Online Fellwalking Club - All White on Blea Rigg

All White on Blea Rigg

Written by Steven Procter

Saturday, 24 January 2009

With a recently recovered bad back and a lack of sleep, we headed for Grasmere with the plan of walking to Sergeant Man. We didn't make it that far, we settled for Blea Rigg, it was a good choice.

Easedale had very little snow and was a horrible soggy place under a grim looking sky. Fortunately the scenery cheered up as we walked up past Sour Milk Gill, which looked lovely as usual. The hills around were getting increasingly snowy as we approached Easedale Tarn, the Fairfield fells looking impressive behind us.

The fells around Easedale Tarn resembled a chewed up Vienetta! Not very attractive to look at but it promised to be more photogenic higher up.

We took the path between Blea Rigg and Castle How and 'enjoyed' the snow getting deeper and deeper as we got higher and higher. I had to stop to play along the way and made a pretty impressive snow angel. Lorraine will no doubt post a photo or two of me flapping around in the snow! I have to admit I did feel slightly guilty that I took the chance to 'write' my name in the snow. Only because the people who were coming up behind would have been left in no doubt as to who I was! Ahem, onwards....

We struggled a bit as we reached the col before Blea Rigg, the snow being thigh deep in places and no chance of knowing where the path was. Great fun though. The top of the fell was awesome to behold, the scenery all round utterly stunning. Large stretches of untouched snow leading the eye toward the Langdale Pikes. This was where we decided not to carry on to Sergeant Man, it was nearly 1 o'clock so we decided to head toward Codale Tarn instead.

The 'path' along the top of Blea Rigg was great, following in the footsteps of those who had gone before, literally! Again the depth of white stuff varied from ankle to spuds deep (That's about 30" depending on inside leg! Ed.) We stopped to talk to a couple whose dog was struggling in the snow, small paws and short legs making the going too difficult for the poor hound. Happily they decided to descend quickly.

Lorraine carefully took the path down to Codale Tarn, I decided to snow surf, well, I'm 12 at heart! I only wish I'd taken a sledge!

After going knee deep in a bog under the snow, we headed back to Easedale. The path was terrible, snow packed in some places and just invisible in others. So going was slow but steady.

The rest of the walk was just retracing our earlier steps, although the valley was much brighter and cheerier than it was when we set off.

The walk ended in the Miller How cafe, a very civilised coffee and cake after a great experience.

Sadly the effort of tramping the snow seems to have had an ill effect on my back, hip, knee and ankle. Never mind, the fun we had was worth a bit of pain.

Many thanks to Lorraine for being great company and for taking pictures of me making an ass of myself!