Base Brown to Esk Hause - Photo Gallery

I had planned a walk in the Central Fells but it was obviously going to be too good a day to waste on frozen peat hags. I decided to drive to Borrowdale and parked on the road near Seathwaite Farm, there were quite a few others already there. I walked through the arch in the farm buildings and past the most desolate looking of camping fields before crossing the river. The footbridge has gates at either end and both of them had been left open, there is no excuse for not shutting them even if someone else left them open. The fellside across the river is a jumble of winter colours with the dead bracken, leafless trees, multi-coloured boulders and stone walls making a Lake District tapestry.

Once you cross over the awkward, shallow ladder stile a constructed path takes you steeply up by the side of Sour Milk Gill. There is a nice rocky scramble before the path gets close to the spectacular lower waterfall and then carries on steeply upto a stone wall. The ridge of Base Brown looks quite straightforward from here but I decided to carry on up the path for a while now that it is less steep. Near the top of the path you get close to the upper waterfall and it is possible to get closer to it for a photograph, it looked nicely frozen.

Once you reach level ground in the hanging valley of Gillercomb you can see the task in hand required to climb Base Brown from here. I don't know if there is a “right” way but I have never found a path, I always make my way between two rocky outcrops and follow the grassy rake upwards through boulders. You have to make a couple of diversions around or over boulders according to taste and just before you reach a rocky buttress you will find a path. I have no idea where the path is supposed to come from or go to but it is quite obvious and looks well trodden for a short distance either way left and right.

You can follow the path to the left past the buttress and make a steep climb up a bilberry slope but there is a scrambling ascent that I want to try. I went straight upwards to some likely looking rock and although it wasn't the place I was looking for I might have given it a go had some of the surfaces not been coated with ice. I dropped down a little and across to the right where there seemed to be some disturbed ground and found the place that I was looking for. There is a rocky channel at not too steep a gradient where I managed to find enough of a hold for my hands to help pull me upwards. This is one of those places where I know that if I get it wrong then I am well and truly by myself.

There is evidence of use of this as a regular route and in between the rocks there is a stony trail up the steep grass, the light covering of snow on the grass made the exposed climb quite interesting. Then you get to the upper rocky section where the hand holds have to be searched for and you have to trust your leg muscles to lift you up over some of the rocks. Then again there is more grass to provide a more comfortable way upwards and finally you arrive at a large perched boulder marking the top of this little climb. There are some good views from here, the fact that you can see Seathwaite Farm below shows how steep the slope is and Glaramara is well illuminated.

After a short walk upwards over rough grass between rocks you see the remaining climb of Base Brown that you don't see from the valley, a path comes up on the left from somewhere. Follow the path if you can keep it in view, the covering of snow made it difficult at times but there is no doubt about the route and the summit is just at the top of the rise. Pillar peeped up from behind Gillercomb Head but Scafell Pike looked especially inspiring, it was brightly illuminated in a way that I haven't seen on any hill before. In the brightness the route to Green Gable was in no doubt and the normally wet path was much easier to walk over with being frozen solid.

In spite of the sunshine it was a very cold day and as I climbed Green Gable the biting cold wind became stronger, but not as bad as I had anticipated. It is a bit of a slog up the rough path and there are increasingly large icy sections to either bypass or use the protruding stones to carefully step over. As I got to the junction with the path coming up from Brandreth I saw other walkers for the first time and the ground became more consistently icy on the well trodden snow covered path. The wind was also becoming more consistent and by the time I got to the summit of Green Gable it had become quite a problem, I was being blown around on the icy surface, I made sure I didn't go too close to the edge.

Having left the ice sheet on the summit of Green Gable the path down to Windy Gap was thankfully not snowed up and in spite of its name the conditions at the little col were far less windy. I carried on towards Great Gable, up a narrow path at first before reaching the rocky scramble of an ascent that makes this route so interesting. Fortunately the rock surfaces were dry, probably because this is a south facing slope, but there was hard snow in the gaps that made me think twice about where I put my feet. Above the scramble, except for the protruding stones, the bouldery slope was covered in hard snow that had turned to ice on some parts of the path.

I was using my ice axe to help me to keep my footing and I wouldn't have been embarrassed to use crampons, I would definitely have to use them on the descent. At the summit of Great Gable the views were stunning and the wind was deadly, I can't remember wind chill like that before and there is no shelter. My hands had become cold in my most reliable pair of winter gloves and there was no way I could take them off to put my crampons on so I was going to have to manage without them. As it happened the ice wasn't as bad on the paths as I was expecting and where it was I was able to bypass it, having got out of the worst of the wind my hands slowly came painfully back to life.

By the time I reached Styhead Pass there were clouds in the sky but Scafell Pike was still clear and brightly lit up. I decided that in the wind and ice I wouldn't climb Great End from this direction so I was going to Esk Hause and climb it from the easy side if I had time. By the time I reached Sprinkling Tarn the weather had started to close in, Great Gable was covered in mist but at least the wind had dropped. It became very misty by the time I was on the final climb to Esk Hause and the wind had picked up a bit. When I got to Esk Hause the weather had well and truly deteriorated into a gale force wind and the icy equivalent of drizzle.

I decided not to carry on, I wasn't sure if I was going to have time anyway and my legs believed I should still be going downhill so it would have been hard work. I walked back to where Ruddy Gill turns right and I followed it to Grains Gill, the path there is being reconstructed with big stones that have gaps in between, a good way for hill walkers to descend.

Andy Wallace 25th February 2006