“Trainspotting with grass”

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 !

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 !

the Scafells