Cold Pike and Crinkle Crags

The series which goes to the obscure Wainwrights, hard-to-get-to Wainwrights and unloved Wainwrights continues! This walk will be done at a slower pace. The walk normally takes 5-6 hours, but this one will take 7-8 hours going at a steady pace.

We head westwards and go through Oxendale until crossing over a footbridge to begin the ascent. This is a steep ascent of 350 meters to reach the mountain pass between Pike o’ Blisco and Cold Pike. The path briefly levels off when we come to a crossroads of paths close to Red Tarn. We turn right, with Cold Pike looming over, and begin a gentler ascent until picking up a thin trod to the left to approach the summit of Cold Pike (701 meters).

The top of Cold Pike is rocky with flat slabs but it has great views of the Coniston Range, Wrynose Pass and the upper parts of Dunnerdale. We then leave Cold Pike and lose a small bit of height to cross over grassy moorland and pick up the main path to Crinkle Crags by reaching Great Knott. The ascent resumes with a gentle gradient as we approach the first of five summit tops of Crinkle Crags.

Now the approach to the southern top and the second summit (the highest point of Crinkle Crags) is absolutely brilliant with wide views all around, deep sights down gulleys and valleys and a lumpy rocky landscape of Crinkle Crags themselves. We avoid the so-called Bad Step and take the western bypass path to get to the highest summit of Crinkle Crags which is 859 meters high. The best views require walking all around the summit and there is a western extension, almost like a promenade of rock, where if you reach the end there is perhaps the greatest view of the two Scafells.

The descent from Crinkle Crags to Three Tarns — which are three ponds and constitute a mountain pass between Crinkle Crags and Bow Fell – is a slow one as we pass by and along three other summit tops of Crinkle Crags. The path goes through shattered rock and boulders that require care with every footfall. It’s a wild landscape and perhaps some of the toughest terrain in the Lakes, but it is very unique and not often will paths in the Lakes go through such terrain.

Once we’re at Three Tarns there are the rib-like crags of Bow Fell’s southern face that loom above us, but our path is eastwards back into the Langdales. We follow a path that goes down The Band and it is a long descent but overall the gradient is moderate.

There is no rush to complete this walk and there are many points to stop and simply admire some of the greatest vantage points in the Lake District. For those collecting the Wainwrights, Cold Pike and Crinkle Crags are two very worthy Wainwrights!

Attending: Please fill out the Registration Form [found in the weblink] to join by 10pm on Friday 13 March if you are coming on this walk. If this doesn’t work then please contact the walk leader, Miles, on 07842 783319 (text or phone, WhatsApp, or message on Facebook (Miles Saunders-Priem)). When you register online, I will reply within 24 hours.