Wainwright Walks episode 7
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00:00Nestled in the far northwest of England, this is the Lake District, a land defined by its
00:12natural beauty. Unknown to millions who love the lakes was the late Alfred Wainwright, author,
00:26guide writer and talented artist. But above all, he was the greatest fell walker.
00:36Wainwright's guides have inspired generations of walkers to roam these
00:40glorious fells. And now, a century after his birth, it's my turn to go in search of
00:46the real Wainwright experience.
00:56Welcome to Great Langdale. This is one of the best known and most visited valleys in the
01:16Lake District. It's a place where walking and climbing sit happily alongside the ongoing
01:21traditions of upland farming. Around these neatly tiled fields, visitors like me come
01:27to explore the streams, the lonely tarns and the hidden waterfalls. Standing watching over
01:34the head of the valley is not one but two of Alfred Wainwright's favourite fells. And today
01:39I'm going to try and conquer both of them and find out why AW thought that the two of them
01:44and together created Lakeland's best Ridge Mile.
01:54Crinkle Crags and Bowfell, both giants of the Lake District in their own right. And blessed
02:00with a commanding position, soaking up attention throughout the whole of Langdale.
02:05With two peaks in one walk, there's no question that this is the most physical Lakeland challenge
02:13that I've undertaken so far. But it's also very appropriate. Wainwright was an ardent
02:18fan of the Ridge Walk. For him it wasn't just about the ascent, it's what you do when you're
02:23up there.
02:25Ridges, in general, provide the best fellwalking in Lakeland. They are the high-level traverses
02:38that link mountain summits and invariably reward the walker with ever-changing distant panoramas
02:46and aerial views of ethereal beauty. Ridge walking is fellwalking at its best.
02:52Every individual chapter in Wainwright's Pictorial Guides ends with a plan of possible ridge
03:00routes that could be taken from the summit. Together they opened the door to some truly
03:05enormous excursions. His ridge routes from Crinkle Crags and Bowfell were the most comprehensive
03:12of all. But as was his style, he left the precise choice of routes up to the individual.
03:18Now, I always carry an OS map, because remember, these guides were written 50 years ago and
03:23things change. Prime example on today's route, Climbers Traverse, which Wainwright recommends
03:28strongly, nowhere to be seen on the OS map.
03:35My plan is to tackle Crinkle Crags first, approaching from the south, before making my way along the
03:40entire ridge to the summit of Bowfell. This is over a mile of the most exposed land in
03:46the lakes. It pays to know your route and check the details before you find yourself up there
03:54with a rain cloud approaching. But today I've managed to enlist the help of a man who knows
04:02this ridge walk rather well. Derry Brabs is a leading Lake District photographer and one of
04:08the very few people who can say they actually worked with Wainwright himself. And being a photographer,
04:15he insisted that I meet him in a very specific spot.
04:21Hi, good morning, how are you? Derry, you're trying to make my walk even harder.
04:26I know this isn't your route, but I just had to drag you up here because this is just one
04:30of the best views in the Lake District and I thought you ought to enjoy it before you go
04:34and do some serious hard work. It is absolutely glorious, isn't it? Well, it is. I mean, from
04:38my point of view as a photographer, vantage points are everything. And from here you can
04:43see the ridge walk that you're going to be enjoying later, Crinkle Crags and Bowfell.
04:47Oh, have you done Crinkle Crags and Bowfell? I have, several times.
04:51Now you've done seven books in total with Wainwright. Did you experience some initial resistance
04:56from AW in those very early days? I mean, here's a photographer coming along saying, I'm going
05:00to take photographs of the hills that you've lovingly drawn and put down on paper. I was
05:08under no illusions from the start because I realised that here was a man who knew exactly
05:13what he wanted. He was dogmatic to the point of obsession sometimes. But no, we got on
05:18famously. I think it was a very sort of tentative relationship to start with. But as soon as
05:22I realised that I could climb the fells without doing myself too serious a mischief and he knew
05:28that I could take the photographs he wanted, we really developed a very sort of amicable,
05:33good working relationship. You must have been absolutely petrified. What was it like to work
05:37with Alfred Wainwright? It was very nerve wracking because of course, not being a walker myself,
05:42I had never any inkling of what Wainwright was. I thought, how can people do this for pleasure?
05:48It was just extraordinary. But as you get fitter, you get more comfortable with your surroundings
05:53and all of a sudden you start to realise why Wainwright did love the lakes.
05:57Now I'm really looking forward to my walks today, but what treasures do I have in store?
06:01You have one of the best ridge walks in the Lake District going across the jagged edge of Crinkle
06:05Crags. Drop down to three tarns, which you can see that depression. Then you're going to cut
06:10across Climbers Traverse just to that great lump of rock, which is Bowfell Buttress. And what you
06:15can't see from here is the great slab, which is one of the great natural features in the Lake
06:19District. I'm always looking for viewpoints and I think the Crinkle Crags and Bowfell Summit are two of
06:26my favourite views.
