Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club

Walk & Event Reports

Sunday 1st June 2014

A Walk 

High Crag

8 Miles Grade 1scr

Leader: Peter Flynn

Report by Peter Flynn

Photos by Lauren Sarasini & Peter Flynn

There was one hero today and he was absolutely brilliant.  This was Chris Metcalfe,  the bus driver,  who managed to negotiate roads narrower than the average back alley to land us up at Buttermere village.  He then had a big dispute with the National Trust who tried to charge him an exorbitant rate for parking said bus off the road in a spot that has been public since the Roman invasion. 

The bus was pretty crowded,  more people who had to come by car joined us at Buttermere,  and over 30 of us set off along the shores of Buttermere to split into two parties when we reached the stream coming from Burtness Comb.  The climb up to the wall was steep but nothing like the scramble across a good deal of loose rock to the rake that traversed the buttress leading to the summit.  The rake itself was magical – a quiet,  unfrequented but stunningly situation grassy slope with amazing views of the surrounding crags.  To climb up and out of it we had a choice of another grassy slope or – far more interesting – a beautifully rough series of mini crags for a very satisfying scramble.   Fred immediately fell asleep when he reached the top – maybe this is his new attempt at slimming.  After lunch we headed along the path to High Stile and then on to Red Pike where,  because we were somewhat behind schedule,  we all decided to take the very loose and awkward path down past Bleaberry Tarn and back to Buttermere.  Then once again,  over to Chris for a brilliant piece of driving back to Carlisle. 

Peter