Our walk to, and the climb of Pike o’ Blisco is to going to be put in my favourites folder. The walk
starts within a couple of hundred yards of Blea Tarn, framed by trees on ether side and the Langdale Pikes behind, eclipsed
I believe by few if any other tarn. The hand drawn map shows a birds-eye view (or these days, a satellites) of our route.
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Five minutes walk from the car park and this is the sight that greets us. Blea Tarn is one of those places
that you always mean to visit but never do because you’ve always doing something else. With me on this walk is my sister
Kath, John her husband and my brother David. The weather at the end of June was hot and steamy.
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Walking round the left side of Blea Tarn and the lower slopes of Blisco, we touch the Langdale Valley road
before climbing further round the lower slope to join another path to begin the assault on the summit. Looking back and across
as we get further along extends our view, the hump is Side Pike the termination of Lingmoor Fell, to the left of that are
the lower slopes of the Langdales and the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel which can just be seen.
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John is seen crossing the first of two notable gills running off the fell side. The Gills have carved out
ravines with small waterfalls at their head.
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A good place for a drinks break at the second ravine with it's gill running into Redacre Gill, with my sister
drinking in the view. This is the start of the real climb, a mile of steps with varying degrees of steepness, the easiest
of which is at this point.
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David & Kath discussing the merits of the walk and view of Wall End Farm, the steepness of the path
can be seen at this point.
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The last few hundred feet, with John & Kath leading the way. It should be noted that there are two modest
scrambles on this route, however we scaled them with ease.
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The obligatory summit photo taken by John using his video camera. This cairn was at one time much taller
going by Wainwright’s sketch in book 4 The Southern Fells, he described it as "a tall columnar cairn that can be viewed
from the floor of Great Langdale valley below". Did it fall, or was it pushed? When A W revisited
Langdale in 1959 he was dismayed to find that this magnificent cairn had been “beheaded”, “demolished”
by human wreckers. His hope was that when walkers visit the cairn they would replace a stone and eventually rebuild it.
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Leaving the top, something we do reluctantly, we take a south westerly route on a faint track towards the
Wrynose Road.
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The fierce heat of the afternoon sun ensures we take plenty of drinks breaks. The large rock to the right
is perched 18 inches off the ground and could be used as a shelter as long as you don’t mind the 5 ton roof! The Fell
in the background is Cold Pike - quite inviting today.
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The Wrynose Pass and the way back to our start point.
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