Walk Summary
Spectacular walk with the advantage of a high start at the top of Honister Pass. Impressive view of Great Gable's huge northern crag. Tremendous views into the Wasdale and Ennerdale valleys.
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Date: 01/08/2022
Length: 6.649 miles
Height Gain: 751 m
Terrain: Trackless fell, boggy paths, grass paths, stony paths, stone steps, slabs.
Navigation: Map/compass and gps required. Sketchy paths across Grey Knotts and Brandreth. Kirk Fell is a plateau on top.
Start: Honister Pass Car Park (Slate Mine or National Trust)
Route: Honister Pass Car Park, Grey Knotts, Brandreth, Beck Head, Kirk Fell, Beck Head, Drum House
Map: OL4 The English Lakes North Western Area
Weather: Grey with occasional sun
Walkers: Nun, Calse and Mo.
Gallery
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Honister Mines
Captain's Log
Mission Impossible
Our mission today, should Mo and Calse, decide to accept it, was to summit Kirk Fell. We had the advantage of setting off from the top of Honister Pass which would give us a good head start in terms of altitude. They chose to accept the mission and we set off on the steep climb up to Grey Knotts. Halfway up we noticed a couple of helicopters hovering over the summit of Robinson. It was quite far away, but a glance through binoculars revealed quite a few people on the top of the cliff near the summit. We then saw a couple of paragliders hugging the contours of the mountain as they descended towards Buttermere. I analysed the evidence and confidently surmised that there had obviously been a paraglider accident. The people on the top of the cliff were the mountain rescue team and the helicopters were an air ambulance and coast guard rescue. Undoubtedly the paragliders had been pointing out the site of the accident to the rescuers. Mo and Calse looked rather solemn at this news and we continued our plod up to Grey Knotts, deep in thought.
I was completely wrong of course. Later research revealed that It was a film shoot for the latest Mission Impossible film. One of the paragliders would have been Tom Cruise, renowned for doing his own stunts, making an exciting descent to their base at Grange Farm at the end of Lake Buttermere. If you see the film in Imax, then look out for the three figures struggling their way up to Grey Knotts in the background.
Mountain Rescue Or Mission Impossible?
Grey Knotts And Brandreth
Grey Knotts and Brandreth form a bit of a plateau on the route over to Great Gable. There are several potential summits and I had to use my gps to confirm each one. After the steep ascent from the top of Honister Pass, it was good to walk on some flattish terrain. The view also opened up to reveal Gable Crag, the huge north cliff face of Great Gable. As we dropped down on to the path leading to its base, we had a great view down the Ennerdale Valley with the magnificent Pillar Rock protruding from Pillar itself.
We had our morning break sat on a rock that had at sometime in the distant past, fallen from Gable Crag. I told Mo and Calse about how I'd once witnessed a human chase. The quarry had ran down the scree from Windy Gap, closely followed by a chaser. The quarry gave an occasional toot on his horn to taunt the chaser. They both dropped down to the bottom of the Ennerdale Valley and then a protracted chase ensued around some drumlins. After a while the quarry got a bit bored with this and with a toot on his horn, he headed off back up to Windy Gap. It looked like the chaser had given up as he decided to walk rather than run back up. The quarry eventually reached Windy Gap and with two teasing toots on his horn, he disappeared over the other side.
Grey Knotts Summit
Wast Water From Kirk Fell
Slate Osprey
Kirk Fell
It is a steep rocky ascent from Beck Head to the summit plateau of Kirk Fell. We met an elderly couple making their way gingerly down. They'd also set off from the top of Honister Pass. It must have been a very early start for them. Given the vertical ramparts of Kirk Fell it comes as a bit of surprise that the summit area is reasonably flat. There are even a couple of small tarns up there. After taking a summit photo we headed southwards for a short way to get a stunning view down on to Wast Water. Grey clouds were drifting in and it started to look rather menacing. We started retracing out steps to our ascent point to the plateau. It was just as hard going down the rocky path to Beck Head as it had been coming up.
We followed the Moses Trod path back towards Honister. I had thought about including Haystacks and Fleetwith Pike in today's route but we'd had a tough day yesterday and I thought better of it.
Back at the slate mine we admired some of the sculptures. There was quite a good one of an Osprey catching a fish. I've never been able to capture a photo of an Osprey...a live one that is. The trek to Kirk Fell had been a good one and our chosen mission was complete.