Great Start, Great End, Great Gable - Photo Gallery
Some favourite routes have to be done every year but you have to give yourself a chance and not attempt them if the conditions are bad. After recent wet weather I am prepared for a change of plan but when I got to Wasdale Head there were blue skies and the tops were clear, the only possible problem would be the amount of water coming off the hills. From the parking area on The Green you walk up the track past St. Olaf's church to Burnthwaite Farm, there you turn left as you get to the farmyard and go through a gate.
You now follow Lingmell Beck up its wide valley between Great Gable and Lingmell, the wide, boulder-filled stream bed seems too big for the small amount of water in it. At the meeting place of Piers Gill and Spouthead Gill the stream bed is very wide and the water is at its most shallow, I decided to cross the stream here just to see if it is a better option for when there is a lot of water in it, I have had trouble in the past crossing at the usual place higher upstream. I got across without trouble but I'm not sure the boulders I hopped across wouldn't be under water later in the year.
There is a faint path to begin with on this side of the stream but I soon realised why the crossing place is higher upstream, I had forgotten I would have to cross Piers Gill again at its widest point; there is usually a good reason why footpaths and crossing places have evolved as they have. Crossing the gill is no problem today, it is quite an interesting and beautiful place especially being able to see down the small canyon just a bit downstream. Just above this point is the official crossing place and you join the official path here, the valley route to Styhead with the optional right turn alongside Piers Gill.
The path is fairly obvious, over generally good ground, marked by cairns and not too steep, the more eroded sections are about to be repaired - airlifted bags of boulders have been left ready for the path fairies. Then Skew Gill comes into view, the stream of boulders issuing from it invites you and leads you to it. This section of the gill is an accumulation of boulders than are generally stable and make it reasonably easy to hop across them. The boulder steps take you past the crossing place where the Corridor Route sets off towards Lingmell col and Scafell Pike and Skew Gill then asserts itself.
The steep sided gully rises all the way to the skyline, there is no water in the gill just here but you can see several small waterfalls higher up. Just as you get within the walls of the gully there is a small pool of water where the overground flow ends. The gradient gets a little steeper and the boulders are not so big as the rocky channel of the gill starts to get narrower and water tumbles over outcrops of solid rock. Soon you can't avoid the water, there is no way to get around because the ground either side is too steep or too slippery.
Walking up the gill through the water isn't as bad as it sounds apart from getting your feet wet, the bedrock is rough and the constant flow of water prevents moss and algae from growing and making it slippery. Having said that, there are quite a number of places where you have to scramble up the rock with the stream at your feet where the steepness and narrowness are quite daunting. In contrast, having climbed each small waterfall you look down and because of the steepness all you can see are quiet, clear pools of water. Things are getting pretty steep by now and one particularly awkward waterfall can be avoided by a precarious scramble up steep vegetation not as well rooted as you would like.
About half way up there is some respite as the gradient eases, there is a wonderful view behind of Great Gable and a daunting steep view upwards especially as I know what lies ahead. The gill narrows and steepens, it is a constant scramble over rough rock at an angle of at least sixty degrees with your feet in the water, hand and foot holds aren't obvious they have to be searched for. There is one last widening of the gill before the final challenge, now you can see the skyline, the sun shines brightly up there after the darkness of the steep enclosing walls.
There are no more boulders, rough rock with water flowing over it everywhere, not a great amount of water but you have to be more careful where the rock is damp and covered in slimy vegetation. The climb out of here looks impossible but there is a small channel in the rock on the left hand side which in itself can't be climbed but it shows the way up. To the left of the channel is rough rock, wet but with a couple of footholds if you can find them, to the right of the channel a couple of metres higher is better, drier rock. Your challenge is to reach the higher rock from the wet footholds, it is too late to turn back you are committed to carrying on.
Each time I think this should be easier but it never is and I had to resort to using my knee again, one of several small bumps I incurred on the way up. With some relief I hauled myself to a safe place but to get out you have to move right so that you get in position for the last awkward manoeuvre and climb steeply up wet grass into the daylight. What a sense of satisfaction, it's quite a challenge and the view is sensational but look how steeply you still have to climb. After what has gone before the steep pull up to the cairn at the summit of The Band is easy, but after all that you are still only half way up Great End.
