Pillar

Only two tops left to do, Pillar and Scafel. We haven’t had an “official” walk since August, so today, at last was the long awaited Pillar walk. Pillar was another walk I had been dreading since our Yewbarrow walk back in 2013. As we sat at the great bait stop at the back of Yewbarrow we could see what difficult walks both Kirk Fell and Pillar were going to be, because of the sheer size of them.

Wasdale is a long drive so I picked Peter up at 6.00 am and headed for the Western Fells. We arrived in Wasdale about 8.30, already busy with three peakers. Boots on, scotch eggs eaten and started walking at 8.40.

Start of the walk

Our target was in view right from the car park.

The walk started at the campsite next to the Wasdale Head Inn. We walked through the Inn car park and crossed over the Packhorse bridge.

After crossing the bridge, we followed Mosedale beck into the valley. We needed to cross over to the other side of the beck so found a good crossing point.

Black Sail Pass

The path we wanted was just this side of the wall in the above photo. We followed that path for about a mile eventually bearing right following Black Sail Pass.

Looking back we could see the Scafels just making an appearance over Lingmell with the slopes of Kirkfell on our right all the way up Black Sail Pass.

The weather forecast suggested a very cold day but so far it was fairly mild, so we took a bait stop at Gatherstone Head.

A welcome intake of fluids and food and we carried on up the pass. We were approaching the top of the pass thinking most of the hard work was done. Although I must admit it hadn’t been a bad walk up to this point.

Looking back down Black Sail Pass you can see Yewbarrow on the left and Red Pike on the right. Pillar is further round to the right of this photo.

Now we could see the full might of Pillar and there were three summits to cross to reach the top. The first of these was the hardest with some hard scrambling over rocks.

Pillar summit

It had been a long pull up from the top of Black Sail pass and at last the summit was close.

Finally we reached the summit at 12.15, with great views all round.

The summit was quite big with three separate shelters. We sat in one for about half an hour and had some bait. We had seen quite a few people on the walk but there were not many at the top. The threatened freezing temperatures had still not arrived.

The Descent

After a good bait stop we began descending the same route about 1.00pm.

We found a slightly easier way over the first summit we had ascended. A path to the right was a less strenuous descent. The last summit was still hard though. However once we were back on Black Sail pass we moved fairly quickly. The steps were very well positioned allowing a quick descent. We were down as far as Gatherstone Head when I could just start to feel the knees.

The path was exactly the same as the ascent with only a couple of minor changes.

For the final half mile or so we kept to the other side of the beck we had ascended. A very pleasing descent got us back to the car just before 4.00pm. A great day on the fells and number 70 of 71 chalked off. Only one to go now and that’s Scafel.

See you on the next one.

Click here to view the walk in 3d