We returned to Seathwaite for our next walk, this
time to Great Gable, parking again on the road near the Farm.
We got there fairly early, and the cockerel was still doing his
best to wake the campers in the field opposite - I wonder if he
was popular with them? |
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The Seathwaite Alarm Clock is still there... |
| Our route took us yet again through Seathwaite Farm
towards Seathwaite Fell. |
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Seathwaite Farm with Seathwaite Fell behind |
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David is still not using the footbridge... |
Today, however, we were heading for Taylorgill Force
and Styhead Pass on the other side of Seathwaite Fell.
The weather was not good as we set off, with the cloud very low,
and rain in the air. |
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Taylorgill Force and Seathwaite Fell |
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Mist and rain over Allen Crags |
| Just across Stockley Bridge the path splits, with the
path to Grains Gill and Ruddy Gill forking left, and the path to Taylorgill
Force going straight up between Seathwaite Fell and Base Brown. |
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Stockley Bridge |
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The path to Taylorgill Force and Styhead Pass with
Base Brown in cloud on the right |
The path is very good all the way to Taylorgill Force
and there is no problem with finding your way. There are one or
two places where there are rock steps, but they are very easy and
no different really to the path itself.
The other advantage we found over the Grains Gill path is that
you gain height quickly. |
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David waiting by the gate on the path to Taylorgill
Force and Styhead Pass |
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Above Taylorgill Force |
By the time we reached the trees above Taylorgill
Force it was really raining. My Fuji S2 Pro camera had its first
outing to the Lake District, and it had coped heroically on our
previous walk, but I was not prepared to risk it in this weather,
so it was relegated to the rucksack, and out came my trusted old
Fuji 6900, which is much quicker to use when trying to shelter it
from the rain.
We were amused to see a large boulder here with "1000ft"
written on it. Although there may be others like it in the Lake
District, we had never seen it before. |
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The path above Taylorgill Force in the rain. The boulder
to the left of the path says "1000ft" |
By the time we got above Taylorgill Force we were
in rain and cloud, and the visibility was poor, though not as poor
as Sunday's walk.
The path was still good and easy to follow, though with Styhead
Gill flanked by the steep sides of Seathwaite Fell on the left and
Base Brown, then Green Gable on the right, it would have been difficult
to go wrong anyway. |
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The path by Styhead Gill to Styhead Pass with Green
Gable on the right |
After a while, we reached a footbridge over Styhead
Gill. The path continues on the other side from here.
One observation we made was how low all the streams were. It was
very easy walking by Styhead Gill because of this, but we suspect
it might be a different story after a lot of heavy rain. |
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Near the footbridge over Styhead Gill |
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The footbridge over Styhead Gill |
| There are some large cairns along the route to Styhead
Tarn, and we chose one of these to shelter us from the wind, which
was quite strong. The mist was still low, but at least the rain had
stopped. |
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Great End, the Scafells and Lingmell in mist from
below Styhead Tarn |
After lunch, we continued along
the path, and soon reached Styhead Tarn.
Nestled below Great End and Great Gable, although
the mist was still low, it was immediately obvious that we were
in a magical setting here. |
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Styhead Tarn comes into view |
| The mist was lifting slowly all the
time, and we could almost see Windy Gap and Green Gable. Great Gable
was still partly in mist, but it was a lot clearer than it had been. |
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Windy Gap and Green Gable |
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Great Gable in mist |
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A lamb below Great Gable |
| The Scafells were still looking grim. |
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Mist over Great End, the Scafells and Lingmell |
| We continued past Styhead Tarn towards the Stretcher
Box on Styhead Pass. Some wild campers were packing up their tents
by the tarn as we walked past, no doubt happy that the rain had stopped. |
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Looking back to Styhead Tarn |
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The mist starts to lift over the Band on Great End |
| By the time we reached the Stretcher
Box, the mist was also starting to clear over the Scafells. I had
been a bit disappointed that I could not see the impressive Piers
Gill below Lingmell and Skew Gill on Great End, but it looked like
I might be in luck after all. |
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Arriving at the Stretcher Box at Styhead Pass |
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David by the Stretcher Box. Piers Gill below Lingmell
is just becoming visible as the mist starts to clear |
| As we looked up our chosen route, Great Gable's summit
was still in mist, but the path ahead was clearly visible. |
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Great Gable |
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Piers Gill below Lingmell |
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The path to Great Gable from Styhead |
| Some paths in the fells are worse
than they look from below, but in the case of Great Gable, the path
looks much worse than it is. The path up the Breast Route looks very
eroded, but it is in fact improved in the places that look difficult
from below. |
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and again... |
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The path further up |
As we gained height up the steep
slope, the wind was very strong, and on one or two occasions we
wondered if this was going to be like Grisedale
Pike in January, where strong winds meant having to turn round.
We decided that we would continue until one of us got blown off
the path, and if that happened we would go back down. One positive
benefit of the wind was that it was blowing the cloud away and soon
Great End and Skew Gill were almost visible.