06:27Also on Crinkle Crags, I've read about this, the bad step.
06:32Yeah, the bad step. It's almost like the Hillary Step on Everest, but in miniature. And it really
06:37is quite amusing to actually watch people trying to struggle and sort of sit there almost with
06:43sort of a map and pen trying to sort of navigate a way around it.
06:46You're not reassuring me here at all.
06:49You can have a fun time trying to get up it, but I can assure you there is a route that
06:53you can go around the side, so you can get on.
06:55Now, I've noticed that there's one route particularly that exists in the Wainwright books, the Climbers
06:59Traverse, that is nowhere else.
07:01Well, it is there if you look for it now, but it's one of those routes that Wainwright
07:06will have discovered for himself. And of course, many have followed in Wainwright's footsteps
07:11since that time. But it's a well marked path. It has one or two moments where you have to
07:15slither around. But the problem you do have is when you are at the bottom of Bowfell Buttress,
07:20the only way is up. And that is quite a nasty scree slope.
07:23Well, Derek, thank you for your time today. And I have to say, I feel honoured because
07:26I'm only following in Wainwright's steps. You actually were with the great man, so I'm
07:30going to touch you and a little bit of a little bit if you rub off.
07:32Hopefully not my knee ligaments.
07:33Well, I'll certainly need to be in good shape. For this, the longest Wainwright walk I've
07:40ever tackled, six and a half miles to the top of Bowfell. And for once, there'll be descents
07:46as well as climbs. So let's have a look at the route I'll be taking.
07:49Sitting on its very own at the top end of Great Langdale is Stoolend Farm, the last outpost
08:05of civilisation on my walk today. The lush fields disappear as I head up Oxendale, crossing
08:12the beck and beginning a long and steady climb beside the ravine of Brownie Gill. I'll have
08:19eventually emerge onto flatter ground at Red Tarn, a turning point for me as I move north-west
08:25across a great expanse of peaty grassland.
08:32The gentle path gives way as you approach the many rugged peaks of Crinkle Crags.
08:40This is where Wainwright's ultimate ridge walk begins, a mile of classic views and fell-top
08:47scrambling. The pass of Three Tarns nestles between the two peaks, my cue to make my way
08:57across to the climber's traverse and get amongst the very best that Bowfell has to offer, a
09:03world of towering cliffs and shattered rock, including the unmistakable feature known simply
09:09as the Great Slab. From here it's just a short climb across rocks to one of the most shapely
09:16summit peaks in the whole of Lakeland.
09:28Stoolend Farm is both a working uplands farm and a major thoroughfare for fellwalkers leaving and arriving in Great Langdale.
09:34It sits at the foot of the open fell, the furthest place where those not prepared to walk can hope to explore.
09:41The environment becomes much wilder here. The riverbed is strewn with massive boulders which were a clue to a time when the river was much less tame than it is today.
09:49During storms the boulders are pushed down by the force of the water rumbling along the riverbed like little pebbles.
09:56Everywhere you look there are signs of what happens when the water levels tumbling down the fell side increase.
10:03The footbridge here is as new as it looks, only put in place two years ago, after the previous crossing was swept away by the Oxenday Bridge.
10:10The footbridge here is as new as it looks, only put in place two years ago, after the previous crossing was swept away by the Oxenday Bridge.
10:18The footbridge is also where the walk takes a sudden turn upwards as the bridge is also where the walk takes a sudden turn upwards as the path leaves Oxenday Bridge and heads south up a gully, destined for red tarn.
10:38And so to the first proper climb of the day, in fact the most intense piece of ascent of the whole climb, a steady, relentless slog up 1,100 feet, which rapidly takes you away from the gentle fields of Langdale and gives your entire body a wake-up call for the work upwards.
11:08And so to the next step ahead.
11:38My path skirts a ravine that gets progressively more dramatic as you climb. This is brownie gill, cut over the millennia since the last ice age, and now a small oasis of rowan trees and flowering plants.
11:59I bet a few bottoms have perched here over the years. It's not so much an awkward or technical climb, it's just a long slog.
12:14But you get a great view over the ridge over Crinkle Crag to Bowfell from here.
12:21Sadly this path goes that way in the other direction. It looks like there's a bit of a scramble up ahead as well.
12:32In wet weather this scramble would be a hazardous experience, with water breaking out of the main gill and pouring over the rocks and path.
12:47This is a nice little surprise.
12:51Few big fell walks are complete without a trip to a tarn, and this one is no exception.
12:59Red Tarn is just my first today, a walker's crossroads as Wainwright described it, with four paths converging where the stream exits the lake.
