Great Gable & Scafell Pike - no photos today

The weather wasn't too good as I drove up the motorway, damp and grey, but the forecast was for something better. As I got to the Lake District it seemed to be brightening up until I got to Dunmail Raise, north of that point is was drizzling with very poor visibility. From Seathwaite I started walking in shorts, the drizzle had stopped and it was fairly warm.

The big metal gate at the arch under the farm buildings gets more awkward to open every time. You go through the arch and then cross the footbridge over the river, are you allowed to call a trickle of water a river? Almost immediately you cross over a wall using the unusually shallow ladder stile and go straight up the fell.

There is a reconstructed path taking you steeply upwards by the side of Sour Milk Gill, also just a trickle today. It isn't one of the better paths, made from small rounded stones sloping downwards so you have to be careful when it is wet underfoot like today. The rock outcrop that creates a spectacular waterfall also means you have a bit of easy scrambling to do needing both hands to get over solid rock.

It has stopped raining and it is warm enough to be walking in my tee shirt but the cloud base is very low, even the smallest fells are covered in mist. Continue up the steep path until you get to the upper waterfall, a first time visitor would be unimpressed by the trickle of water taking its time to get over the rock. The steepest part of the path is past as you walk up the hanging valley of Gillercomb, quiet and peaceful.

Near the head of the valley there is another section of reconstructed path helping to prevent erosion around a wide scar of loose glacial material. The red colour of the loose stones suggests that they got carried from somewhere else a long time ago, but compared to the age of the mountains it was not that long ago. The path steepens and zigzags as it takes you the the col between Base Brown and Green Gable.

Now I am in the mist climbing less steeply but climbing nevertheless up a broad stony path. The way is indistinct as times and it is easy to get off the path especially in poor visibility but there are plenty of substantial cairns, just pay attention and look for them. As the path becomes less rugged for a short time the one coming from Brandreth joins you for the final rough walk to the rocky summit of Green Gable.

You would not realise that there are imposing crags belonging to Great Gable not too far away, the mist is so thick that you are not even aware of the great dark mountain ahead. Follow the line of cairns until the descent to Windy Gap veers off to the right, this steep eroded way over slippery loose stones is far less intimidating when you can't see how far down it is on either side. From Windy Gap continue upwards ahead, traversing steep ground on a narrow path at first and then you get to the rocky section of the path.

Great Gable starts here, lots of rock to hold on to, enjoyable easy scrambling if you are used to the fells, intimidating and steep if you are not. As rock gives way to a boulder strewn plateau it is even more important to pay attention and follow the cairns, at least keep going upwards to get to the summit of Great Gable. You wouldn't want to be on this misty, confusing big mountain top without a compass if you had never been there before, but there are two walkers there who have managed to do just that.

I pointed them in the direction of the Breast Route down to Styhead Pass before setting off down that path myself. The other walkers passed me on the way down and at Styhead Pass I saw them asking for directions from another two walkers. When I got there the other two had a compass but the the lack of detail and contours on their map really wasn't going to help them get to Scafell Pike.

Shrug shoulders and set off on the obvious path towards Sprinkling Tarn, after the path has climbed for a little while you pass a small tarn on the right, I have never seen it with so little water in. You descend for a little way and there is a substantial cairn and a path going down to the right, this is the path leading to the start of the Corridor Route.

As you get to Skew Gill it looks very intimidating as you look up it, a reminder that it is on my “to do” list for this year, and for every year as it happens. The crumbling red path on the other bank of the dry gill is the start of the Corridor Route. The Corridor Route is quite safe and very popular but you still have to treat it with respect in places where the real path looks quite intimidating. At these places are muddy eroded patches around the edge of the path where faint hearted walkers have tried to find a safer way but actually the path is the safest way, that is why it takes that route.

The trickiest section is a rock outcrop shortly before you get to Greta Gill and then above Greta Gill itself, I remember how anxious I was the first time I was there. The path then undulates across the lower flanks of Ill Crag and Broad Crag and begins a more sustained ascent as you get towards Lingmell col. As I sat near the start of the steep path to Broad Crag col it was clear that the reconstructed start of the bottom of that path was luring walkers because it looked the more obvious way.

