Wednesday 2 March 2011 – Great Gable

Sorry about the delay in posting – I’ll try to catch up over the next few days.

Last Wednesday, was it really a week ago?, JJ, Viv, Rick and I set off from a rather gloomy Timperley (I’ve tried to adjust the image in the slideshow to make it ‘less gloomy’!) at around 7.15am.  Stuart kindly picked us up in Lancaster and the five of us enjoyed a magnificent Lakeland day.  The slideshow (click here – 48 images) provides a fuller story, but here’s a taster.

By soon after 10am  we were slogging up to the base of Base Brown in the sunshine. 

Sourmilk Gill’s fine waterfall, provided a welcome break for those of us with cameras, whilst everyone stopped to peel off layers of superfluous clothing.

The ascent of Base Brown proved harder than expected.  Stuart and I headed up an icy gully.  JJ, Viv and Rick wisely headed around to the right in a futile search for an easier line, and eventually gave up in favour of the path up Gillercomb.  This caused quite a delay, but Stuart and I could hardly complain as we had the only two guidebooks, which clearly state that the easy route up is to the left, rather than the chosen path.

I still feel guilty about this faux pas, but nobody seemed too bothered on this warm, sunny day.

Here’s a view from near the summit of Base Brown.

The route over Green Gable to Great Gable saw us dicing with cloud and admiring inversions, especially towards Pillar, the Langdale peaks, and the nearby Scafell summits, seen below.

A photographer* was lingering on the summit of Great Gable.  It wasn’t actually the best day he had enjoyed up here, but he certainly wasn’t complaining.  He told us he was taking photos for an article on ‘A Year in the Life of Great Gable’ that should be published in Trail Magazine next winter.

* Stewart Smith, professional photographer and blogger, whose entry for the day is here.  Thanks go to Martin Rye for identifying Stewart, and to JJ for taking his photo and various others used in the slide show for this day out.

This self-timed image captures us at the summit of Great Gable, where we enjoyed one of several lunch breaks.

The rocky descent to Sty Head was achieved without resort to any form of hurrying, but we still had time to go a bit further.

Sprinkling Tarn was partially shaded as the sun tried to hide behind England’s highest mountain.  A conflab (below) resulted in the decision to forego Allen Crags and Glaramara today.  Instead we chose to go over Great Slack to Seathwaite Fell, an outlying ‘Wainwright’ that none of us could recall having visited before today.

We passed a tent – no sign of its occupants – in a fine position by Sprinkling Tarn.

After around thirty minutes we reached the summit of Seathwaite Fell, from where the fine views down Borrowdale were partly obscured by the lowering cloud.

A final snack gave us the energy to locate a steep grassy gully to the north west of the summit, and carefully descend it to the main path by Styhead Gill.  Looking back from Stockley Bridge, the flanks of Seathwaite Fell to look quite imposing.  Our route was to the right.

We took a very leisurely 7 hours over this 11km walk with 1050 metres ascent.  Those counting summits could add four Wainwrights and five Birketts to their tally.

As previously mentioned, the slideshow is here, and we did of course enjoy a post-walk beer, on this occasion at The Salutation in Threlkeld.

“A Grand Day Out” we all agreed.