Coast to Coast Bad-Weather Escape Routes, Stage by Stage

The Coast to Coast has a reputation for being a village-to-village walk, and it is — but between the villages it crosses high fell, blanket peat and open moor with no shelter, and on several stages there is no road, no bus and no phone signal between the start and the finish. Knowing where you can get off the route, and where you cannot, is the most useful safety information there is.

This guide is compiled from the transport and safety notes on the stage pages. It is general planning information, not a substitute for a mountain forecast and your own judgement on the day. For the high and low variants themselves, see the route alternatives guide.

The three crossings that matter most

Kidsty Pike, stage 5

Patterdale to Shap is the biggest climbing day of the route, 24.6 km with 1,128 m of ascent, over Boredale Hause, The Knott, High Street and Kidsty Pike at 780 m, then the steep, rough descent to Haweswater. The stage notes are blunt: the ridge is high and exposed with no shelter, the ground is boggy and partly pathless, there is no public transport on the fell section, and there is nothing to eat or drink between Patterdale and Shap.

There is no documented low-level alternative. If the mountain forecast is bad, the choices are to wait in Patterdale, or to plan a short day to Burnbanks or Bampton at the foot of the descent, both of which have limited accommodation and, in Bampton's case, very limited buses. Once you are on High Street the only way down is forward to Haweswater or back to Patterdale.

Nine Standards Rigg, stage 8

Kirkby Stephen to Keld is the navigational crux of the whole route. The crossing of Hartley Fell rotates between three seasonal lines — red May to July, blue August to November, green December to April — and the Nine Standards page describes them. The stage's safety note says the fell is open, featureless and notoriously hard to follow in mist, that there is no shelter and no easy bail-out once committed, and that in bad visibility you should take the lower green route regardless of season. Keld at the far end has no shop and only limited, largely seasonal buses, so the escape is in Kirkby Stephen before you start: the town has a station on the Settle–Carlisle line and every service a walker needs. If the day is not walkable, stay another night.

The Cleveland Hills, stages 13 and 14

Osmotherley to Clay Bank Top is an exposed, undulating ridge with 898 m of climbing in short, steep pulls and a short hands-on scramble at the Wainstones that is awkward when wet or icy. It is the best-provided of the three for escapes: the stage notes say you can leave the ridge at the Lord Stones / Carlton Bank road, where the country park café is the only water and toilets of the day, or descend north to Great Broughton — both before the Wainstones. Clay Bank Top itself is a road col with a car park and nothing else; the beds are in Great Broughton or Chop Gate and most hosts collect walkers from the car park.

The next stage, Clay Bank Top to Blakey Ridge, is the one to respect. Easy underfoot along the old railway trackbed, but once you are on the moor there is no shelter, no water and no escape for roughly 14 km, and the plateau is disorientating in cloud or snow. The stage notes say the realistic options are to continue to the Lion Inn, or — before the moor — to drop south from Clay Bank to Chop Gate or north to Great Broughton. Decide at the col.

Bail-out transport and phone signal, stage by stage

Everything in this table is drawn from the transport and safety fields of the stage pages. Timetables change; check the getting-there guide and the operators before relying on a service.

Two things stand out. The east half is far easier to leave than the west: stage 15 alone has three railway stations on the route, and Osmotherley, Reeth and Richmond all have year-round buses. And the stages where the escape is "do not start" — 5, 8 and 14 — are exactly the ones where the phone signal is worst, so the decision cannot be made by ringing someone from the top.

Rivers and roads

Not every hazard is on high ground. The stage notes flag three:

• The Esk at Egton Bridge (stage 15). The stepping stones can be slippery or submerged when the river is in spate; the road bridge is the safe alternative if in doubt.
• The Swale (stage 10). It rises very fast after rain. Keep to the paths and never attempt to ford it; the Nuns' Steps and Whitcliffe Wood are greasy when wet.
• The A19 near Ingleby Arncliffe (stage 12). The stage page calls the level crossing of four lanes of fast traffic the single most serious hazard on the whole stage, and the National Trail's approved route now avoids it: a signed alternative runs north to cross by the Black Swan Bridge. Use it.

The National Trail also lists a live diversion at the very start, on St Bees Head, after cliff falls; follow the new acorn waymarks via the village and Wood Lane rather than the old clifftop line.

Before you set out each day

• Check the mountain forecast, not the valley forecast, the evening before. If the cloud base is below the col or the ridge, take the low option or wait.
• Carry the paper map for the stage — the stage notes name OS Explorer OL4, OL5, OL7, OL19, OL26 and OL27 for the days where navigation matters — a compass, and the skills to take a bearing. The maps and GPX guide has the full list. Do not rely on a phone alone.
• Download the free app's offline maps before you leave a village; there is no signal to do it on the fell.
• Carry full waterproofs, spare warm layers, food and water for the whole stage, because several stages have nothing between the ends. The packing list is built around this.
• Tell someone your route for the day and when you expect to arrive.
• In an emergency, dial 999 or 112 and ask for the Police, then Mountain Rescue. For non-urgent medical advice, call NHS 111.

None of this makes the Coast to Coast a dangerous walk. It makes it a walk where the weather decision is taken at breakfast, in a village with a bus, rather than at midday on a ridge without one.