Lake District Walks
High Street
Date: 19th February 2006
Distance: 7.0 miles
Ascent: 2530 feet
Time: 4 hours 20 minutes
With: Lisa
Start Grid Ref: NY469107
Walk Summary:
A fabulous climb on to High Street from Mardale Head with some great retrospective views of Haweswater.
Route Summary: Mardale Head - The Rigg - Rough Crag - Long Stile - High Street - Straits of Riggindale - Rampsgill Head - Kidsty Pike - Kidsty Howes - Bowderthwaite Bridge - The Rigg - Mardale Head.
Pictures:
1. High Street, Riggindale and Haweswater
2. Harter Fell
3. Haweswater
4. Lisa on the path climbing up Rough Crag
5. Another view of Haweswater
6. Looking across Riggindale to Kidsty Pike
7. On Rough Crag with High Street behind me
8. Blea Water and Mardale Ill Bell
9. By the trig point on High Street
10. Looking towards Knott
11. Rough Crag and Riggindale
12. Kidsty Pike
13. Looking back at High Street
14. The top of Rampsgill Head
15. Approaching Kidsty Pike from Rampsgill Head
16. Riggindale Beck
Walk Detail: I just knew this was going to be a great walk and with a promising forecast I was so excited that I found it difficult to sleep the night before. The drive was longer than expected but I did stop the car just before reaching Mardale Head to take a picture of Riggindale and High Street reflected in the still morning waters of Haweswater – beautiful!
The climb up Rough Crag has to be one of my favourites as not only is it a good climb in itself but you can enjoy magnificent views over Haweswater and the surrounding fells with Harter Fell, High Street and Kidsty Pike the most impressive. Lisa really did well on this climb and on the initial climb up Rough Crag actually outpaced me.
The continuation of the climb from Rough Crag’s neat little summit was likewise enjoyable although by this time a thick band of ominous cloud was approaching from the east and it became a race against time to get to the top of High Street before we lost visibility.
As it happened we only just made it in time and while it was disappointing that we did not get any substantial views from High Street or the following summits we did get tantalising glimpses of dramatic views over to the Helvellyn and Fairfield fells. Besides we could not complain too much after the delightful views we had enjoyed on the ascent. The ridge round to Rampsgill Head and then on to Kidsty Pike was very easy and the only difficulty was the layer of snow covering the top.
Due to the cloud we did not hand around long on any of these tops and instead we had our lunch in the shelter of Kidsty Howes enjoying the views back to the head of Riggindale as the weather began to clear. This was one of our very best walks and is one I’d very much like to repeat again.
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