The Great Outdoors (UK)

Red Pike & High Stile Lake District ENGLAND

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1 Start/Finish

Buttermere village car parks

GR: NY174169

Pass L of Fish Hotel, then take track on R to cross stone bridge. Take path R, rising above Crummock Water to foot of Scales Force.

2 Path up L of waterfall, joining stream above for 400m. Main path turns up L, steep, to ridgeline. Follow ridge up SE to Red Pike.

3 Head S at first, then SE along ridge with big drops on L, to High Stile. Main cairn is on spur heading out NE.

4 Again head back S at first, to continuing ridge SE to High Crag. Down steep path to shoulder, then contouring L side of slight rise for steep drop to Scarth Gap Pass. (Short return back down L here.)

5 Ahead on slightly scrambly path to Haystacks. Down SE to pass L of Innominate Tarn, then along top of drops on L. Path NE along rocky plateau to stream below Dubs Bottom.

6 Cross stream and join wide path down L into Warnscale Bottom and out to road.

7 Go L past car park to Buttermere lake. Lakeside path to lake corner. Keep ahead, bending R to track. Turn L into Buttermere village.

treats start with Scales Force. The waterfall is a 50-50 mix of falling water and crusted ice, with dangling icicles on either side. The stones right beside the stream are glazed and shiny, but the good granite rocks alongside are dry, allowing the short scramble for the close-up views into the gorge.

Above, the ridge to Red Pike has great views down towards Buttermere, and the path takes advantage of this, teetering along the top of the steep drops. There’s just enough icy lumps to make it interestin­g, but not enough to send me up onto the wide, gentle ridge crest just above. The ridgeline steepens to Red Pike’s summit cone of reddish hornfels scree.

I’ve been to two weddings recently, and I’ve noticed something about the wedding photos. These days they blow out the blacks for a stark and arty look, while desaturati­ng the colours to pastel tones. Lakeland in winter’s been applying these photo filters since the end of the Ice Age. Winter sunlight gives stark shadows and gleaming shiny surfaces for that harsh ‘noir’ look. All-day frost in the valley below gives pastel green on the fields and turns Buttermere to an appropriat­e buttery colour. It’s an effect that’s as much ‘high style’ as High Stile...

With no snow to slow us down, it’s a day for pressing on over Haystacks. With a lower viewpoint, and a lower sun for longer shadows, the scenery just goes on getting better. Innominate Tarn is ash-grey, with an offwhite icy rim; the ground around is beige grasses and chocolate-coloured rocks, with Great Gable peering in like a grimly disapprovi­ng wedding photograph­er who can’t be doing with all these red and yellow windproof jackets. Icicles are dim amongst the shadows below Dubs Beck – that’s more the way it should be.

The stony path down to Warnscale Bottom seems longer, and stonier, than usual. Not so much tiredness as dehydratio­n: the usual streams and water sources are frozen solid, and ice-water is an untempting swig on a sub-zero afternoon. But the air, at any rate, is like champagne; and the sunsparkle falls on the evening lake like confetti. Winter with no snow is still a season to celebrate.

Further informatio­n

Maps: OS 1:25,000 Explorer OL4 (English Lakes, North Western Area); Harvey 1:25,000 Superwalke­rs, Lake District West and Lake District North

Transport:

 ?? ?? 2 3 4 1 5 7 6
2 3 4 1 5 7 6
 ?? ?? Cribyn & N escarpment from Pen y Fan [Captions clockwise from top]
At Haystacks summit; On High Stile; On High Crag, looking to Great Gable, Scafells; Icicles are twicicles as nicicles: Scale Force
Cribyn & N escarpment from Pen y Fan [Captions clockwise from top] At Haystacks summit; On High Stile; On High Crag, looking to Great Gable, Scafells; Icicles are twicicles as nicicles: Scale Force

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