AROUND GREENBURN

Saturday 17/04/2010. This is my final trip in pursuit of unclimbed Birkett summits and my plan is to finish off the hills in the Consiton section of Birketts List in "The Complete Lakeland Fells" As with my Shap and Wasdale walks I will be combining Birkett's recommended routes into a single walk starting in Elterwater. Soon the walk passes the lovely Little Langdale Tarn to approach the first felll of the day, my targets are: Birk Fell, Wetherlam, Black Sails, Swirl Howe, Grey Friar, Great Carrs, Little Carrs and Hell Gill Pike. Having made many walks among the Coniston Fells only Little Carrs and it's lower extension Great Hell Pike will be new tops for me but I'm not bothered by that; these fells provide classic lakeland walking of the highest order and the sun continues to shine heralding another treat in store. From Elterwater it's about a two mile walk south-west out of the village passing the old slate mines in Sawery Wood then a bit of descent to pass Little Langdale Tarn and the famouse much photographed Slaters Bridge. After that it is a short uphill passing the one-time mine worker's cottages now all second homes and climbing club properties, I see the Climbers Club and the Yorkshire Ramblers have huts here at Low and High Hall Garth. A fine walk up the lower reaches of the Greenburn Valley gives excellent views of the Langdale Pikes before the good track is abandoned for a bit of a slog up by a boundary wall then strike off right and up to the top for the first summit of the day, Birk Fell. From here the route is obvious taking the ingenious footpath through the broken cascade of rock that is Wetherlam Edge, a big pull up and there is the summit with three or four fellow walkers resting, we exchanged cameras and took each other's pictures a courtesey on the hills that is very handy when travelling solo. Now comes a stiff climb up the Prison Band. (after a short detour to take in the often by-passed top of Black Sails, an outstanding vantage-point for pictures of Consiton Old Man and Levers Water). The Prison Band is bit of a grind and quite foreshortened so you never quite see the top until you are virtually upon it. But all good stuff and when climbed essetially that's all the day's climbing over. A stroll north down to the col beyond Swirl How's fine cairn to Swirl Hawes allowes access to a faint track leading over west for half-a-mile to the great hump of Grey Friar, a bit like Black Sails, Grey Friar just off the main trod gets far fewer visitors even when the main tops are quite busy like today. It's a case of retracing steps back to the Hawes and then a short uphill climb passing the poignant ruins of a World War II aircraft ruin and memorial (see my picture, Grey Friar in the background behind the remains of the hapless Halifax bomber) to reach the top of Great Carrs, a short downhill stroll along the edge above the steep drop into the Greenburn Valley and Little Carrs is quickly reached and the continuation along the top of Wet Side Edge soon brings the minor top of Hell Gill Pike beneath your boots. This seems an impressive name for what I thought was a rather inconspicuous top but perhaps it has a better profile from the other side of the Wrynose Pass. Now I take a path, not always easy to follow, over the side of the edge and gently down into the Greenburn Valley. I had thought about camping by the abandoned reservoir at the head of the valley, it looks a dramatic position surrounded by Wetherlam and the cliffs along Wet Side Edge but with all the old mine workings I decide that camping on the shoulder with fine views of the Langdale fells and Little Langdale Tarn would provide a better lakeland ascthetic, and so it was. An easy walk-out in the morning and I bused back to Keswick well pleased with this walk which with the Shap and Wasdale walks have given me a total of 28 Birkett Summits totalling over 16,000 feet of ascent and 69 miles of walking. Keep it up laddie, keep it up.