Last updated 12:12, Thursday, 10 July 2008

A head start – but it’s still a walk with a challenge. With Vivienne Crow

Careful as you go: The steep, south-east face of Grisedale Pike seen from the path down from Causey Pike

Map: OS Explorer map OL4.

Start: Forestry Commission Hobcarton car park near Whinlatter Pass (GR NY191245).

Public transport: Whinlatter is served by the 74/74A and 77/77A buses (telephone 0871 200 2233).

Refreshments: Siskins Café at the Whinlatter Visitor Centre.

Distance: 6 miles

Total ascent: 2,327ft

Time: 3.5-4 hours

Grade: Intermediate/hard

Overview: Visiting Ladysike Pike (2,306ft) on the ascent and using the Hobcarton ridge on the descent, this is one of the more interesting routes on Grisedale Pike (2,593ft). You get a head-start on the climb by parking at 910ft above sea level, but that doesn’t mean you’re in for an easy time. Although most of the climbing is straightforward, the pull on to Hopegill Head (2,525ft) is across some rock slabs. These are well-angled, allowing walkers to climb them with relative ease, but they can get slippery in wet weather.

The Walk: There are two wide tracks heading away from the parking area. Take the one that heads WSW, gently uphill. Ignore the track to the left at waymarker post 36; instead, cross Hobcarton Gill via the bridge. The track soon swings sharp left, climbing more steadily. Leave the track when it swings right - just after waymarker post 37 – keeping straight ahead (SSE).

Leaving the forest via a large wooden gate (1.1 miles from the start), you have the head of the valley straight in front of you - with the dark, impenetrable cliffs of Hobcarton Crag rising towards Hopegill Head on the western side of the valley and steep scree slopes leading up to Grisedale Pike on the eastern side.

The grassy path swings slightly to the right beyond the gate to head gently uphill. Beyond the next gate and stile, the path continues in the same direction for a few yards and then swings sharp right to climb the slope just above the stone construction on your right. It heads over to the fence and then climbs, quite steeply, alongside it.

After the next, unusually low gate, continue in more or less the same direction (NW), ignoring a path off to the left. You leave the narrow path through the bilberry when you see a small rocky outcrop to the left. In clear weather, you will catch your first glimpse of Criffel across the Solway at this point. Now swing left (SW) to head straight up the fellside across rough, pathless ground.

You quickly reach the indistinct ridge path and, turning left along it, cross a stile in a fence to climb alongside a tumbledown wall.

From the top of Ladysike Pike (2.25 miles from the start), marked by a large cairn, continue along the narrowing ridge. The path heads to the right of a small crag and then reaches the base of the smooth rock slabs leading on to Hopegill Head. Keep well back from the exposed left-hand edge. If you want to avoid the worst of the bare rock, you can head further over to the right to clamber up the grassier slope. If you do this, when you reach the ridge you will need to turn left to get to the top of Hopegill Head.

From the summit, turn left (SE) and then left again at a junction of paths. Heading around the wonderful northern edge of the fell, with steep ground dropping away on the left, the path dips and then climbs to the top of a subsidiary summit and then dips and climbs again to the top of Grisedale Pike (3.65 miles from the start).

The view from the top is pretty impressive – off to the NE are Skiddaw, Blencathra and, in the distance, the Pennines. Looking to the ESE, you can see the Helvellyn range, but it is the view to the south that is the most mesmerising – several layers of peaks that include Dale Head, Robinson and Great Gable, all backed by a line of Lakeland giants: Bow Fell, Great End, Scafell Pike and Sca Fell.

Continue along the ridge for about 100 yards – until you reach a rusty old fencepost. The main path heads down to the right here, but you need to bear left (N) alongside an old wall. In another 200 yards, immediately after a steep, loose section of path, you will reach another old fencepost. Leave the clear path alongside the wall here by heading off in a NNW direction across sometimes grassy, sometimes stony ground along a broad ridge.

The path isn’t clear at first, but it becomes a lot more obvious after descending a steep, loose section. Striding out along the narrowing, heathery ridge, you now get a good chance to enjoy your surroundings – Ladysike Pike and Hopegill Head are over to the left; to the right, the view is dominated by Skiddaw.

After you cross a fence via a stile and then pass a Christmas tree (literally!) over to the left, the ridge suddenly ends at a cairn (4.55 miles from the start). The path veers right here to descend above Black Crag and into a grim, dark area of the forest.

When you reach a rough track coming down from the left, turn right and then left along a wide forest road. At the next junction of tracks (waymarker post 33), bear right to drop back down to the Hobcarton parking area.

Points of interest: The steep, south-eastern face of Grisedale Pike is occupied by the remains of Force Crag Mine, a lead, zinc and baryte mine that has been worked intermittently since Elizabethan times. A lead vein was located at Coledale Head in 1578, although concentrated mining didn’t start until the early part of the nineteenth century. The last attempt to extract ore was made by the New Coledale Mining Company in 1984, but the firm left in 1990 after a large collapse flooded part of the workings. The mine was declared a Scheduled Ancient Monument in 2003 and public safety work was carried out on the buildings. The National Trust now runs occasional tours of the site.

• For more walks in the Lake District, try Vivienne Crow’s Walk! The Lake District (North) published by Discovery Walking Guides. Available in bookshops.