A glorious day today climbing the Buttermere Fells by Sheepbone Rake, a little cloud early on soon cleared giving some glorious views throughout the day and even a good Brocken Spectre on High Stile.
We set off from Buttermere at 9am this morning and after a quick chat decided to opt for a slightly more adventurous route than originally planned, the plan now was to climb the Buttermere Fells by Sheepbone Rake.
We followed the track along the lakeshore towards Gatesgarth until we were out of Burtness Woods and when we reached the bridge over Comb Beck climbed steeply alongside the beck to reach the slippery ladder stile across the wall.
We were soon up into Birtness Comb and crossing the comb to the foot of Sheepbone Buttress. Sheepbone Rake was quite obvious above us now.
There was a little cloud hanging on the top of High Stile above us, but we could see the outcrops of Grey Crag emerging as we climbed higher.
We were soon up onto the start of the rake, scrambling up over some slightly slippery boulders, after a while an easy looking scramble to the left of the rake, we took this rib and climbed up to the point where Sheepbone Rake reaches the crest of the ridge leading up to High Crag. a route up the easy rock, trying to stick to the solid rock as much as possible and eventually emerging onto the grassy slope leading up towards the summit of High Crag.
From the summit of High Crag we followed the ridge west, the cloud was climbing to the southern side of the ridge but there were good view north over Burtness Comb and across to Grasmoor and the Northern Fells beyond.
We were soon climbing onto the summit of High Stile, the highest of the Buttermere Fells, the views now were great, after a short stop we crossed to the slightly lower west top to look for a spot out of the slight breeze to eat our lunches.
As we crossed the summit we spotted a Brocken Spectre off to our right, as we stood there it got brighter and brighter, one of the best I have seen in a while, we spent some time watching it until it faded before crossing to the western summit for lunch.
After lunch we made quick progress crossing to the summit of of Red Pike, our final top of the day, by now the views to the south were beginning to clear and we had views back to the Scafell Range and Pillar as well as down to Ennerdale Water. There were good clear views across the Solway to Scotland and west to the Isle of Man.
From the summit of Red pike we descended west dropping down onto Lingcomb Edge and following the ridge down until we reached the path descending towards Scale Beck.
We were soon down at Scale Force and heading down across the boggy ground towards Buttermere, getting back into the village at 3pm.
A great day.
