Patterdale Area • 2
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The camp at Grisedale Tarn
DAY 3 - GRISEDALE
I left the campsite late in the morning and decided to walk up Grisedale and camp by the tarn. Grisedale is on of my favourite valleys and I'd climbed most of the hills on the west side of Patterdale, but I'd not climbed Seat Sandal.
It was a very hot day, and about halfway up the valley, just past a footbridge, I stopped for lunch, even setting the stove up for a cup of tea. I must have stopped for about an hour and a half. Occasionally it's good to just be in the mountains without any aim or time schedules.
When I got to Grisedale Tarn I found a good spot near the outflow and pitched the tent. I don't like taking my water from a tarn, so I found a small beck coming down from the slopes of Fairfield which reaches the outflow of the tarn a little downstream.
Grisedale Tarn from Seat Sandal
Once all the camping chores were done, I walked a circut of the tarn, taking in the summit of Seat Sandal, which overlooks it. Back at camp, I cooked a meal and ate it on sitting on a rock by the tarn. It was a very clear night with not a hint of wind, so I stayed outside the tent for a few hours watching the stars (and a satellite) until it was time to get some sleep.
The camp at Grisedale Tarn - St Sunday Crag in the background
DAY 4 - FAIRFIELD
I had been considering continuing east across Dunmail Raise and onto the Central Fells, but I decided to head back east as I was getting close to the edge of the map. Over breakfast I planned a route that would take me overFairfield and on to Angle Tarn. The hardest part of the day was the slog up Fairfield from Grisedale Hause, a thousand foot treadmill of sliding scree. Progress was slow, but I paced myself well and managed to get up to the summit plateau without a stop.
There was large sheep at the summit that was so used to people it would eat out of your hand and even jump up for food like a dog. Most of the time sheep are extremely timid and will run away from approaching people, but these tame sheep aren't uncommon on the busier summits during the summer.
Next I followed part of the Fairfield Horseshoe route towards the rocky top of Hart Crag, then headed off along the undulating ridge of Hartsop Above How towards Patterdale. There's a post office in Patterdale so I was able to resupply. I bought some fresh fruit, and was even able to make some room in the rucksack for a couple of cans of beer.
The climb up to Angle Tarn was relatively easy, though it was quite hot by now. The tarn itself may be the finest in the fells. Unlike its namesake beneath the crags of Bowfell, this Angle Tarn is not a corrie tarn, but a ridge tarn quite open to the sky, with islets and a peninsula, and miniature bays beneath low crags.
I wasn't the only one camping by the tarn that night. There was also a backpacker doing the Coast to Coast Walk, a long distance trail devised by Wainwright himself in the early seventies. It passes by this way and Angle Tarn is an obvious camp spot. Rather than carry a tent, he was using a gore-tex bivi-bag which he set up across the lake from me. We got talking for a while, then I went back to my tent and cooked a meal.
Wild Camp at Angle Tarn
DAY 5 - ANGLETARN PIKES
I woke before dawn and decided to get up onto Angletarn Pikes to watch the sunrise. There was a carpet of mist down in the valley, with trees poking out. The valley was silent. Down by the tarn I could see my neighbour getting out of his bivi-bag and preparing his breakfast. Now that the sun was up, it seemed like a good idea to do the same.
Angle Tarn at dawn
I had planned to visit Beda Fell after breakfast, but by now the sun was out and I didn't want to move. I decided to have another lazy morning and just lay on the grass by the tarn, reading and listening to some baroque music. Eventually I began packing things away, occasionally stopping to make another brew, and reluctantly struck camp about midday for the long walk back to Windermere (there are no buses over the Kirkstone Pass outside of mid summer).
As I said at the beginning, from a pure peakbagging point of view this wasn't a well planned trip. For example, I didn't notice that Brock Crags was only ten minutes or so from my Angle Tarn camp and could have been easily fitted in on the way home. But I had a great time climbing these hills, most of which I'd never been on (and almost all of which I've been on since), and the weather was quite reasonable for September.
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