Fairfield Horseshoe/Red Screes

Peaks: Red Screes, Hart Crag, Dove Crag, Fairfield, Great Rigg, Heron Pike, Nab Scar

Area: Fairfield, Lake District

My two previous trips around the Fairfield horseshoe have certainly been well spaced out. I first did it as a first year student in 1988, then during a minibreak with Kate in 2001. So my next visit will likely be around 2039! It was a beautiful morning, and after a full cooked breakfast I jogged up Kirkstone with mist slowly dissipating from Windermere and Ambleside - archetypal autumnal conditions, definitely my favourite time of year to visit the Lakes (never been my favourite area, but I do like it, have been visiting for 32 years, and always try for at least two trips a year). A contouring path leads off from the Kirkstone road to gain the broad south ridge of Red Screes. This does drag a bit, a fairly long haul from the YHA, but the views over Fairfield and Kentmere compensated. I felt a little tired, and could only maintain a slow jog - possibly the after effects of my Famau marathon. From Red Screes (which I don't think I've ever done before) prospects looked good. A little summit lake frames views of Ambleside, the slopes to Kirkstone are famously steep, and I particularly enjoyed the views to Patterdale - which reminded me of the Grisedale Horseshoe fell race I did in 2014. I ran down to the Scandale Pass, then enjoyed the climb up to gain the normal motorway path round the Fairfield Horseshoe just below Hart Crag. Superb views over Great Rigg, with the weather getting better and better. By Fairfield, a few small snow patches (more over Langdale and Helvellyn) and great views of St Sunday Crag (another fond memory from the Grisedale Horseshoe - on which it is the final peak, but not the final climb). I remembered the glorious return over Great Rigg and Heron Pike - a wonderfully runnable broad ridge with views to Grasmere and Rydal water. Good running through Rydal back to Ambleside.