You should continue following the path straight ahead, shortly afterwards you arrive at the head of Piers Gill, another waterfall there understates itself with only a hint of the amount of water that sometimes falls vertically downwards. There is a risky looking traverse of the head of the gill, you have to cross over loose gravely soil on steep ground with nothing to hold on to. Once across you can admire the depth and ruggedness of the gorge and the surroundings.

Cross a gill straight away and continue upwards along the path until you get to the next place where you can go wrong. A muddy path goes over grass slightly to the right that will take you to Lingmell, but if you see the cairns up on the left they show you the more obvious path up over broken rock. Within five minutes climbing over this rugged path you arrive at the top of the Corridor Route, the path just disappears at a big boulder.

The way is obvious in good weather, there is plenty of scope for getting lost in mist like this. From the boulder take a line half left over wet ground and even if you miss the proper path you will eventually reach the Scafell Pike motorway. This is the three peaks path, wide and badly eroded it would be unmistakable even without the many cairns. I met three walkers coming down asking for directions, it was easy to point them in the direction of Wasdale. They had thought they were retracing their steps towards Mickledore but had followed the wrong line of cairns from the summit, I wonder how on earth anybody gets to or from Scafell Pike.

Navigating is easy now for anybody as long as you keep your eyes open and follow the cairns, the largest and most obvious in the Lake District. The way upwards is stony and rough, longer than you expect but just as it should be for the highest mountain in England. A final steeper section over larger stones brings you to the trig point and the large summit construction of a cairn swarming with people. The quiet solitude of the fells is something that rarely happens at the summit of Scafell Pike.

I set off downwards in the direction of Broad Crag col and as confident as I am in my knowledge of Scafell Pike, this is my twenty first visit, I have enough doubt to have to check map and compass to make sure I am going the right way. Almost convinced I carried on until the loose eroded path took a sharp turn downwards and I knew then where I was.

At the col you just carry on straight up the slope ahead, this is Broad Crag and you are walking over boulders, I would have gone all the way to the summit in good weather. Before you get to the summit crag there are many cairns, follow them to the right but keep your eyes open as the line of cairns seems to keep changing direction. Hopping across boulders it is difficult to see any signs of a path so the cairns must be followed, eventually going down to another col.

The you carry on ahead up a much easier path, this is Ill Crag, after the initial climb you get to a very broad plateau but there is a reasonable path and a good line of cairns. Unless you know where it is it would be difficult to find the summit of Ill Crag, I know where it is but it isn't really worth the effort in this visibility. At the far end of the plateau is another boulder field that has to be hopped across, the cairns are less obvious but you eventually get across the boulders at an eroded flatter area.

Another cairned path leads downwards from here towards Calf Cove, there used to be a very slippery eroded path but it has been repaired with one of the better reconstructed paths, good flat slabs ideal for safe walking. I was contemplating the next landmark, the cross shaped shelter beyond Esk Hause when I suddenly saw a cross shaped shelter below me on the left. For a couple of seconds I felt quite disoriented thinking I had somehow approached it from a different direction until I realised that it must be a new shelter.

You carry on along a more obvious path across the confusing flatness of Esk Hause, I didn't take the cairned path to the left at the hause, I had to carry on to the cross shaped shelter just to reassure myself that it was still there. From there you continue on to a cross roads of paths and turn left to follow Ruddy Gill until you can see a path rising up the opposite bank of the gill. There is a constructed path taking you down to the gill which is easy to cross today and then up the opposite bank to the top of Grains Gill.

I have a view, a sunlit Derwentwater appearing through a hole in the mist. It is downhill all the way now, following Grains Gill downwards through its attractive valley. The sun starts to come out making a pleasant finish to the walk but Great End behind me is still hidden by angry looking mist. The highlight of Grains Gill is the little wooden footbridge across a rocky cataract. Today there are pleasant green pools above and below the bridge, when I was here in January there was a thunderous torrent of water lapping the bottom of the bridge.

Finally back to Seathwaite, only eight hours for a unlikely combination of hills in a single walk.

Andy Wallace 5th June 2004