I am planning on walking the Lakeland Haute Route that was published in Trail in March. I was wondering if anyone has walked the route and cared to share their experiences, recommendations for detours etc. Thanks CC
From the title, it sounded quite exciting, but it's just passes and valleys. I'd have stayed on the fells, so my recommendation would be a different route!
Isn't it just copying the alpine haute routes style wise?
To be fair I don't think that sort of valley walking is at all a bad idea, and especially not for early spring/late Autumn etc when the weather could well be doing nasty things. You can obviously build in high level alternatives pretty trivially if the weather does turn out tempting.
The opposite of Haute Route is this one I think. Is that Faible Route?? Or has my French let me down (not spoken for over 20 years)? It looks like it doesn't really go to many fell tops and I'd just walk my own route in the same time it takes to do this one.
In fact I've done something better over 11 days a good few years ago. Called the Lakeland Round. There are two IIRC one is out in a small book (Lambert I think) and is over the ridges but dropping down to villages with accomodation in handy, day sized chunks after sometimes long days. The other is similar but does a slightly different ridge route.This second one is online as many have done it and written it up on their blogs. Worth doing as it is a 12 day trip leaving you a day each end to travel to and from the start.
There is another book I have which has most of the published routes in it. Those routes range from fell races and other multi-day races to backpacking routes like the Cumbrian Way. It is just a basic information on each. Things like a Back o' Skidda' route and the Charnley Way. That is a nice 3 day thing centred on a cairn near Charnley Crag. It was a fell race (one day) that was done in memorial to a guy who helped set up the first KIMM in that area but who died shortly afterwards. It is like three thin loops from that central crag going into three different valleys with YHA and other accommodation. It would make a good three dayer as it goes over most of the interesting hills from Scafell Pike to Borrowdale fells and Langdales.
Anyway, don't mean to belittle the route you have planned. It is still going to be a good route as anywhere in the Lakes is nice. Also at this time of year perhaps valleys are better places to be if the weather comes in hard. Enjoy your trip.
I've probably walked most of this route in my time, having walked many of the Lakeland passes when the weather is wet and/or claggy. It seems a pretty reasonable route to me, if not particularly "haute" its not exactly low level.
Personally I think theres a better route from Coniston to Grasmere via Coniston Moor, Blea Tarn, Langdale and Loughrigg.
You may be interested in Wainwright's long out of print Lakeland Mountain Passes book (coffee table rather than a guide) which is available for a 1p + p&p on Amazon!
