Blencathra walk - Blease Fell walk

Route: Blencathra

Area: Northern Lake District

Date of walk: 23rd November 2016

Walkers: Andrew and Gilly

Distance: 8.0 miles

Weather: Sun and blue skies

On a glorious morning we parked in the public car park just above the Blencathra Centre. The climb up Blease Fell starts immediately from here and before long we arrived at the snow line – time to put on our microspikes, without which this walk would have been foolhardy, if not impossible. It was hard going as the snow became deeper and deeper and there was no sign of a path, but luckily a couple of other walkers had blazed a trail ahead of us and we were able to follow in their footsteps much of the way

We eventually arrived at the summit ridge and as we walked along (taking care to avoid the overhanging cornices) there were huge views in all directions, including a large chunk of lakeland to the south and west, the Solway Firth and Scotland to the north, the Irish Sea to the west, and the Pennines to the east

Having reached the summit of Blencathra we started the descent down Scales Fell, looking across to some intrepid walkers on Sharp Edge as we did so. After a long but easy descent we started out on the return leg along the foot of the fell, encountering an unexpected obstacle at Scaley Beck where we had a short but steep scramble up some slippery rocks

After crossing the beck it was a long but easy return journey back to the start. It had been a red letter day, and a privilege to be out on the fells in such perfect weather

For other walks here, visit my Find Walks page and enter the name in the ‘Search site’ box

Click on the icon below for the route map (subscribers to OS Maps can view detailed maps of the route, visualise it in aerial 3D, and download the GPX file. Non-subscribers will see a base map)