The rain had also stopped completely, and I was able to bring my
new camera out again. |
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Great End coming out of the mist |
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The restored path to Great Gable |
| Styhead Tarn looked like a jewel below
as we made our way towards the summit. |
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Looking back down to Styhead Tarn |
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The clear path to Great Gable's summit |
One benefit of the summit being
in cloud is that you cannot see how far you have still got to climb!
Great Gable was no different today, as the path went on zigzagging
its way up the fellside.
The mist had now lifted sufficiently to allow us views to Illgill
Head and Wasdale, though from the Breast Route, Wast Water is not
visible. |
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Looking towards Great Gable's summit, which is still
lost in cloud |
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Looking across to Scafell and Illgill Head on the
Wasdale side |
| The path is clearly defined almost
to the summit, and although we had reached the mist, the way ahead
was quite obvious and well cairned. |
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Getting close to the final ascent on the clearly defined
path |
| The final part, however, is quite
bouldery, though nothing like the neighbouring Scafells. There are
regular cairns to make show the way, which is a great help in mist. |
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Getting steeper nearer the summit |
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The path getting more bouldery |
| There are cairned paths leading off
in several directions near the summit, so I was pleased to see a small
Poppy memorial among the boulders by the side of our path, which I
made a mental note of, in case we had difficulty finding the our way
back in the mist later. |
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A small Poppy memorial still left from November near
the summit |
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Looking back to our ascent path |
We found the summit easily enough,
though the summit plateau is larger than you suspect when viewing
Great Gable from Wasdale, where it looks quite spire-like.
David was keen to find the FRCC Memorial, and
as we were not sure where it was, we decided he should walk round
the summit area, while I stayed on the side of the descent path
until he found it to avoid losing our orientation in the thick mist.
He soon found it though, just on the other side of where we had
arrived, and I joined him to have a look and take a few pictures.
I would have loved to also get some photos of the views, which must
be excellent on a good day, but that would have to wait for another
day. |
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David at Great Gable's summit |
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Looking for the Memorial Plaque |
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By the FRCC Memorial |
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"View" from Great Gable's Summit with cairned
paths seeming to lead off in all directions |
| We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to
Great Gable and in spite of the lack of views, it was easy to see
why it is so many people's favourite mountain. With the lack of views
and the strong winds, we did not linger too much, but instead vowed
to come back on a clear day for a return visit. |
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Starting our descent from Great Gable |
| The going is quite good in spite of
the initial bouldery parts, and there is only one place where it is
necessary to use hands as well if you are of the short-legged variety
like myself. I expect it would be possible to avoid this small scramble
on a clear day, but it was not difficult enough to worry about. |
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Descending from Great Gable |
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The bouldery start of the descent |
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"What do you mean your legs are too short?!"
|
Once past the bouldery part, we
made reasonably quick progress and it was not too long before we
were out of the mist, to find that Sprinkling Tarn was now also
clear of the mist.
While we were admiring the views, a party of teenagers passed us
on their way up, most of them asking us the same question: "Is
it much further?". One of the group leaders stopped for a chat,
and told us she was trying to teach them to appreciate this wonderful
part of the world and to get them to love fellwalking. From the
moans and groans, I think she had her work cut out!!! |
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Sprinkling Tarn coming into view as the mist lifts |
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Great End, Ill Crag, Broad Crag and Scafell Pike |
A little further down Styhead Tarn
came into view below Sprinkling Tarn, with the Langdale Pikes just
about visible in the far distance. It was spectacular in these conditions,
so I cannot begin to imagine how magical it must be on a clear day,
but I'm sure we will find out one of these days. |
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Styhead tarn and Sprinkling Tarn with the Langdale
pikes on the horizon |
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Styhead and Sprinkling Tarns, with Great End on the
right |
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Looking down to Styhead Gill and Borrowdale |
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Great End, with Skew Gill clearly visible and Broad
Crag |
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Looking back to Great Gable, now nearly out of cloud |
Arriving back at Styhead Tarn,
we stopped and admired the now much more extensive views before
retracing our steps back to Taylorgill Force.
As we walked along, we agreed that this is a much more pleasant
route than that by Ruddy Gill, and decided to come back this way
on Thursday for our walk to Allen Crags and Esk Pike as, although
longer, it would also give us the chance to visit Sprinkling Tarn. |
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Back at Styhead Tarn |
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Windy Gap, with Great Gable left and Green Gable right |
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By Styhead Gill, with Great End and Scafell Pike behind |
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Styhead Gill and the footbridge |
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Styhead Gill, with Glaramara behind |
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Above Taylorgill Force |
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Seathwaite from Taylorgill Force |
The views all the way to Stockley
Bridge and beyond were spectacular and more than made up for the
rain earlier.
In the lovely weather we were able to linger, and take in the wonderful
surroundings and the rich vegetation in the valley as we got nearer
to Seathwaite Farm. |
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Cottongrass in field with Thornythwaite Fell behind |
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Lousewort at Seathwaite |
