Pillar via Haystacks, May 14th 2009.

Julia Bradbury and that Wainwright bloke have a lot to answer for! After a conversation with my father-in-law regarding a recent BBC TV programme featuring those two a trip was planned to visit the Lake District to climb Haystacks and Pillar.

With the weather forecast suggesting we could encounter winds gusting up to 50mph a start at Honister pass was decided as this would give us a chance to feel the strength of the wind at a reasonable height once we got out the car. If it was bad we could get back down and spend a day of retail therapy in Keswick.

It wasn’t bad. In fact the weather was great; overcast but good visibility and little wind.

The route from Honister was very easy and we were at the summit of Haystacks after an hour and a half with a great view of Pillar and the route ahead in front of us.

We descended via the Scarth Gap Pass to the Ennerdale Valley before starting our climb straight up to the summit of Pillar. The route through the crags was grassy and relentlessly vertical with some tricky steps mainly due to wet rocks.

We stopped at Pillar Rock where the ascent eased to take in the views before pushing on along more rocky terrain.

Our decent took us via Black Sail Pass back down to the Ennerdale Valley where we were joined by a greedy Chaffinch for lunch.

Our route back was via the climb to Grey Knotts the down into the Slate Mine for a cuppa tea!

Rich S