Walking and Landscape Photography about Britain: High Street from Mardale via Riggindale Crag

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	Distance:	6.0 miles
	Total Ascent:	2163 feet
	Maximum Elevation:	2707 feet
	Steepest Slope Up:	45.3%
	Steepest Slope Down:	40.7%
	Wheelchair/ Pram Friendly:	No
	Level of Strenuousness
	Navigational Difficulty
	Technical Difficulty
	Overall Difficulty

for a guide to the ratings click here

This route to High Street (Lake District) must be one of my favourite walks. Even Julia Bradbury has included this walk in here DVD coverage of the Wainwrights.

I’ve walked up Riggindale Crag twice now and each time it has been covered in snow and ice! It makes the walk much more challenging and i would reccomend you have crampons and an ice-axe if tackling this route in poor weather.

Follow the road to the end of Haweswater, where the road ends, and park the car. You have a clear view of High Street summit as you begin this walk, and indeed most of todays walk. Take the path through the gate towards High Street then take the right fork that takes you to a footbridge over Blea Water Beck towards The Rigg. The village of Mardale was situated the at the foot of the Rigg before the valley was dammed and flooded to make Haweswater as we see it today. Click here for more info on this. Once at The Rigg simply follow the ridge up! you can follow a reasonably clear path or cut your own path, the ridge is really too narrow to head in the wrong direction on.

You pass over Swing Crag, Heron Crag, and Eagle Crag before arriving at Rough Crag. Once you reach Rough Crag you can see the scale of the remaining climb up Long Stile to the summit of High Street. Most of the walk to this point is although steep, fairly simple and the use of hands avoided however once reaching Riggindale Crag and Long Stile, this is no longer the case and you will need to use your hands to pull yourself up over the rocks and steep sections. We fitted our crampons whilest climbing Riggindale Crag.

As you near the top of the climb, you will find the terrain change from rocky to more grassy, this is very difficult to cross without crampons in snow as there is little to get a purchase on. Consider this before starting out, as there are other routes up you can take. At the top of Long Stile you will find a cairn, to help people on the hill to find the way back down i think! If the weather is like it was for us, take a bearing from here and head towards the triangulation point, as you won’t be able to see it! It actual fact it is not so hard to find as it is next to a partly broken down wall that traverses High Street and Racecourse Hill.

On a clear day, the summit of High Street offers views across the fells to Scafell in the distance and you can clearly see Helvellyn and Fairfield in between. I like to sit on the wall admiring the wall during my lunch. What also surprises about High Street is how many people are on it considering its remote location in relation to the major fells of the lake district.

From the trig point follow the wall onwards until you reach its end, where you will find a very well marked path which will take you over Mardale Ill Bell and down to Nan Bield, where you will find a shelter and a cross roads of the Nan Bield pass traversing from Mardale into the valley of Kentmere. If however there is snow and heave hill fog, then make sure you have a map and compass to ensure you don’t go wrong here!

The plan had been to continue on, up onto Harter Fell (Mardale) which is another easy scramble, but on this occasion, with the hill fog and our lack of fitness, we headed down Nan Bield Pass towards Little Water and the car. With snow cover this is also a tricky path, with huge variations in snow depth and combined with the fog, we were very aware of the need to ensure we followed roughly the path down and did not find ourselves wandering onto Small Water Crag or Piot Crag.

It was a relief to drop below the fog and for Small Water to come into view, as it was then much easier to ensure we were following a safe route down. A large boulder splits the path towards the bottom and provides a very handy windbreak to sit behind and enjoy a cup of tea knowing the remaining route lay clearly before us. At the foot of the lake there are a few stepping stones over the Small Water Beck, which the path then follows down the valley past a very attractive series of waterfalls. The path then snakes down the hill until it reaches the carpark and your walk is complete!

I’ll post a couple more walks up to High Street soon, over Harter Fell, from Kentmere (The Kentmere Round) and a 2-day route from Pooley Bridge!