This
was a club weekend and I was running the meet.
Although there were only a few attendees, there were enough of them to
indulge my bagging objectives over a couple of days.
With
August Bank Holiday Monday fast approaching, I wanted to get into the position
where my final Wainwright and FRCC 244 would also be my final Fellranger. So, two little known summits became the focus
of my weekend.
Friday
afternoon saw four of us setting off from the Dobgill car park on the western shore
of Thirlmere, following the pitched path up to and past Harrop Tarn before
gaining the main central fells ridge.
Bell Crags was the Fellranger summit that was the main objective of this
walk and was easily reached, despite some boggy patches. The walk so far hadn’t lasted very long so we
set off for the Nuttall summit of Low Saddle and returned to the car trying to
avoid getting our feet wet !
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| north from Low Saddle |
The
final view of the day was of a very bright International Space Station gliding
silently overhead as we walked back to the hut.
Magnificent !
Showers
greeted the next morning but had cleared by the time we had arrived at the
Sticklebarn in Langdale, Three of us
headed into the Nuttall-rich territory to the west of Red Tarn with the minor
summits of Cold Pike and as my bagging tendencies were being mocked I said that
we were all guilty of “trainspotting with grass” as we traipsed untracked
ground from top to top.
Little
Stand was the summit of my penultimate Fellranger and it is a magnificent
viewpoint and worthy of more visitors than it surely hosts. We could see many walkers on the
motorway-like path from Red Tarn to Crinkle Crags with hardly any of them
deviating from the well-worn route and missing out on the superb vista from the
Dodds ridge to Ingleborough and around to the Scafell massif.
 |
| Little Stand |
We
continued northwards along the Crinkles ridge, taking in the “Bad Step”, to
Three Tarns and descended into Langdale to claim a welcome reward – the
traditional post-walk pint !
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| the Scafells |