13:11It's not the most picturesque tarn I've ever visited, I must say. It's just sort of parked up in the middle of this great open pass, exposed to all the elements.
13:27Certainly very different from the other red tarn at Helvellyn, but you do get a magic view of Bowfell.
13:38Wainwright described this particular red tarn as an unattractive sheet of water, but did concede that it might have its uses on a hot day.
13:53But with a great deal still to tick off, there's fortunately no time for considering a paddle anyway.
13:59From the tarn the good news is that much of the hard graft of ascent has already been done,
14:05and as you cross the top of Brownie Gill, there's time for a look down the gully to admire what you've just achieved.
14:12The walk from here changes its character.
14:19The route to the first of the crinkle crags brings you onto an inspiring high fell plateau.
14:27This is where the air changes, the wind changes, and views open up as you stride across the gentlest of gradients.
14:34And far in the distance behind you, Lake Windermere at the end of the Langdale Valley.
14:43Ah, there they are. You see you walk across this grassy plain for about a mile and you get a bit lost,
14:55and you forget about the drama that lies ahead, and then there are the crinkles.
15:01That's crinkle one, crinkle two, which is actually the summit, crinkle three, four and five.
15:14That nasty gully between crinkles two and three. You wouldn't want to fall down there, would you?
15:20These undulations, seeming trivial from a distance, are revealed at close range as steep buttresses and gullies above wild acclivities.
15:38A scene of desolation and rugged grandeur, equal by few others in the district.
15:45Inevitably, the gentle path across the grass gives way to boulders and scrambling as you approach this most distinctive of fell tops.
16:01And it's as you scale the first of the five mini summits that you get a clear view of the second and highest crinkle.
16:09But in the way stands the biggest obstacle on any footpath in Lakeland.
16:14Well, I'm definitely looking at the ominous bad step. It looks exactly like Wainwright's drawing.
16:19The thing is, from here you don't get any sense of its size or scale.
16:23Chicken-hearted walkers, muttering something about discretion being the better part of valour, will sneak away and circumvent the difficulty by following the author's footsteps round the flank of the buttress.
16:42Two chalk stones block the gully entirely, forming a rocky wall ten feet high, quite beyond the powers of the average walker to scale.
16:57Hmm, it is a big step. I don't know if it's a bad step, but it's a big one.
17:03That overhang there looks a bit dodgy, it looks like it could fall on you, so I'm going to stick to this side, I think.
17:09Bad step is largely a problem-solving exercise.
17:16Once you realise you'd have to be eight foot tall to climb straight over the chalk stones,
17:23it's just a case of choosing which bit of the side wall to climb.
17:27A combination of hands, feet and the odd knee should then see you through.
17:50And from there it's just a few yards over rocks to reach the true summit of crinkle crags.
17:55Cool. This great vista just opens out in front of you.
18:08There's Langdale, all the way down to the right.
18:12Estale on the left.
18:16And then the magnificent Scorfell range, just in a big horseshoe.
18:21The head's just under the cloud.
18:24But that's the view you want. That's where we're heading.
18:27Bowfell.
18:29No wonder he thought this was the best Ridge Mile walk.
18:32Some view.
18:36Crinkle Crags really doesn't disappoint.
18:43It's a mountain defined by its unique summit outline.
18:46It's said that the early men of Langdale gave the mountain its name.
18:50A name that suits it just as well up here as it does from the valley below.
18:55A.W. did have one problem, however.
19:02He couldn't decide whether Crinkle Crags was singular or plural.
19:07Should it be Crinkle Crags is or Crinkle Crags are?
19:12No, he couldn't decide either.
19:19And so my Ridge Walk begins.
19:21From 2,816 feet, my route falls and rises as I traverse the rest of Crinkle Crags.
19:31I'm glad the weather is clear.
19:33With the path barely discernible and ravines and gullies nearby,
19:36this is not somewhere to be caught in the wind and the rain.
19:40This little scramble to the top of Crinkle 3 is a diversion,
20:06but your reward is this terrific view of Great Langdale down and through the valley.
20:15I think these detours are really worth it, not just for the views,
20:18but they really help me with the geography as well.
20:23The geography of this fine ridge once included the local county boundary.
20:29When Wainwright published his pictorial guides,
20:31this was where Cumberland and Westmoreland ran alongside each other.
20:35Both now consigned to the history books in favour of the modern-day Cumbria.
20:42From this angle, Bowfell really is quite a sight, a great pyramid of a mountain.
20:48The word fell doesn't describe it adequately, it really is a mountain.
20:54As A.W. puts it, this is the heart of Lakeland's best ridge mile, and he certainly gave it the attention it deserved.
21:04In fact, he presented it in a level of detail that was unique even for him.
21:09This is a plan of the entire ridge from Crinkle Cracks all the way up to Three Tarns, full of detail, as you'd expect from Wainwright.
