The North Western Fells

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Heading up Whiteless Pike
Sitting at my desk at some point in early summer I'd plotted a speculative fell running route from Buttermere via Whiteless Pike and Crag Hill, all the way over to Causey Pike and Barrow. If I'm perfectly honest, I saved it and then never looked at it again until we arrived in the Lakes on our next trip. The route was around 12 miles, not huge, but there was a hefty amount of ups and downs. I saw it as a greedy run in that the route deliberately did lots of out and backs and criss-crossing to pack in as my Wainwrights as possible. Regardless, I loaded the route onto my watch, plotted the route on my OS map and set off very early on a Sunday morning in late August.

I parked next to the church in Buttermere. The sun had only really just risen and, looking up towards Whiteless Pike and beyond, most of my route appeared to be in the clouds. I ran down into Buttermere village, crossed the bridge opposite the Bridge Hotel and took a sharp right following Mill Beck up through the woodland. Crossing the wall I then followed the winding path up towards Whiteless Pike. I made good progress; stopping once to admire the view down onto Buttermere and Crummock Water. Dark clouds hung over Red Pike and High Stile - I crossed my fingers they'd stay there.

After reaching the summit of Whiteless Pike I was glad of the respite offered by Wandope Moss as I proceeded over towards Crag Hill. I'd been to Crag Hill the previous autumn in the rain and fog and was pleased that this time I had a bit more of a view over towards Derwent Water. The weather was behaving itself...sort of.  I didn't realise at the time, but Crag Hill was the highest point on my run.

Looking east from Crag Hill

I continued eastwards along the ridge over to Sail and then down an endlessly zigzagging path to a convergence of numerous routes. From here, I took a left, heading northeast towards Outerside and then further along on an out and back to Barrow. At this point I was six miles in, but the process of crossing from Buttermere to Derwent Water felt like a huge feat, even though it was a relatively modest distance in reality. After a quick pit stop on Barrow I was off again, this time heading west into the valley between Causey Pike and Outerside. The weather began to turn and a fine rain began to fall. A sharp left turn took me up a steep incline onto the summit of Causey Pike. Glancing down I could see two dots moving quickly through the valley...fellow fell runners.

Descending off Causey was a joy and I made good time as I passed over Scar Crags. The weather improved and so I was treated to some nice views along the valley. I soon reached the convergence point I'd been at earlier and was pleased to not be climbing the endless zigzagging path. Instead, I head south east towards Ard Crags. As I reached the trough of the valley I remembered that I had an unrelenting steep ascent up the grassy bank to the top of Ard Crags. This was hard work. My reward was a wonderful ridge run down towards Knott Rigg and eventually back towards Newlands Hause. My final mile was along the road, so I picked up some speed, but it didn't feel anywhere near as fun as the other eleven miles.

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