Walk : Whiteless Pike (2,159ft) and
Wandope (2,533ft) from Buttermere via Whiteless Breast
Date : 27th August 2016
Weather : Hot and sunny @ 20 °C
Distance : 6.5 miles round trip
Difficulty : 2 to 3 – A steep climb up Whiteless
Breast, but good paths throughout
(1=easy 5=hard)
Which
area of Lakeland is this walk situated?
Terrain
Overview
Walk
Overview
The forecasted poor weather was
thankfully wrong for the Bank Holiday weekend so we seized the day to visit
Buttermere and climb
up to Wandope
via Whiteless Pike and Whiteless
Breast. Great views to be had on top of the Scafell massif
The walk starts from the NT car
park about a quarter of a mile from the back of the Bridge Inn pub in
Buttermere. At the time of
writing it was £6.50 for a full days parking and it was heavily used
From the entrance of the car park
turn right and just slightly further down on the left a stoned path turns off
and head
past a row of cottages heading out
to the valley of Sail Beck
Not long past the cottages, a
barred gate gives access to the open tracks of the lower fell side
Shortly after passing through the
gate the path forks, We took the left fork initially
heading towards High House Crag
Looking back towards Buttermere and
the High Stile range. Slightly left of centre is Haystacks dwarfed by its
surrounding neighbours
The route swings round to the left
towards the base of Whiteless Breast and joins a
zig-zag path that helps with the steep climb
Looking North Eastwards across Crummock Water and in the distance Loweswater
Continuing along the path to Whiteless Breast, its quite steep in parts but heads
towards a series of rock bands, after which
the steepness lessens a bit
Looking North West over the valley
of Sail Beck and in the centre background, Causey Pike
Looking East over to the Helvellyn range
Approaching the series of rock
bands that require a bit of mild scrambling. The path, now at its steepest is
stone pitched
thankfully to assist with the climb
Looking behind towards the Southern
end of Buttermere
Looking over Buttermere to (l to r)
… High Crag, High Stile and Red Pike with Pillar peeping over the top
We make it to the summit of Whiteless Pike. Breath taking views
A 360 degree
view from the summit
Sue and I on the summit after a hot
and thirsty climb
What a view !! – so many prominent
fells. Green Gable, Great Gable, Scafell Pike, Pillar, Haystacks … Absolutely
stunning
To the North, Crummock
Water, Loweswater and Rannerdale
The ridge walk
to Wandope via Thirdgill
Head Man
It was at this point whilst taking
a lengthy pause on the summit we had the great pleasure of meeting up with Judy
and Ian Gordon
from Yarm in the North East near
Stockton on Tees. They were up for a week and on this walk they would complete
the whole
of Book 6 by going on to Sail and Grasmoor (some considerable yomping there). We spent ages
on the summit, talking, comparing
notes and just taking in the
marvellous views. It was a real pleasure
A close up on Scafell Pike on the
left (you can just about make out the summit cairn) and to the right Scafell
The four of us set out to cross the
dramatic ridge leading up to Wandope. Here looking
back down the ridgeline
Looking East over to the Helvellyn range
Looking
over Newlands Hause towards Robinson
A
close up on Great Gable, Scafell Pike, Lingmell and
Scafell
Looking
out over the Irish Sea to the Isle of Man
After
another long stop and chat on the summit of Wandope,
Judy & Ian headed of fNorth to complete Sail and , pictured here
Grasmoor. Thankyou for your company and walk on a
fabulous day
We
stayed on the summit of Wandope for a long while and didn’t
really want to come down
Looking
over Crummock water to Mellbreak
Journeying
back down and passing many of the precipitous drops over the edge of the
connecting ridge. After several previous
walks
where we were either soaked wet through or buffeted by the wind. It was such a
pleasure to be out in Lakeland on a day
like
we had today
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