Pillar via Yewbarrow

 

Summer?

Is it here?

Has it gone already?

Hopefully it will come back again.

If not maybe it will stay over in Europe, as I’ve rashly said ‘yes’ to walking the Tour of Mount Blanc in August.

Some fairly serious training walks to fit in betwixt now and then.

Pillar felt like a good start.

Especially including the longer hike up over Yewbarrow.

A somewhat innocuous upturned boat of a hill.  Whose aft and stern, on closer inspection, present more of a challenge than many Lakeland routes.

Those green dotted lines may represent ‘rights of way’ but this route is a reminder they do not guarantee a maintained track of any kind.  Views from Bell Rib are earned.  A scramble of rock and loose scree where the use of four limbs are demanded over two. 

Yes, it was worth it.

Lull your self into a sense of false security over the top of Yewbarrow.  Stirrup Crag requiring, at least in our case, unstrapping of backpacks as they threatened to wedge us more than tightly into crevices.

After that.  Relax. Well almost.

There is a bit of uphill to Red Pike.  Actually steep up hill to Red Pike.  But it’s a walk not a scramble.

Peer across to the Scafells and Gable, through the jagged rocks around the bend to Wind Gap. 

True to its name wild air swept over the ridge from Ennerdale. 

A final group of contours to clear to the flat top of Pillar.  The only ‘pillar’ to be seen, the trig point.  The detour to Pillar Rock blown away by the force of the wind.

So ‘adventure’ over we headed back down the relative ease of Looking Stead and Black Sail Pass to a well earned beverage in the pub at Wasdale Head.