Causey Pike and Five Other Fells

Name of walk Causey Pike and Five Other Fells
Date of walk 2015-09-18
Distance walked (miles) 8
Duration of walk 6 hours 45 minutes
Weather Mostly sunny
Peaks on walk Barrow, Outerside, Sail, Eel Crag, Scar Crags, Causey Pike
Walked with Ged and blind Kas
Parking Uzzicar roadside space.

On Friday Ged, Kas and I decided to do a walk that would take us to see the best of the purple heather before it disappeared. We would climb Barrow (1496ft), Outerside (1863ft), Sail (2529ft) twice! Eel Crag (Crag Fell) (2756ft), Scar Crags (2205ft) and Causey Pike (2090ft). A walk of eight miles, mostly on good paths, but a lot of ascent and descent. The weather was due to be pretty good, with only a 40% chance of rain.

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Our parking spot at Uzzicar is directly opposite the old miners' track we would follow. We were chatting to a family who were starting with Causey Pike and we would meet them again later on our walk.

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View back from the track.

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View ahead. Causey Pike summit on the left. Very soon we would be heading off right up the small track to Barrow.

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We start our ascent up by a small gill. Causey Pike and Outerside in view.

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Once on the shoulder we look for the narrow track up to the summit through the heather.

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View across the heather to Derwent Water.

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View back down the steep narrow track. Unfortunately the narrow track was not just through heather, but gorse too. As I was wearing shorts I had some very scratched legs by the time I reached the summit, but thankfully no ticks!

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Barrow summit looking over to Bassenthwaite Lake.

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Skiddaw and Blencathra still in wisps of low cloud.

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Cloud still covers the summit of Grisedale Pike.

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A close up of Bassenthwaite Lake with Binsey in the distance.

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All our fells for today. From left to right: Causey Pike, Scar Crags, Sail, Eel Crag (Crag Fell), Outerside, Stile End. Grisedale Pike far right.

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View from Stile End towards Outerside.

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For occasions like these Kas could do with a dog-snorkel.

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Outerside summit view. The cloud had come down on to Sail and Eel Crag.

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Looking back to Barrow and Derwent Water.

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Kas and me on Outerside summit.

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We head back down to regain the miners' track. Force Crag Mine on the right.

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Force Crag Mine in close up. We had a walk around here on our last Grisedale Pike walk in the snow.

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We head up the narrow Sail Pass.

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A bit of a trudge.

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View back to Outerside.

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At the top of the pass we continue up the zig zags to Sail. Looking back to Scar Crags, which we will return by later, meaning we would have to ascend and descend Sail twice!

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We meet up with the family we spoke to in the car park this morning. They are just returning from Sail. They are just doing the three fells today as their son is off to Sheffield University tomorrow. The dad is on his second round of the Munro's and moderates a Munro's Facebook page. His wife is ticking off the Wainwrights.

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View down the zig zags.

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Summit of Sail. The route up to Eel Crag on the left.

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View down the valley to Buttermere. The Red Pike range at the back.

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We head up Eel Crag ridge (Crag Fell).

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Looking back to Sail.

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Eel Crag summit. The ordnance survey trig point is broken. From Sail summit to Eel Crag summit took 20 minutes, so it is worth doing! The summit is totally flat. The Whiteside ridge on the right. Grasmoor on the left.

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Grasmoor. It looks quite close, but the photo obscures the descent/ascent gap between the fells.

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Our lunch spot.

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Our lunch spot view! Grisedale Pike on the left and Sail, Scar Crags, Causey Pike, Barrow and Outerside on the right. Skiddaw, Blencathra, Clough Head and the Dodds, and far right the Helvellyn Range, in the distance. Cat Bells etc middle distance on the right. Right click to enlarge, right click again to return.

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Looking across a multitude of ridges!

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We go back down Eel Crag, re-ascend Sail and then head back down the grass, missing out the slalom course of zig zags.

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We then ascend the Scar Crags zig zags. Close up of Pike o'Stickle and Harrison Stickle, where we were last week.

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Black clouds overhead on Scar Crags summit.

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We head for Causey Pike.

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A sheep's view of Keswick.

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Thankfully we got no rain.

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A great swathe of purple heather on the side of Scar Crags. A pity there was no sunshine to highlight it.

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View from Causey Pike summit. We would follow the track that goes off to the left. Cat Bells ahead.

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Hindscarth, High Spy, Dale Head and the slopes of Robinson.

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There is a bit of a scramble off the summit of Causey Pike. I did quite a bit of it on my backside. Looking back up towards the summit. The guy coming down was actually wearing a Tam o' shanter....obviously not a Scot! Turns out he was English.

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We head off down the track.

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Looking across at our route up to Barrow beside the small gill on the right.

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Nearly back to level ground. The track takes you out near the bridge below.

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View from the bridge. Kas gets a wash and drink.

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Back at the car park. The track we took at the start is on the right.

A good walk, but tiring coming off Causey Pike. Rather glad we decided not to go up Grasmoor too. The walk took us six hours and forty-five minutes. The heather looked good today, even though it was a couple of weeks past its best.

Jo.

 

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