Wainwright's – Silver How, Blea Rigg, Sergeant Man, High Raise and Tarn Crag

Yet another of those rounds where we knew we had done some of the other hills before, namely Tarn Crag and Sergeant Man, but as we did not have any photos or dates of ascent a revisit had to be made. 

This would be a biggish day for us and unsure of our fitness we planned a couple of escape routes down to Easedale Tarn if needed.

An early start found us wandering through Grasmere village just after 7.30am. Ahead we could see our first hill of the day - Silver How

Silver How from Grasmere

The hike up to Silver How via the track leading from Red Bank road seemed hard work at first, but by the time we reached the path junction leading up to the summit we had got our second wind.  

Looking back towards Grasmere from the Silver How path.

The summit of Silver How with the View towards Helm Crag (R)

Despite the sunny spells it was bitterly cold on top so we scurried across towards Blea Rigg via some lovely tarns.  

Moira crossing below Lang How

Skirting the impressive wee hill of Lang How and several more small tarns we eventually found our way onto the craggy summit of Blea Rigg.

Blea Rigg from one of the craggy high points 

From Blea Rigg we could have worked our way across to Tarn Crag to cut the day short, but feeling fairly good we decided to do the longer round and started making our way to Sergeant Crag.  On the way we found a sheltered spot for a break which gave good views of Harrison Stickle and Pavey Ark.

Harrison Stickle and Pavey Ark from the Blea Rigg to Sergeant Man path

Moving on we threaded our way between small hills and crags before working our way up to the summit of Sergeant Man.  On top we met a couple doing their first ever hill.  They said they had got a bit lost on the way.  By their own admission they did not have a map, or compass and were just using an article torn out of Trail magazine and a phone to navigate! 

Sergeant Man with Coldale Head beyond

We have been on High Raise several times but given the good visibility we had a wander over to take in the views.  

High Raise with the view west

Just as I reached the trig and lady came up to me and asked if I was heading to Grasmere.  I pointed the way we had come and said Grasmere is that way.  She looked surprised and said oh I thought it was that way as she pointed in the opposite direction.  I could of course see how that mistake could be made if you were navigating with just a guidebook, which was all she appeared to be using.   Pointing to Sergeant Man I said perhaps the easiest way would be to head to that and then follow the path to the left of it down to the tarns.  “Oh dear” she said, “I think I have got myself a bit confused I actually came up that way”.  I was going to add that she could follow us back towards Codale Head and we would show her the path, but she tootled off before I could say anything. 

After wandering around and grabbing a few pics we followed the remains of an old boundary fence towards Codale Head. 

Sergeant Man from Codale Head

From here we began working our way down through rough ground and up onto Tarn Crag.

View down towards Grasmere from Tarn Crag

While there we had a wander over to another cairn from which we had good views over Easedale Tarn towards Windermere.

Cairn above Easedale Tarn

Easdale Tarn from just below the Cairn

Dropping down we then trended rightwards across boggy ground to cross Sourmilk Gill a couple of hundred metres below the outlet of Easedale tarn.  

The main path was then followed down Easedale and then into Grasmere.

That's 5 Wainwright’ completed but only 4 new ticks. That leaves 65 left to do