Last updated 11:29, Thursday, 08 May 2008

Weekend Walk with Vivienne Crow: Pike O'Blisco from Blea Tarn

Not so bleak: Blea Tarn with the Langdale Pikes behind

MAP: OS Explorer map OL6.

PARKING: National Trust’s Blea Tarn car park (GR NY295043).

PUBLIC TRANSPORT: 516, Langdale Rambler (telephone 0871 200 2233).

REFRESHMENTS: Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel and Sticklebarn Tavern, all in Great Langdale.

DISTANCE: 4.8 miles

TOTAL ASCENT: 1,918ft

TIME: 3-4 hours

GRADE: Intermediate/hard

OVERVIEW: Pike O’Blisco is normally climbed from Langdale and often as part of the Crinkle Crags ridge walk. But Blea Tarn makes for a much pleasanter starting point and eliminates the need for the road walking at the beginning. It also gives walkers a chance to explore the little-visited open fells to the south and east of the summit.

It’s a steep ascent and there is some easy scrambling involved, but the trickiest sections can be easily avoided. The descent is across mostly pathless terrain where you are unlikely to encounter any other walkers. As always on fell walks, you need to make sure you are competent with a map and compass.

This walk is best saved for a clear day – not only because of the navigational difficulties on the descent, but also to allow you to appreciate some of the fantastic views. It would be a shame to miss them!

THE WALK: From the National Trust’s Blea Tarn car park, cross straight over the minor road and through the gate opposite. With the Langdales forming the perfect backdrop towards the north, follow the clear track along the southern side of the tarn. Soon after going through the next gate, you cross a footbridge and then swing right to follow the tarnside path through the trees.

Eventually, this well constructed path ends at a gate near the road (0.8 miles from the start). The view from here is pretty impressive – the valley heading NW is Mickleden. To the east of it are the Langdale Pikes and to the west Bow Fell.

Looking about 150 yards ahead and slightly to the left, you should be able to make out a faint path heading round the small ridge of high ground to your left. It heads around the NW side of the high ground in a SW direction. The path isn’t clear at first, but it quickly becomes a lot more obvious as it heads towards the rugged slopes of Wrynose Fell.

It crosses one gully and then joins another path coming up from the right to cross a second one (1.3 miles from the start). Now the real climbing begins. Up the pitched path you go! With your eyes cast down to the ground to watch where you’re putting each and every step, it can be a tedious slog, but take the opportunity to look up from time to time; there are some interesting gullies to your left and, if you turn around, you will see the Helvellyn range and Fairfield slowly coming into view as you gain height.

Walkers can be forgiven for breathing a big sigh of relief when the pitched path finally ends at the top of the gully (1.7 miles from the start). A clear, stony path continues at a gentler angle – heading towards the grey rocks of Pike O’Blisco. It leads up to the first of several sections of scrambling. The first one – where you will definitely need to use your hands – can be difficult in wet or icy conditions. There is an alternative way around to the left – it still involves some scrambling, but it shouldn’t be as slippery. The second should be within the capabilities of regular fell-walkers. The third is longer and trickier, but can be avoided by following a faint cairned route to the left. If you do the latter, you will eventually reach a clearer path, along which you turn right. The first cairn you come to via this route is not the summit; the summit cairn is a sturdily-built contraption with a tiny shelter beside it.

The true summit sits atop a rocky knobble (2.3 miles from the start). Once you have visited the cairn, descend this knobble the way you came up and then turn right along a clear path heading in the general direction of Red Tarn far below (roughly SW).

You could, of course, go all the way to Red Tarn and then head SE to reach the road near the Three Shires Stone, but a better, wilder route lies in the lonely moors and crags to the SE of Pike O’Blisco.

Having descended for about 250 yards, watch for a large, solitary rock to the right of the path. Nearby are two substantial cairns. Look to the left here and you should be able to make out a faint path, little more than a sheep trod, heading across a flat, grassy area (SE). Follow this as it weaves in and out of boulder fields, generally keeping close in to the crags up to your left.

After a few hundred yards, you will reach a rough path coming down from the left. Turn right here (SSW) – heading in the general direction of Wetherlam and Swirl How in the distance. When this grassy path forks, bear left (SSE) towards cairn-topped Black Crag.

As you approach the base of the crag (2.7 miles from the start), the main path swings to the right of it. When it does so, bear left along a fainter, narrower path. This quickly forks – the right-hand branch heads up to the cairn on top of Black Crag, but our route lies to the left (E).

There are sheep trods and faint paths all over the place up here, so it is easy to get lost. The faint path that you picked up at Black Crag soon swings SE to avoid some boggy ground, then E again, before swinging back to the SE. If you do lose it, the key to the descent is to make your way ESE from Black Crag to reach the shallow, rocky gully formed by Wrynose Beck. You can then follow this downstream all the way to the Wrynose Pass road. Be careful not to veer too far west as this will land you in trouble on Green Crag and the rough ground to the SE of it.

Wrynose Beck finally reaches the road at Wrynose Bridge (3.45 miles from the start). Turn left to cross the bridge and head down the road. After almost half-a-mile, you will see a wall coming up from the right. As soon as this happens, turn left (NNE) to strike off across a flat, damp area. There is no path at first, but you soon pick up a clear route at the base of some steep ground.

The path heads through an area of juniper bushes and alongside a pleasant, rocky gully. Go through the kissing-gate (4.6 miles from the start) and then bear right to recross the footbridge that you crossed earlier in the walk. Now retrace your steps to the car park.

POINTS OF INTEREST: The Three Shires Stone is located about half-a-mile SW of where our route joins the Wrynose Pass road.

From at least 1671 until the early 20th century, the point at which the old counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire met was marked by three small stones, inscribed with C, W and L respectively. In 1860, a limestone pillar in memory of William Field, of Cartmel, was also erected.

This was damaged in the 1990s. It was subsequently repaired and three stones, copies of the original ones, were also placed nearby.