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Walking the Lake District Fells - Langdale

The Langdale Pikes and Bowfell

ISBN

9781786310323

Availability

Published

20 Sept 2019

Reprinted

17 Oct 2023

Edition

Second

Pages

248

Size

17.20 x 11.60 x 1.40cm

Weight

290g

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Mark Richards’ Walking the Lake District Fells series is a unique collection of eight guidebooks packed with all the routes to the summits of 230 Lakeland fells. This guide explores 25 fells accessible from the Langdale area. Ideal for keen hikers, it offers route descriptions, maps, and hand-drawn topos to customise adventures.

Seasons

Year-round walking. Winter walks, even on the lower fells, are not for the inexperienced or under-equipped.

Centres

Ambleside, Grasmere, Rydal, Elterwater, Chapel Stile, the Old and New Dungeon Ghyll hotels

Difficulty

Straightforward ascents on sometimes clear, sometimes faint paths, and occasionally pathless terrain, to be used as a basis for readers' own walks. Navigational skills are needed but no specialist equipment. Any scrambling is easy and non-scrambling alternatives are always provided.

Must See

A fresh perspective on classic summits in the Lakes including Bowfell, Crinkle Crags, Great End, Helm Crag, Loughrigg, Scafell Pike and the Langdale Pikes, and an inspiring introduction to lesser-known Lakeland fells such as Blea Rigg and Little Stand

ISBN

9781786310323

Availability

Published

20 Sept 2019

Reprinted

17 Oct 2023

Edition

Second

Pages

248

Size

17.20 x 11.60 x 1.40cm

Weight

290g

Overview

Cicerone’s Walking the Lake District Fells guides are your ultimate fell-by-fell companions to the Lake District fells. A series of eight guidebooks, one for each of the main valley bases, cover ALL the routes up ALL the fells in each area – that’s 230 fells in total.

This guidebook covers 25 fells accessible from the Great Langdale Valley, Grasmere and Ambleside. The area offers stunning scenery and fantastic walking, from charming Loughrigg to eye-catching Helm Crag, from the lofty heights of Bowfell to the iconic Langdale Pikes. England's highest mountain, Scafell Pike, is also included in this volume as are a handful of classic ridge routes for longer fell days.

Ideal both for pre-planning and use on the hill, keen hillwalkers will find all the info needed to climb the fells with confidence, plus a fresh perspective on both classic and lesser-known fells. If you’re a summit-bagger you can use our tick lists to check off the fells as you climb them.

What sets these guidebooks apart from the rest?

Complete coverage – every route covered, not just the main one.
Devise your own routes – a variety of ascents, descents, and ridge routes, so you can choose to climb one fell or combine routes to craft your own adventure.
Up-to-date route information – complete route description and HARVEY mapping for each fell.
Hand-drawn topos and panoramas – easily see the routes up each fell and views from the top.
Fell-friendly routes – designed to minimise environmental impact.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Author preface

Volumes in the series

Key to maps and topos

Starting points

Introduction

Valley bases

Fix the Fells

Using this guide

Safety and access

Additional online resources

Fells

1 Blea Rigg

2 Bowfell

3 Calf Crag

4 Cold Pike

5 Crinkle Crags

6 Esk Pike

7 Gibson Knott

8 Great End

9 Harrison Stickle

10 Helm Crag

11 High Raise

12 Lingmoor Fell

13 Little Stand

14 Loft Crag

15 Loughrigg Fell

16 Pavey Ark

17 Pike o’Blisco

18 Pike o’Stickle

19 Rossett Pike

20 Scafell Pike

21 Sergeant Man

22 Silver How

23 Steel Fell

24 Tarn Crag

25 Thunacar Knott

Ridge routes

1 The Great Langdale Round

2 The Langdale Pikes

3 The Easedale Skyline

4 The Greenburn Horseshoe

More to explore

Appendix A Useful contacts

Appendix B A fellranger’s glossary

Appendix C Alphabetical list of 230 Fellranger fells

Updates

December 2019

Corrections

The correct heights for Whinfell Beacon is 472m and Winterscleugh 464m which differ from the text in this guide and what is listed in the table at the back.

Reviews

An authoritative, comprehensive, up-to-date guide to all the routes in the fells

Mark Richards is an indefatigable mountain walker. He is also an incurable romantic and his passion for the fells is probably unsurpassed except, perhaps, by his old friend Alfred Wainwright. For Mark, the Lake District is “a land of living dreams”.

He finds: “The trappings of modern life thrust carpet and concrete under our feet and it is always wonderful to walk the region’s sheep trods and rough trails, and to imprint our soles on the fells.” Those imprinted soles, however, bring their own hazard: the well-trodden routes up the fells are becoming too well trodden and it is one of the intentions of this and the other guides in the series to encourage walkers to venture on other less-frequented paths. Mark wants to recommend “fell-friendly routes to each summit which are less susceptible to erosion”. He finds Scafell Pike is not the most beautiful of fells, but it is “the highest, roughest, toughest and assuredly the most revered ground”.

Mark offers routes up from four directions, but you always feel he is a man who has walked the route many times in all sorts of weather, one who understands the problems a person walking that way for the first time might encounter. Walking up from Rossett Gill, he notes that “the terrain here has a nasty habit of confusing even confident ramblers and it is a meeting of the four winds too”.

You feel he is with you as you follow the route: “Weave through the boulders, the path inevitably vague. The boulders relent as the summit of Scafell Pike comes tantalisingly into eye-shot – more distant than you may have hoped.” There are detailed maps to support Mark’s descriptions and some intelligently chosen photographs. The glory of these guides, however, is Mark’s own drawings. Unashamedly imitated from Wainwright, they offer the clearest of visual guides to each route. The guide also includes a selection of inspiring ridge routes. Mark takes the aspiring walker on the Great Langdale Round, the Langdale Pikes, the Easedale Skyline and the Green Burn Horseshoe.

The eight guidebooks in the series are revamped versions of Mark’s Fellranger series of guides published a decade ago. If you require an authoritative, comprehensive, up-to-date guide to all the routes in the fells, then this new, smaller, lighter format of Mark’s Fellranger series of eight guides is among the best.

They are colourful and well-planned. And Mark’s enthusiasm is infectious. You only have to read his description of one of the routes and you’ll be getting out of that cosy chair in front of the fire and reaching for your hiking boots.

Steve Matthews

Bookends, Carlisle and Keswick

www.bookscumbria.com

Possibly the best [guidebooks] we’ve ever seen.

"Two of us were flicking through the books in the Trail office yesterday and came to the conclusion that they were possibly the best of their kind we’ve ever seen. I love how clearly each volume is broken down by recognisable areas of the Lakes, and the level of detail in the descriptions, maps and illustrations is absolutely awesome. Inspirational and instructional – just like a proper guidebook should be!"

Oli, editor at Trail magazine

By Mark Richards

In 1980 Mark Richards began his three-part guide to the Peak District for Cicerone Press, and in 1987, with Chris Wright, wrote a guide to walking around the former county of Westmorland. He now lives in Cumbria and, after 14 years' dedicated research, has completed his series of Lakeland Fellranger guides covering the entire region. He has also written a guide to Hadrian's Wall.

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