21:21But supposing I was coming in the opposite direction, well I'd have to turn the book around, wouldn't I?
21:26Not with Wainwright, you see, he was so obsessive, he did it for you.
21:31Look, there it is, exactly the same route, but the other way around.
21:35Now that's what I call service.
21:37After a mile of intensely rocky scrambling, it's quite a relief to be heading downwards towards gentler, grassier ground.
21:50A welcome chance to take the pressure off your knees as you approach the ideal rest spot at Three Tarns.
21:57This is the most popular pass route between the mighty valleys of Langdale and Eskdale.
22:03The Three Tarns themselves are so small, they're easily missed.
22:07And depending on the weather, you may only find two tarns, or as many as four.
22:13Either way, this is the place where I'm leaving Wainwright's Crinkle Crags chapter,
22:18and turning my attention to the second mountain of the day.
22:25Beaufell is a mountain of noble aspect and rare distinction.
22:30There is both grace and strength in the upper reaches.
22:34It is a challenge that cannot be denied.
22:42And for me, the challenge is to navigate my way off the main route,
22:46and find the climber's traverse,
22:48the path that Wainwright thought showed Beaufell at its very best.
22:52Without the reassurance of Derry Brabs, I'd be unsure about following this route.
23:02The climber's traverse isn't a public right-of-way, so it doesn't appear on OS maps.
23:07But a path it is.
23:10One that takes you off the ridge, and into places where most walkers never reach.
23:15Now, the name might suggest that harnesses and handholds are required,
23:22but fortunately, the climber's traverse isn't quite that dramatic.
23:27The path first developed to provide access straight to the favoured spots of rock climbers.
23:33It follows a ledge that passes round the great supporting walls of Beaufell.
23:45This is where climbers come to tackle flat crags, Cambridge crags,
23:50and the suitably named Beaufell buttress.
24:01It just sort of grows out of this river of scree and then juts up into the sky.
24:11Walkers who stick to the main route from Three Tarns
24:14can easily spend an entire day on Beaufell,
24:17without ever noticing the drama that sits under their noses.
24:23But those that do make it here are rewarded by one of the most welcome features of this,
24:28or any long climb.
24:32Nothing better ever came out of a barrel or a bottle, as Wainwright puts it.
24:42As you sip the water that's poured straight out of the heart of the Beaufell rock,
24:46you're surrounded by some of the boldest mountain features in the country.
24:51A good spot to prepare for the final climb of this Lakeland epic.
24:56Now getting here was meant to be the tricky bit of the day,
24:59but to be honest, an exit route has never been less obvious to me on a Wainwright walk.
25:03He doesn't recommend going up the scree.
25:09He does recommend a route called Great Slab, which looks to be up that way.
25:16So I'll give it a go.
25:18So I'm left with an unlikely climb up the side of Cambridge Crag,
25:36and a route past the most unusual feature of the day.
25:38In amongst all the near vertical rock faces is one very different one.
25:47Great Slab, as Wainwright called it.
25:51A vast and gently sloping platform of naked rock.
25:56Uniquely round here, it's remained free of all the scree and boulders that surround it.
26:11And frankly, having climbed up the side of it, you could do with the rest.
26:15Now I'm not intimate with all 214 fells, but I'm pretty sure that you don't get a view like that anywhere else.
26:30And Wainwright was so impressed with the Great Slab and the Langdale Pikes in the distance,
26:35that he gave it a double page spread.
26:38Now yes, it's quite a bleak picture, but remember these were hand drawn.
26:43Every detail, every line.
26:44Look at this little chap at the top with the walking stick.
26:48I wonder if that's him.
26:54As you round the top of Great Slab, the summit of Bowfell is both unmistakable and reassuringly close.
27:01It's an exciting summit that keeps the challenge going right to the very end.
27:07Bowfell's top is a shattered pyramid. A great heap of stones and boulders and naked rock. A giant cairn in itself.
27:22This is so different from any summit I've been on before. You definitely know you're at the very top, but there's no need for a triangulation point or any great cairn.
27:36Where would you put it anyway?
27:42Throughout seven whole volumes, this was the only fell Wainwright admitted straight away was one of his very best.
27:50He loved to bestow honours and create rankings that would inspire endless debate on footpaths and in pubs across the lakes.
27:58But every other fell had to wait until he published his final pictorial guide to learn whether they would join Bowfell in Wainwright's Premier League.
28:08We know from these pages how important Bowfell was to Wainwright. He declared his love very early on. But in 1966 he also made Crinkle Crags one of his top six summits.
28:22Two top fells, one mammoth expedition and the greatest ridge walk in England.
28:29Twofold expedition and the greatest ridge were the only one was linked to going to Wainwright's First trucs from Italy in England.
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