Hi Folks,
Every other week I try to get out on an easier hike to spend some quality time with my wife, Mandy. This week we chose to give Low Fell and Fellbarrow a try. Its a nice easy route but with a serious view over Crummock water into the Buttermere valley to reward your efforts when you reach Low fell.
As always, I mocked the route up on Google maps to give me an idea how it looks in "real life"
We started out by parking at Thackthwaite. There is space in this village for no more than 5 cars, so get there early is my advice as we had to drive around for over an hour before a kind lady told us she was moving and we could grab a space.
Once parked up, you just take a couple of selfies...
And make a start. The path to the fells runs alongside Galloway farm and goes essentially, right through someones driveway. But its signposted public access, so while it feels "wrong" the route is correct. You pick your way up the quite steep starting path, which is initially quite wet and boggy.
But soon your target becomes aparent and you can start to figure out where your going, and you walk through some rather nice farmers fields en route.
I had chosen an anti clockwise direction around the back of the fell, to then ascend up to the summit from the rear as it looked a little easier than the alternative on the OS maps and I was sure Mandy would prefer it to the more scenic route I may have chosen for myself. Its still quite steep though, so I was secretly pleased at having opted for this route.
The fell in the distance here is Fellbarrow, our second Summit of the day. From this vantage point you can see your final summit and your route back down. A good indication of things to come.
The view backwards from here however is much better, and it gives you a good idea what Low fell will have to offer when you get there... Grassmoor and Crummock are now starting to look awesome...
I didnt take many pictures between here and Low Fell as there isnt really much to see in all honesty. Thats the downside to a route like this... Its just fields and hills which can be a little downheartening, but for me the prize arrives as you reach the brow of your destination. And in this case, the final ascent up to the brow of Low fell gave us a nice little preview of things to come... here is Mandy finishing the steepest section while I hang back with the camera.
At the 1390ft summit, the effort was rewarded. Sadly the wind was very strong and bitterly cold, so we found a little cragg that hid us from the wind and discovered that the sun had warmed that patch up very nicely so we stopped for lunch here. After eating, Mandy sunbathed for a while and I slipped off into the wind to try and get some nice Landscape images from Low fell.
The images came out well. I only took the little point and shoot with me again as im getting awesome results from it. I really love this Canon G7X. I think my Canon 5D MKIII is getting quite lonely sat at home - I havent touched it since I bought this... leaving it for easier trips, of which lately there have been none.
This for me, is the reward for climbing to Low Fell summit at a tad under 1400ft.
Looking back from here, you can just make out Mandy sheltering from the wind on what is, quite a bland summit.
That said, the views right back to the Isle of Man are quite impressive from here too, but im a mountain lover, so lets turn back round and marvel at the views of Grassmoor, Rannerdale Knotts, Robinson, Fleetwith Pike, Haystacks, High Cragg, High Stile and Red Pike... Not forgetting Melbreak closest to us. What an awesome range... I hiked over most of it over a 3 day Easter hiking extravaganza and enjoyed every footstep.
I grabbed a quick seven portrait shot panorama here showing the whole range and it has to be said, its a stunning area!
We took a last look over the amazing view, and left the summit for others who had just arrived to enjoy. For us, its time to head across to Fellbarrow now.
Like the path up, the route down and across to Fellbarrow is pretty bland, and if I am honest, I am only doing this one as its an official Wainwright and I wouldnt want to make this walk just to visit Fellbarrow, so we head across. The summit is the second hill in the image, so just a few "Ups and downs" or at least, thats how I described it to Mandy... ;)
The summit of Fellbarrow itself at 1370ft. its rather uninspiring but surprisingly it sports a nice stone trig point. I couldnt see its two neighbours anywhere but im sure they are around somewhere. (You always have clear line of sight to two more of these as they are used to triangulate a position, hence the term "trig point") The best view for me, was the one back into the Buttermere valleys.
Looking back over Kirk fell and right back to the very imposing looking Skiddaw at the back is a pretty incredible view though. It brought back memories of my day up Skiddaw and surrounding fells a few weeks ago. What a day that was. And its pure size and height viewed from here confirms just why! Incredible range.
The route back down from Fellbarrow is quite nice. Nothing hard, not too steep, just a nice little descent down through fields. It was lovely to see all the little lambs bouncing around in the fields too.
We pretty much followed the wall in this image.
Its not too long before Crummock comes back into view and you drop back onto your original ascent path and know your not too far from the car again. The weather has been very kind to us today and the clouds are just awesome.
And thats it. We finished off with a nice meal on the way home and went to bed nice and tired having both felt we had earned our sleep and done something nice for ourselves. It has to be said that I love hiking with Mandy, we have a lovely laid back day... no rushing to bag summits, no stress, we just chill out and enjoy what nature has to offer. Im already looking forward to the next one. :)
Here is a quick Google Earth video of the route we took which isnt quite the route I initially planned for us, because we fancied a detour to another hill.
And finally, some data from my Suunto Ambit3 Peak showing ascent and miles etc.
I love the little Suunto Ambit3 Peak. It constantly moitors our track and records smll waypoints every few yards so if the worst happenes we can use it to direct us bacjk exactly the way we cam by just following an on screen arrow. I cant imagine it will ever happen as I carry electronic GPS and the good old map and compass, but you never know - we came close to needing it on Scafell this winter in a total whiteout and wind that made a paper map useless to us. The ascent and descent data is useful as is the heart rate monitor as I use this to track fitness progress which is improving no end. My first hike with it showed an average HR of about 145BPM over 7hrs and a peak of 187bpm. I guess im lucky I didnt die that day. My wife, (A nurse) had a few choice words for me when I proudly showed her that chart and asked what it meant. That will teach me for asking daft questions - I will google from now on! LOL
A little about me:
For as long as I can remember I have been passionate about landscape photography. I love nothing more than leaving the house at 4am and heading to some distant landscape with a view to capturing an awesome sunrise during golden hour and then staying out shooting all day until night falls and trying to capture an incredible sunset... this escalated into a love of hiking.
Sometimes it's very successful, as you will see from this website, but other times its extremely frustrating and I just spend 12hrs getting cold, wet and downhearted with the weather, but that comes with the British climate and makes the great captures all the more satisfying.
My equipment centres around the incredible Canon 5D MK3 Body which is a fantastic camera by any standard and with a resolution of 22mp allows me to create very large prints with no loss of detail, and I have the amazing 18mp high speed Canon EOS 7D as my backup body... just in case of disaster! If hiking any distance, or with long, hard ascents I often just take the awesome Canon G7X, a 21mp pocket camera that is almost as capable as my 5D MK3.
I hope you enjoy reading my trip reports and looking at my images. If you would like to hang any on your wall and its not part of my main gallery (A trip report image for example), please feel free to drop me a line and I will upload a high resolution version to the main gallery for purchase.