have a bit of a slog over stony ground up to the broad summit of Pillar. I had intended descending on the High Level Route but in the damp conditions I settled for the following the fence to the summit of Looking Stead. This easier descent from Pillar towards Black Sail Pass is still interestingly rugged in places until you reach the greenness of Looking Stead; by the time the I reach its summit the sun had come out and I had an excellent view of the Black Sail hostel in the valley below.

I dropped back down to the path and found the easily-missed short-cut route, it's value is that it misses the hard-on-the-feet reconstructed Black Sail Pass path. It was sunny and warm at Wasdale Head and I drove home on a lovely warm evening.

Andy Wallace 19^th May 2007

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