From the cairn looking towards Great End across a small depression you can see some signs of disturbance, a small amount of loose rock is your only clue as to where the route is. There is a little bit more scrambling to do, the rock is usually damp so you have to take care and find those safe place for your feet and don't let go with your hands until your feet are safe. After a couple of rock steps you are on to steep grass and a faint path leads you upwards until you get to a more obvious stony path. High above Seathwaite Tarn you can see it is an unusual and attractive shape, you can still see people walking on the path beside it.
The steep loose path continues until you reach a small cairn at the top of the Branch Gully, from this point you will be walking across boulders. Any resemblance to a path disappears, you just have to search for smoothed rock to show which boulders are not as greasy but a bit more stable than the rest. Typically, on this warm sunny day the mist has got to the summit before me but head straight upwards and you will find the summit with its nearby shelter. Getting down will be more challenging so I'm making a mental note of features I will need to guide me. It is no surprise that I have the summit to myself.
Navigating in the mist on the top of Great End without using map and compass is not recommended and I would advise against it but that is what I did. I knew the general direction I had to go and was relying on my memory of what I saw on the way up. I walked over boulders that looked as though they had been walked on before and I soon reached a cairn, I recognised the top of Cust's Gully - not that there are any real distinguishing features. I headed downwards over boulders, most of which were loose or slippery, down a shallow gully using directional instinct rather than memory. This kind of terrain can be quite strenuous to descend and there is always the worry that I am in the wrong direction and may have to climb back up again.
I eventually got to the small cairn at the top of the Branch Gully without having to re-ascend. The path downwards from here is slightly easier but still quite awkward, the grass having been work away to a slippery surface of soil and stones. I recognised the small cairn where I joined this path on the way up but it looked as though there may be a more obvious path going straight down through a rock gully. It might be a trap and end in a rock step too high to climb down but I went to investigate anyway. The stoney ground was too awkward to be a real path with the larger boulders being very unstable, the chockstone was actually quite stable and the rock wall of the gully was close enough to support me all the way down.
At the bottom of the gully the scree fanned out and through the clearing mist I could see the slope was too steep to be a viable descent. I turned left to traverse wet ground between boulders and soon found the steep grassy path I should have stayed with. The descent to The Band was steep and occasionally awkward and I managed to lose my balance once, another bump on the fifth point of contact. The wet rock steps I had climbed were easy enough to get down although the fifth point of contact got quite wet in the process. Below the mist now it was easy to navigate along The Band with the help of an occasional faint path and finally descend to the busy footpath to Styhead.
You don't need much navigation to climb Great Gable by the Breast Route, just a strong pair of legs and a good heart, this is the one uninteresting Great Gable routes but it's Great Gable so I'll forgive her. It took about fifty minutes to get from Styhead to the summit of Great Gable in warm sunshine all of the way until the mist at the summit, although to be fair to Gable she was trying to get rid of the mist for me. I went to have a look at Wastwater through the clearing mist before setting off for Beck Head, you have to make sure you head for the right cairn, looking towards Pillar the one on the left takes you to scree.
The descent to Beck Head is my favourite Great Gable route, not the hardest or most spectacular but it is bold and rugged with tremendous views over Wasdale and the top end of Ennerdale. The only problem with this route is once you get past the rugged section it looks like the path branches off to the right, this is a trap - a horrible scree descent. Keep your eyes on Kirk Fell and pick up the real path by not turning right, you'll have a steep slippery descent over stones but it is far better than the alternative.
Bear left, keep going if you lose the path in swampy ground, and you'll find a rough path slanting downwards across more Great Gable scree. The Great Gable traverse path leaves on the left but it is difficult to spot, not a problem for me today but if I was heading for Styhead it would be advisable not to miss the turn. The well used path is mischievous, awkward and slippery and as likely to put you on your backside as any path I have walked. Just before the path over scree becomes a reconstructed path you can see Moses Finger on the skyline, a remarkably upright boulder in a sea of loose stones, the path up to it is the punishment for missing the turn off for Styhead earlier.
Fortunately I am heading downwards, this reconstructed path is alright, the stones big enough to support your full foot and not sloping downwards, safe in descent in the wet is how a footpath should be. The remainder of the path down Gavel Neese is a mixed of grass and reconstructed paths. The lower I got the more dangerous the worse the reconstructed paths became, the consistently sloping stones might be good for cycling uphill but are too dangerous to use walking down in wet weather.
It was a lovely sunny evening in Wasdale but dark by the time I got home, my summer season is nearly over for this year.
Andy Wallace 10th September 2005