Intake Ridge Scramble

I finally managed to get my hands on Intake Ridge last night. It’s rated as grade 3 triple star and is tucked away in a side-valley off the end of Borrowdale. I’d been itching to do it for ages and it proved worth the wait.

At 7.30pm the rock was still hot from one of the sunniest days we’ve had this year. The sky was dark blue and the views were simply magnificent.

There’s a fairly undistinguished start to the Ridge but things come to a distinctly dramatic climax, when, after a hundred feet or so of rocky ribs and slabs, you reach a most unusual, spacious, rocky shelf. This has the feeling of being a sort of waiting room to something rather special. And it certainly is. The route continues on a tiny ledge that disappears into thin air off to the right.

On advice from Evans “Scrambles in the Lake District. Vol 2” we roped up here. I’d taken the additional precaution of finding a rock climber to lead this bit so I watched and wondered as he disappeared round the corner and 35m of rope slowly followed him.

When my own turn came I found the ledge led to another world. Inching round the corner I felt like a fly walking on a balloon. The ledge leads you onto a sort of gigantic rock bubble that extends way beyond the field of vision in all directions. There is a particularly large drop below the feet and the ledge is distinctly narrow. Evans says, “it’s easier than it looks” but I found I tended to disagree. The ledge disappeared altogether at one point as I moved across to gain the vertical crack that represents the way forward. Holds at this point consisted of those doubtful thimble-sized pockets that rock-climbers seem so fond of. It was one of those situations where the best policy is to grit the teeth and not to think too much about what you’re doing. I expect I exaggerate the difficulties, as usual, but you’d have to be a very cool scrambler indeed to deny that the “Glaciated Slabs”, as this bit is called, merit a very special claim to fame.

There’s plenty more of Intake Ridge above this – nothing to match the slabs, of course, but several isolated wild outcrops right at the top of the fell provide short but sensational moments. In particular, there’s a lovely move on an undercut crack that has been singing in my mind ever since I pulled up on it.

The main aim for us however, was to find the little path that leads you underneath Bull Crag back to the car and the pub at Stonethwaite. We found it necessary to stop here a while and discuss our experience.