Gasgale to Coldedale Return - Photo Gallery
If you have broadband there is a video clip here of a Gasgale Gill cascade
The forecast was good but it was damp on the motorway and raining when I parked near the school in Braithwaite. I walked up the road to Whinlatter and it is the first time I have had someone in a car stop to ask directions to a hill. After a short walk uphill there is a small parking area at the site of an old quarry where a well made path starts the climb upwards. The path soon becomes narrow as you quickly gain some height, the rain seemed to be easing off a bit but it was still wet. Braithwaite How below is colourfully green and brown but Skiddaw dominates the view, or rather the huge cloud over Skiddaw dominates the view.
The path climbing Kinn is the one visible for miles as you drive towards Keswick on the A66, a broad green lawn between the bracken. A broad green slog actually, there are a few foot holes in places that help a bit but it feels more strenuous than it looks. Thankfully it stopped raining quite quickly and the view of Skiddaw was now an attractive group of hills with a neat crown of mist. The view eastwards was still a bit dark but there were signs that the sun was trying to break through the clouds, but the way ahead looked quite promising. I got quite warm and I had to take my jacket off although I have to own up to wearing two teeshirts.
After the initial climb the gradient eases and you have a straightforward walk on a path that seems more constructed that just trodden. The view ahead also opens up, Coledale Hause surrounded by hills each with its own crown of mist. Soon enough the climb to Grisedale starts, another lawn to climb at first - again feeling more strenuous than it looks. This ascent has become quite eroded, there are wooden barriers that have been placed to protect eroded sections but this only means that the trodden path becomes wider causing more erosion. At the top of this section of the path the gradient eases again where the path again seems to be constructed.
As you get to the top of this part of the path you can see the final climb to Grisedale Pike beyond Sleet How, the breeze requested that I put my jacket on again. I quite understand how clouds are formed, moist air meets cold air and the water droplets condense; you might imagine that this is a fairly gradual process but it is happening on the ridge in front of me. It seems to be an immediate transformation with a clear boundary to the mist as it is created and then gets blown away and dispersed by the breeze. My legs feel as though they are full of lead today and I am taking frequent rests on the pretence of stopping to take photographs; after one of my stops the mist has completely disappeared.
As I was plodding up the steep stony ridge it was obvious that the slopes either side are completely different, one covered in old brown heather and the other in green vegetation, one side of the ridge is definitely more moist than the other. The gradient becomes steeper and stony ground becomes a rocky ridge, looking back downwards the mist has re-formed on one side of the ridge but only at one particular place. This really is quite an interesting climb, you can get into the odd awkward place if you don't concentrate but there isn't any real exposure if you keep to the ridge. The only difficulty is the greasiness of some of the rocks, the ridge is too broad and rocky for a definitive path to have been trodden.
Finally you get to the summit crown and suddenly all you can see are mountains and valleys, the visibility is good but the light somehow isn't what you would expect with so much blue sky. The path ahead is obvious, firstly over an unnamed but cairned subsidiary summit and then onwards towards Hopegill Head. As you get to the bottom of the col between Grisedale Pike and Hopegill Head you are on the edge of Hobcarton Crag. There is one gully going down to the valley but it looks too steep and the crags supporting Hopegill Head loom too green and greasy for anyone to have ever been there. Try telling that to the sheep though, they seem to get into some extraordinarily impossible places.
Finally I see sunlight on the rocks and Hopegill Head looks attractively craggy and Ladyside Pike looks deceptively impressive. The small summit of Hopegill Head is cold and dull but there are sunlit hills not too far away, this is no place to comfortably sit around so I just carried on along the ridge. I really wanted to check the time, I want to be sure I have enough time for my planned route but not at the cost of getting cold. There is another rocky ridge to descend, comfortable and interesting if the rock was dry, the greasy rocks and occasional verglas (the hill walker's equivalent of black ice) mean I have to be a bit more careful. It is obvious from here how Whiteside got its name.
Eventually at the col I decided I had enough time for my planned route but I think I would have continued anyway. There is a path below Whiteside Edge but it should only be used if the wind is too strong, although I have to say my ascent of the crest of the ridge was careful and inelegant. There is no definite path on the crest and not a lot of obvious footholds, in the dry it is easy but when the rock is greasy you have to take care, it isn't really exposed but you don't need to fall far to hurt yourself. Once you get to the top of the ridge the walking is easy, just a couple of slight undulations before you get to the summit of Whiteside.
The view ahead tells you it is going to be steep, having done it before I know it isn't as easy as you would want at the end of a long day, fortunately I haven't had a long day yet. It is straightforward enough to start with, steep with loose stones but you can just walk down it, it gets steeper, looser and more eroded and it goes on and you have to be careful. The gradient eventually eases slightly but don't be fooled you are about to get to a steep rock outcrop, there is a path around the side through the heather but why walk the hills if you want an easy life? There is no right way down this steep, greasy and occasionally icy outcrop, just get down using all five limbs.
The path does get easier for a while, a reasonably easy walk to the summit of Whin Ben, the route downwards is very eroded. Paths through heather are very predictable, they live in peat which is not very robust and is easily eroded making it very muddy at best and awkwardly eroded at worst, this path is steep and eroded. The eroded path is slippery stones between larger boulder and it goes on forever, there are bags of boulders waiting to reconstruct the path but for now they are obstacles on an already awkward path. Eventually the heather gives way to grass and the surface is better and not quite as steep but still steeply downwards until I came across another path.
This path seemed to be heading up towards Gasgale Gill, it might mean I don't have to go all the way down so I went to have a look. It does indeed seem to be going my way some way up above the stream crossing the steep lower slopes of Whiteside. There are some intriguing looking paths on the steep side of Grasmoor on the other side of the gill, I might have to investigate them when the days are longer. This is a very interesting valley, the hills on either side of the gill are equally steep but are very different in nature. It is also a very long valley, I had anticipated that which is why I was concerned about the time earlier.
Grasmoor looks impossibly steep but Wainwright suggests that there is a route up a grassy ridge by the side of Dove Crags but from here it looks absolutely impractical. There were also a couple of unexpected ruins quite high up the valley, did people live here or just stay here occasionally, there are no walls here on either side of the gill. There are several cascades in the gill as it makes its way down from Coledale Hause and the path becomes rougher as it climbs up to Coledale Hause. Eventually I got to Coledale Hause, there is an attractive view of Blencathra still wearing a misty cap.
After walking across the grassy hause the path to Coledale becomes obvious, it has the consistency of one of the newer JCB creations. The path is steep enough to make you feel that you have to run so I did, it is often easier to let gravity take you downwards while you lift your feet and place them safely, much to the astonishment of the other walkers on the path. As the steepness eased I reverted to walking and as I got to the level of High Force I decided to see if I could find a better way down. High Force crag seems like a natural quarry and it has obviously been exploited in the past but the area around is very marshy and there isn't any obvious way downwards.
I walked over rough grass until I got to a point where I could see the Force Crag Mine buildings down below, there didn't seem to be a sensible way downwards so I had to find my way back to the path again. Back on the path and a little way lower down I could see that turning back was the sensible thing to do, I was almost at the edge of a very impressive crag. The rough path or is it an old track keeps on going downward until you cross the top of Coledale Beck and join the mine road for a much easier walking surface. There was a point where a small path went down between the gorse in the direction of the beck and the buildings of Braithwaite so I decided to follow it rather than continue along the road.
For once a hunch paid off and the path rejoined the Whinlatter Road just before it got to the village.
Andy Wallace 14th January 2006