A walk on a blustery day with Ian Rawe.Route: leaving the car at the NT car park, Buttermere, and walking to the west side of the lake and ascending the steps towards Red Pike for 10m, then turning left onto a grassy horizontal track, parallel to the lakeside path. Following this - marshy and wet after recent rain - as far as a fork, shortly after a stream crossing, where bearing right on a fainter path to a stile out of the woods. Turning left along a faint path above a wall, then gaining height more steeply into Burtness Combe. Picking up the path to High Stile for a while before turning left off it to head back into the combe towards the start of Sheepbone Rake, which involved some hand over hand work over moss and bilberry plants. Eventually ascending the Rake on a mix of path and scree and then heading right, surprisingly steeply, up chimneys to the summit plateau. Changing plans because of the wind and descending to Scarth Gap and back along the west of the lake.
Conditions: dry and warm for November but very windy on the summit.Pub: the Buttermere Court (aka Fish) Hotel for Allendale Brewery Wolf and Wagtail and Great Corby Lakeland Summit and Mandarina
