I think the route below the step is on a grassy path and is quite fast running. Dropping to the track below and on the left is stony and hard to run along as fast - it's hard on the feet after a long fast descent and a fall would be nasty. I tend to see how much of a group is ahead of me and which way they go - if a few head to the step I drop to the path to avoid a queue/holdup.
I've only actually done the Fairfield Horseshoe race twice but I've run round the horseshoe dozens of times. Lakes in a Day, which I've also done, goes that way down to Ambleside too. Regarding Bad Step I just don't now ever go that way but hook left and take the lower rubbly path. The rubble is pretty fast running I think and for sure not liable to cause a dead stop like bad stepOriginally Posted by Mark G
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I think the main thing is to get a fast, not boulder strewn, line off of Hart Crag; here's my clue for that
I got a pretty good line coming off Hart Crag and will have no excuse now for ever going over the bad step again
Thanks for the advice
Do what you like, like what you do
I have been rather baffled by the recent discussion on this thread: from the one occasion on which I ran the Fairfield Horseshoe, I don't remember any discussion of a Bad Step (indeed, from what I can remember, I used the tried and trusted navigational technique of "Follow the bloke in front", which worked well, even in the clag). Anyway, I have now looked on the race website, and the mystery has been cleared up: it says that the course ". . . has been the same since the 1992 but prior to that descended direct from Low Pike and was somewhat quicker." The year I ran the race was 1988.
In his lifetime he suffered from unreality, as do so many Englishmen.
Jorge Luis Borges
And there was me thinking the bad step was on the Langdale Horseshoe route.
Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run
I did it in 2013 and can't remember the bad step. But that could be more a sign of my memory.
In fact Wainwright calls what has come to be known as the "Bad Step" below Low Pike the rock-step. I don't know what the route was before 1992, but it would be possible to cut from Low Pike to Rydal Hall if it was allowed, and I have no doubt it would be quicker.
Andrew Bibby's novel The Bad Step is the one on the Langdale Horseshoe - the story is based around whether a runner falls or is pushed off to his death - so for me that is The One.
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
I agree - the Crinkle Crags "Bad Step" is THE Bad Step, but people often refer to the Low Pike rock-step using the same name.
In Wainwright's Book Four The Southern Fells, first published in 1960, on pages 15 and 16 of the Crinkle Crags chapter, he goes into detail about The Bad Step, and says it "is the most difficult obstacle met on any of the regular walkers' paths in Lakeland." He says it deserves the name, though it is not clear who named it.
If The Bad Step is 10/10 for difficulty, then the rock-step perhaps deserves a 6, but no higher. I always go around the former, to the west, partly because I think it is quicker, but mainly as it is a lot safer.
Aren’t there loads of bad steps though? I know that there is a (non-fell race route) bad step on Striding Edge and another on Sharp Edge but they’ll be plenty of others I’m sure
I love the creativity and imagination somebody must have employed in coming up with the name. Oh that’s a bit of a small cliff/steep bit/massive step/dodgy drop; I’ll guess we’d better name it Bad Step then
Probably named by the same genius who came up with the names of High Hill, Middle High Hill and Low High Hill for the three hillocks above Settle
Last edited by Fellbeast; 02-06-2021 at 05:20 PM.
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