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THE GREAT LAKELAND CHALLENGE CALF CRAG (50) - GIBSON KNOTT (51) - HELM CRAG (52)
Scroll down to view the photographs after the report or click here Today’s walk is being undertaken as part of 'The Great Lakeland Challenge', organised by the Wainwright Society, to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, Book 1 - The Eastern Fells. The Wainwright Society is marking this event by recording the ascent of all 214 fells in the Pictorial Guides and 56 Outlying Fells, between the 14th and 21st May 2005. 'My fell' for the challenge was Gibson Knott and would be my first fell climbed amongst the central fells. I would also be climbing Calf Crag and Helm Crag to add another three Wainwright's to my total. Annette, my better half, was joining me on this walk even though climbing fells isn't her 'thing' as she puts it! The night before I was due to tackle Gibson Knott, The Wainwright Society sent out an urgent plea for a volunteer to climb Calf Crag following another member having to pull out of the challenge at the last minute. Although Calf Crag is part of the same ridge, we hadn't intended climbing it but under the circumstances I sent an email off stating I would climb it if a volunteer hadn't been found. However, I didn't get a reply before setting-off the following morning so we climbed Calf Crag anyway, just in case. Besides, Annette said she would claim the fell as 'her fell' for the challenge. At the time of writing this report I still don't know if another volunteer had been found. We arrived in Grasmere just before 10.00am and parked in the car park adjacent to the tourist information centre. It was an ideal spot as the road directly opposite marked the start of the walk (as we eventually realised after a couple of false starts!) although a £6.00 parking fee was a little excessive in my view! Walking through the centre of Grasmere the rain started to fall and we stopped at the Heaton Cooper studio to don our waterproofs. The weather forecast hadn't been good and we thought this was what we could expect for the duration of the walk. However, shortly after the downpour we were removing our waterproofs and luckily didn't need them again for the rest of the day. From the centre of Grasmere the route followed Easedale Road to Goody Bridge (offering great views of the surrounding fells along the way) where we turned right and on past Low Mill Bridge to eventually reach Ghyll Foot (or Gill Foot as written in Wainwright's Pictorial Guide), and onto a tarmacked path leading to the start of the Greenburn Valley path. After climbing uphill we soon realised that we had missed the lower path somehow and needed to drop down closer to the running waters of Green Burn. Once that path was joined it was a lovely start to the walk passing a succession of waterfalls along the way. Looking up to our left we could see Helm Crag and the very familiar sight of 'The Howitzer', a craggy outcrop and the true summit of Helm Crag. This would be our final fell of the day and pose the challenge of scaling the highest point of The Howitzer! Following a good grassy path we eventually crossed over Green Burn at Greenburn Bottom via conveniently placed stepping-stones, and where the valley bottom opened out in front of us like a huge arena enclosed on all sides by towering fells and apparently being the bed of a glacial lake. It was so sheltered and quiet we could have stayed there all day. Close by we came across a rather unusually shaped sheepfold with, as Wainwright describes, massive corners. Indeed, the corners consist of very large boulders with smaller rocks linking them to form the walls of the enclosure. Annette found an old rusty whistle amongst the rocks and wondered if it still worked. The pea was still visible and, putting it to my lips, found it did indeed still work! I wedged the whistle back amongst the rocks so if you are ever passing that way, see if you can find it! After almost reaching the end of the valley, the path slanted off to the left, climbing fairly steeply, to reach a small cairn on the ridge between Calf Crag and Gibson Knott. The views just opened up around us. The craggy outcrops of Calf Crag to our right, the ridge onto Gibson Knott and Helm Crag and the lakes of Grasmere and Windermere to our left, and the fantastic views into Far Easedale way below us. Superb! We decided rather than having a lunch stop here, we would push on to the summit of Calf Crag, at 1,762 feet (537 metres). It didn't take long to reach the summit and offered fantastic views and a great place to stop for a bite to eat. Reading my Pictorial Guide Wainwright noted that the area was; 'A pleasant place for a halt and quiet contemplation of the scenery. Sheep think so too, and wearers of new clothes should not sink into repose here without first clearing away the profuse evidences of their occupation'. Well, I can testify to this as there was still a profusion of evidence of their occupation! The only thing I didn't find that AW mentions was the clump of rushes abutting the cairn. Mind you, that was over 40 years ago! After a very pleasant rest we retraced our steps back to the cairn on the ridge and from which our route ahead was clearly visible. It was a fairly straight forward ridge walk with great views all around. In no time at all we could see up ahead of us a rocky mound topped with a cairn and headed straight up the easy gradient to bag our second fell of the day, and 'my fell' for The Great Lakeland Challenge, Gibson Knott, at 1,379 feet (420 metres). Again the views were fantastic, especially towards Grasmere and Loughrigg and The Howitzer was also a familiar sight ahead of us on Helm Crag. The views down into Far Easedale to our right were quite spectacular with a profusion of dry-stone walling resembling an intricate patchwork quilt. Again the route along the ridge was straight forward and we were soon at the base of the steep rise onto Helm Crag. Climbing up this section offered great views back along the ridge we had just walked and showed what a splendid route it is. Clambering over a craggy section to reach the top, at 1,299 feet (396 metres) we were suddenly presented with a fine view of The Howitzer towering above us and looking even craggier than I had anticipated. This is what I had to climb if I were to be able to claim I had reached the highest point on Helm Crag! We took a couple of photos of each other sat on the lower reaches of The Howitzer which, in doing so, showed the drop on the other side! Undeterred, I left the camera with Annette and started my ascent. It soon became apparent that it wasn't going to be that difficult to scale. What I was unsure of was whether I could get back down again! After a very short and relatively easy climb, and with an audience below, I was perched on the top posing for photographs. The views were outstanding but I couldn't capture them because I didn't have my camera! I sat on the top for a while just soaking in the atmosphere before making my descent which turned out only slightly harder that getting up. This isn't the only rock formation on the top of Helm Crag and a little further on at the south-east end of the ridge are 'The Lion and The Lamb', which, as the name suggests, looks like a lion and a lamb! I also climbed to the top of the Lion to take advantage of the views down into Grasmere before making our way to the edge of the fell. There are a couple of routes off the top, one leading down a fine grassy path around White Crag, and another dropping straight off the fell side. We took the latter! It was a little hard on the knees and feet but turned out to be a pleasant walk through trees although Annette did have a heavy fall on the gravel path but thankfully no serious injury. After washing herself off at a small waterfall coming off the fell side, it was just a case of following the well defined path skirting Lancrigg woods and rejoining Easedale Road, and back into Grasmere village. After a lovely ice-cream and a visit to the Heaton Cooper studio, it was a short walk back to the car and our journey home. On our way home we decided to stop-off at the 'Coast to Coast' chip shop in Kirkby Stephen where Annette had fish and chips and I had Cumberland sausage and chips. Yum, yum :o) All in all, a great day out, three more Wainwright's bagged, and an opportunity to take part in The Great Lakeland Challenge.
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