Hartsop above How, from Dove Crag. Note the two walkers visible in the col (dip in the ridge) on the left side.
Height: 1870 feet above sea level.
Volume: Book 1 (The Eastern Fells)
Date climbed: First visit: 4th June 2011 (walk 36). Second visit: 19th April 2019 (walk 161).
Summit rocks of Hartsop above How
Bagged as number: First round: 113 out of 330. [ << Shipman Knotts (112) (114) Dove Crag >> ]
Second round: 198 of 330. [ << Hart Crag (197) (199) Fleetwith Pike >> ]
Route of ascent and descent: First visit: Ascended from Deepdale Bridge (a.k.a. Bridgend); the only practical route. Left on the ridge to Hart Crag, except I swerved off the natural line of the ridge halfway along and traversed over to Dove Crag instead.
Second visit: Came down from Hart Crag. Descended down into Dovedale, a steep but usable route: see the comment below.
What Mr Wainwright says(from page 1 of his chapter): “The long curving northeast ridge of Hart Crag rises to a separate summit midway, and this summit is generally referred to as Hartsop above How by guidebook writers and mapmakers. Sometimes the three words in the name are hyphenated, sometimes not. Probably the first two should be, but not the last two: the word ‘How’ is common, meaning a low hill, and the distinctive title of this particular How is Hartsop-above, indicating its geographical relationship to the hamlet in the valley below.”
Hartsop above How, from the ridge. The possible descent heads down to the right.
What I say: Hartsop above How (or Hartsop-above How) is a ridge rather than a fell as such, but it does have a definite summit – albeit one that is only really clear in retrospect (see the picture), and which doesn’t have a cairn. It’s not a bad climb by any means, the best thing about it being the great views of the crags of Fairfield and Hart Crag ahead.
In the book Wainwright notes that the ridge can safely be left at one point only, for a descent down to Dovedale. On my second visit I tried this: it leaves the ridge at the point pictured here, just below the summit; the descent lies to the right on this shot. It’s steep and grassy, meaning the safest approach I could work out involved a controlled descent of around 200 feet on my bottom (photographic eveidence on walk 161 page…); but it can be done.
The 214 Wainwright fells: without a car 