Distance

17.8 km total

Elevation

no info yet

Vertical

870 m gain

Time

7 hr 15 min total

Leaving Rosthwaite with a late start, we headed south on the Cumbria Way, crossing the bridge over Greenup Gill at Smithymire Island. After resting for lunch we scaled the nose of Eagle Crag, using Wainwright's Route A to the summit - an entertaining and circuitous route through the crags with some mild scrambling sections. We continued south from Eagle Crag down to scale a wall by the col, then up onto the rugged summit of Sergeant's Crag. A round of the Greenup coombe followed, below Long Crag, on the north flank of High Raise. A gentle ascent south followed onto the rounded summit of Ullsacarf on a good path. Leaving the path we descended for several kilometres on pathless rough ground to Dock Tarn. Here the landscape changed from grassy uplands to crag and heather, more reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands than the English Lake District. A narrow path led up through the ling to the summit of Great Crag, my third new Wainwright of the day. We dropped down through the heather to join a bouldery laid path north to Puddingstone Bank, where we picked up the track west down to Rosthwaite. We reached the car as the sun sank low. I was not feeling too good, and my cold developed into a fever after several days, depriving me of my first hill-walking trip to the Highlands of the year. Bother!

With RP. Sunshine at first, but with thin high cloud rolling in later on an easterly wind. Skylark and wheatears seen, and a cuckoo heard.

Route name

From Sergeant's Crag

loop
Obstacles

none

Key gear

trekking poles, GPS device

Other peaks climbed on this trip