High Street via Kidsty Pike

After one day in the Lakes and three days with the Leeds Uni Hiking Club in Scotland, this was to be the final day of my return to the UK. I had one more day of hiking planned in the Lake District, within a two hour drive from Manchester Airport, where I would take a plane back to Zürich in the evening. Eliot was joining me for this last day of my trip. The weather forecast told us it would be the best day so far, with winds of 'just' 30 mph, and early rains soon moving east, promising a "mostly dry day". Lies, bloody lies.

 

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Excited at the opportunity to finally do a bigger route, we drive to Mardale Head, a remote car park at the end of the Haweswater reservoir, where the road ends. The original idea was to go up to the Gatescarth Pass and ascent High Street via Harter Fell, before descending over Kidsty Pike. Upon seeing how many floods there are, we decide to reverse our route. Otherwise there would have been a couple of footbridges towards the end, and if they were flooded, then we would be screwed and forced to trace back our entire route. It turns out that the footbridges are all right, so we climb towards Kidsty Pike.

 

It is clear that the weather forecast was wrong, and not in a good sense. Heavy rain is continuously falling down. It makes for some atmospheric photos of Haweswater, but not for enjoyable hiking. As soon as we get a little higher and disappear into the fog, strong winds hit us as well, definitely more than the 30 mph from the weather forecast. Then the rain turns into hail, and it really becomes a matter of "hood up, head down, and plod on in misery".

 

After the ascent of Kidsty Pike, it is a relatively flat walk to the summit of High Street. The fell is named after the Roman Road which runs over the hill. Apparently, the Romans considered it easier and safer to have their road run over the higher fells, taking advantage of the relatively flat plateau here, rather than go through the valleys, which where densely wooded and marshy in those days. In the 18th and 19th century, High Street was a venue for summer fairs and even horse races, explaining the other name by which it is known: Racecourse Hill.

 

We follow the Roman Road, which passes to the west of the summit, a little too long and 'overshoot' the summit. We turn back and follow the dry-stone wall which does bring us to the summit without further trouble. The summit is marked with a trig point and stands at 828 meters above sea level. Ironically, this is higher than we ever got in Scotland during the previous days. But the weather, which is still not showing any signs of improvement, does not let us enjoy this fact. Eliot and I quickly agree that we better abandon the rest of our route, and get down by the safest possible way, which is retracing our ascent over Kidsty Pike.

 

When we finally get out of the clouds again, the weather in slightly brighter than in the morning, again revealing a very scenic view over Haweswater. That's about all we can take away from this day. Once more the weather did its very best to ruin things. This British climate better sort itself out by the time of my next trip...

 

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There's not much to say about the route. On a better day, you would at least take a different route down, and tick off some more peaks. On the SAC scale the route over Kidsty Pike would be mostly T1-T2, with a short section of T3 at Kidsty Howes, around the 500m contour of the ascent. But do bear in mind the additional navigational difficulties of the unmarked paths on the British Hills. There is no public transport in this remote part of the Lake District, so you'll need a car to get to Mardale Head.