Off Piste on Place Fell

A walk on the wilder side – Place Fell October 2012

We’ve having a glorious spell of weather at the moment in the Lake District. Last Sunday Morgan and I decided to celebrate with a late afternoon walk off the beaten track on Place Fell above Ullswater. Having done the Place Fell walk many times I thought we’d try a slightly different route and head off across the western face and see what we could see. I freely admit this has led to some not very exciting narrative but some nice photos!

The Route to Boredale

We took the usual path from Patterdale up towards Boredale Hause. Thankfully despite the fabulous weather we didn’t encounter too many other hounds so Morgan was for once quite well behaved on the way up….

Going off piste

We took the shortcut path before reaching Boredale and then veered off heading south just below the top. Having got onto the western face I decided to do the sensible thing and follow whatever sheep tracks I could find to try and work my way across with a view to dropping down somewhere past Side Farm.

Morgan enjoys the views

Great Views

Obviously the weather and the views gave me a great excuse to stop and have a breather. These are some of the better ones….

Striding Edge, Helvellyn and Catstycam

Looking over to Deepdale

Time to find a way down

Having been traversing for about half an hour and with a full complement on photos, it was time to try and find a route down. Not wanting to retrace my steps (how boring) and noticing that sheep tracks always seem to go up hill it was time to bite the bullet and try and get down to the main path. Top tips if you’re doing this 1) on a dry sunny day heather makes a good foothold 2) scree doesn’t at any time!

Morgan Surveys the scree

All went well until we cam across a wide scree section. Morgan wanted me to go first (how gallant) – quite sensible as well given that I was more likely to cause a landslide than him. By now the ankles were beginning to feel the strain but we managed to get down to a point just beyond Side Farm. As soon as we spotted the dead tree above the cave then we went for it…

Morgan returns to normality

One last sight to behold

Once we were safely back down on the path we headed for home. One the way past Rookings we had one last treat – a couple of deer hanging out in the woods…

Deer in Patterdale

All in all a grand afternoon out! Rough route as below

Our Route

A word of Caution

Obviously as a responsible fell walker I wouldn’t encourage everyone to go off piste all the time – you should stick to the footpaths wherever possible. However every now and then trying something a little different is good value!

Another Morgan View