Skiddaw north to south

I was back in my beloved Lake District this weekend with the Leeds University Union Hiking Club. The Lake District is such an unwritten page on Hikr, what a shame. I'll definitely try to add some of my past hikes in the Lakeland on Hikr as well.

 

I've often been lucky with the weather in the Lake District. Not this weekend however. In the end the weather turned out slightly better than forecasted, but that's about the only positive thing that can be said about it.

On the Saturday, the first day of the trip, I took a group up Skiddaw. Skiddaw, the fourth highest peak in England, is a rather uninteresting mountain in the fog. And that the summit was going to be in the clouds was pretty much a certainty. I tried to make the route more interesting by ascending from the north. This is a much less frequented side of the mountain, but it has a couple of points of interest. After summitting we would then descent on the other side and walk all the way back to our accommodation at Braithwaite.

***

We get dropped off at Peter House Farm and follow the Cumbria Way (T1) up to the waterfalls of Whitewater Dash ("where Dash Beck, issuing from the vast waste of Skiddaw Forest, leaps exultantly at its first glimpse of gentle pastures and plunges over the lip in a series of falls, one following another in a mighty torment of roaring and thrashing waters - the finest spectacle of its kind in the district" - Wainwright) and the Dead Crags ("an enormous hollow, as though a giant hand had clawed at and ripped away the fellside" - Wainwright).

Immediately after the top of the waterfall, we turn right, leaving the bridleway and following a fence upwards. As we pass the minor summit of Bakestall, we disappear into the clouds. The fence can be followed for a while, but around the 800m contour you should head slightly away from it to the right in order to aim directly for the summit of Skiddaw, which is reached without any obstacles (T2).

There is a popular tourist path going up Skiddaw from Keswick, but today there is hardly anybody around. A cold wind is blowing, but luckily nothing more than a drizzle is falling from the skies. The views are equal to when I was previously here: nothing whatsoever except for gray clouds all around. This is not a comfortable place to hang around today, so we quickly leave the trig point at the main summit and turn right at the middle summit towards Carlside Tarn. The descent is short but the scree-filled path means the a little care must be taken (T3).

The next Wainwright summit of Carl Side (T2) is reached almost without any extra ascent. Descending further south we drop out of the clouds again. Derwent Water is the highlight of the view that now appears. It's very pleasant to have such a different view getting out of the clouds compared to getting into the clouds, with us being on the other side of the mountain now. The 'White Stones' provide a perfect lunch spot with a great view. We then descend a short section of slightly rougher path with a drop on the left (T3) to the edge of the woods around Dodd.

Dodd was completely covered with trees by the Forestry Commission in Wainwright's day, giving rise to a very amusing entry in his Pictorial Guides. Wainwright introduces the hill as "a whelp of Skiddaw, crouched at the feet of his parent. But Dodd has latterly shown nothing of the family characteristics and the old man must today regard his offspring with surprise and growing doubt and feel like denying his paternity and disowning the little wretch." The ascent "is more a game than a walk. Snakes and ladders enthusiasts will find the route absorbing. The whole of Dodd is a labyrinth of forest roads and paths and breaks." Nowadays, the summit area is cleared of trees, and there is a good path going up (T2), but neither the OS nor the Harvey/BMC maps are completely accurate in their depiction of the paths through the woods, so finding it can still be little hit and miss. The summit view is a worthwhile objective on its own, especially on a day like this where the higher fells are all in the clouds. The best view is obtained by going slightly beyond the actual summit until the entire length of Bassenthwaite Lake is visible.

After descending to the road, we go looking for the pub near Lyzzick Hall which is marked on our map, but apparently it has long been closed. We spot a red squirrel during this detour, which softens the blow of the non-existing pub. There's nothing else to do but to finish our hike by crossing the flat fields alongside River Derwent to our accommodation in Braithwaite.

***

It rained quite a lot while we were having breakfast, and it started raining heavily again an hour after we finished, but during our hike we had nothing more than a drizzle. Getting some good views at our lunch spot of White Stones and from the summit of Dodd was also a bonus. Everybody enjoyed themselves, as we made the most of the conditions. After a west-east traverse earlier this year, this north-south traverse of Skiddaw also means that I now bagged all the Wainwrights in the Skiddaw group. Only I'm still to discover the view from the summit...