Five Langdale Pikes via Marks Gate • Walking the Cumbrian Mountains

Name of walk	Five Langdale Pikes via Marks Gate
Date of walk	2009-07-08
Distance walked (miles)	6
Duration of walk	5 hours 30 minutes
Weather	Sunshine, but quite cold
Peaks on walk	Loft Crag, Pike o`Stickle, Thunacar Knotts, Pavey Ark, Harrison Stickle
Walked with	Ged and blind Kas
Parking	NT car park.

Yesterday I had to take Tom to his work experience placement at 9 and pick him up at 5, so a walk would have to fit within these times and it would need to be somewhere quite near. It had been over three years since I had last done a Langdale Pike, so we chose to go to Great Langdale and do a circular walk to include: Loft Crag (2270ft), Pike o`Stickle (2323ft), Thunacar Knotts (2351ft), Pavey Ark (2288ft) and Harrison Stickle (2403ft).

View from the car park.

Ged usually goes up by Stickle Ghyll so I took him on an alternate route via Marks Gate that goes up on the left of Dungeon Ghyll and has much better views out down the valley.

Looking down the Langdale Valley. The sun was shining and it was warm work on the long climb up.

Looking across to Blea Tarn with Wetherlam behind.

From Loft Crag summit looking over to our final fell, Harrison Stickle. Our route back down to the valley is seen at the bottom skirting above Dungeon Ghyll.

Our next fell, Pike o`Stickle with people on the summit.

Summit of Loft Crag, Windermere behind.The exposed Pikes were quite windy so I needed my fleece. In fact it got so cold and that I swapped shorts for trousers about five minutes after this photo, my hands were freezing but I don`t bring gloves in July!

A bit of a climb to get up it.

Quick way down to the valley floor.

View back to Loft Crag from Pike o`Stickle summit.

Rossett Gill

View to Rossett Gill with Bowfell and Esk Pike. We kept Kas on the lead on this fell as with his blindness there is too much of a risk of him disappearing over the edge!

Heading up the grass towards Thunacar Knotts, looking back across Harrison Combe to Loft Crag on the left.

From Thunacar Knott`s summit shelter looking over to last week`s peak of Sergeant Man on the left. Helvellyn range in the distance.

Looking over the edge straight down on Stickle Tarn.

and down the valley

Pavey Ark summit looking over to Harrison Stickle. We found a wallet on the summit, no address or phone number, just a student travel card and a Sheffield College card. Could be the group headed up the slopes of Harrison Stickle wearing red T-shirts.....maybe we will catch them up. We asked all we saw on route and discovered that there was a Sheffield bus in the car park.

We then took the rocky, arduous route up to Harrison Stickle and looked back over to Pavey Ark.

Harrison Stickle summit with Pike o`Stickle behind.

We had a quick lunch the otherside of the summit on a grassy bit that had good views out. At the bottom of the photo is Dungeon Ghyll.

View down the valley. Directly bellow is our route down to Pike How with Stickle Ghyll on the left and Dungeon Ghyll on the right.

To get off Harrison Stickle you have to head off on the opposite direction back towards Harrison Combe and Pike o`Stickle and skirt back round.

Looking at the top of Dungeon Ghyll.

and its route down to the valley.

We met a couple turning back here as they found the track too precarious and it was making him dizzy. I thought it was quite safe, having been on far worse.....best not to trip over though.

We eventually made it down to Pike How, then there was a good pitched path for most of the rest of the route down.

Looking at the Stickle Ghyll route up. We came down this was last time and was a major contributer to my knee problem. It is walking across boulders all the way...most uncomfortable!

When we re-joined the Marks Gate route there was a guy in a red T-shirt sitting on the gate, obviously a teacher waiting for the rest of his party (takes one to know one!)who were coming back down the way we went up. I asked him if he was from Sheffield, he was, and whether he had a Joshua F. in his party, he did. Two minutes behind us was the young man in question and we reunited him with his wallet ……with his ten quid still in it! The teacher said that he had been whinging about the loss all afternoon. A bit of luck that we managed to catch them up at the bottom!

The walk had taken just under five and a half hours. It was less than six miles, but being so rocky it doesn`t make for easy walking, there were very few places where you can stride out, most of the time you had to keep your eyes on your feet.

On the way back in the car the Coniston road was closed due to an accident so we had to divert via the Broughton road. Thankfully I still managed to pick Tom up on time, and was only two minutes late!

Jo.