Wed 27 Jun 2018
For an index to my other walks please click here
 |
| Summit, Silver How |
I decided in spite of
the heat to climb up to Silver How, using the same track initially as when I
got to Spedding Crag a few weeks ago. The initial stage on the fell path above
the wall had me sweating so much I half changed my mind.
 |
| The walks starts from Walthwaite. The holes in the gatepost were for wooden bars to make a gate |
I rested in the shade
below Raven Crag until I felt cooler, and went up as far as where the path
turns abruptly left and there was a very light breeze. Even so, I felt there would be
cooler places further up the fell and I set off to see.
 |
| Raven Crag |
The path was quite eroded, and after weeks of dry weather my boots had nothing to grip on.
 |
| Spedding Crag from the steep eroded path |
I turned back, thinking
of the heat and the possible difficulties descending later, but tried again,
not wanting to give in. Again I turned back to the corner, and sat for a while with a superb view of Lingmoor Fell, watching a
dragonfly flitting about. It was pleasant here, but...
 |
| Lingmoor across the valley |
I
set off a third time, and eventually, after producing a lot of sweat, made it
to the thin cairn by the holly tree.
Turning left round behind Spedding Crag, I walked along the track to the
small pass where several paths meet. With Silver How before me, just about half
a mile away, I approached the scramble AW suggests as an ascent to a large
cairn. I tried the first few feet, but I didn't feel safe so I walked round to
where he shows a pathless route. Since Chris Jesty's revision in 2006 not only
has the 'pathless' route become a definite path there have been repairs and
even paving applied at the start.
 |
| Silver How. AW's scramble is indicated by the cross |
This took me to the big
cairn, from where I could see the top of the scramble. I walked on, past
another of AW's holly trees, and soon reached the summit. I watched a small
group below coming towards the scramble, but they were tourists just taking a
walk and they went off towards Grasmere.
 |
| The Big Cairn above AWs scramble route |
 |
| The path over to Loughrigg |
 |
| Grasmere Lake and Rydal Water |
It is so long since my first visit to Silver How so I couldn't recognise the summit at all. The views are magnificent in all directions, eastward in particular. Grasmere Lake, Rydal Water, Windermere, Elter Water, and Louhrigg Tarn were all laid out below me.
While contemplating
the scene I wondered how many times Wordsworth had done the same. He would have
been able to see Dove Cottage before the large buildings were built in front of
it.
 |
| A wonderful view of The Langdale Pikes |
 |
| Pike O'Blisco, Crinkle Crags and Bowfell |
The heat, with only a minor
breeze to offer relief, was too intense to make the summit a lunch place, so I
looked around the south side of the crag and found a small oasis of shade. It
was now midday, by GMT, so I changed into long-sleeved shirt and trousers, to
avoid over-exposure to the strong sun.
 |
| The only bit of shade near the summit! |
After refreshing the
inner man with pie, biscuits and orange
drink I just wanted to remain in position, with the external refreshment provided
by the wonderful mountain, valley and lake scenery to view at my leisure.
But the sun was creeping slowly round, and soon there wasn't enough shade. It
was impossible to find a similar place on the other side of the summit, below
which, on the Grasmere side, is a wall of crags.
On descending to the
big cairn and then to the Blea Rigg path, I turned right for a few yards along the Lang How path to see
if I could safely follow it to explore the tarns. In
this position I was directly over the deep gash of Megs Gill, and I shuddered
at the prospect of overbalancing and so crept cautiously back to a safer area
on the pass.
I watched a young couple who'd chosen to descend by Megs Gill perhaps to get a close-up of the
waterfalls but they were probably disappointed. After several
very hot, dry weeks there appeared to be a mere trickle. As they passed over
the top of the main fall the path must have been very narrow, because they were
edging round sideways with their arms extended along the rocky wall - not the
kind of experience for me, these days, and I shuddered again, in sympathy for
the hesitating girl following her companion. As I continued to watch, I grew
concerned for them as the path, narrow and steep, caused them to take
precautions in several places. Suddenly, the girl disappeared behind the
bracken, having slipped, it seemed. The man waited while she got to her feet,
maybe applying some antiseptic cream to her leg. They began to move on
again.
 |
| Megs Gill Falls |
I scanned the way in front of them: I could see the
junction with the path to Harry Place, and was relieved to see the guy leading
the way towards it. But it then became clear he was going to continue
by the Megs Gill route to Walthwaite, a narrow path through bracken with a
steep drop to the left down into the gill. I felt sure they would have similar problems
as before, but as I watched they appeared to find the going easy and without
trouble. They disappeared from sight.
I breathed a sigh of relief, but nevertheless, their earlier
antics had proved to me that the path was not one I wanted to follow, wonderful
view of a waterfall notwithstanding. (Not with sitting, neither). It would get me down to Walthwaite more
quickly than the one I had used for ascent, but, then again, it might be too
quickly...
So I humped my sack and prepared myself for the steep and possibly skidding descent on the path I had
used to come up.
In the event I had no problems and twenty minutes later I
hit the back road at Walthwaite into Chapel Stile where the build-up of heat was almost solid: it could have been
cut with a knife! The oasis of calm and cool I had felt on Silver How was lost,
but later replicated, without the view, in the Co-Op, where bottles of cool local
ale, lager and stout were lined up to tempt me.
But
what a grand walk I'd had up on Silver How! an area usually busy with walkers,
but today relatively deserted because of the relentless heat.
