MRT Fundraising Weekend - Photo Gallery
I met the hardy Outdoorsmagic members at the NT campsite at Brackenclose and was greeted by another heavy shower of rain, but soon after setting off from Wasdale Head along the Styhead valley route towards it was tee-shirt weather again.
The plan was to climb up the path alongside Piers Gill, but crossing Lingmell Beck in full spate wasn’t as easy as usual. There were a couple of places where I could have jumped across the torrent but I had to consider my shorter legged companions. I eventually found a place where we could cross that involved standing in shallow water but which didn’t involve wet, slippery rocks. The fullness of the streams whilst making them difficult to cross provided a very attractive display of cascading water and turbulent pools especially around the “beautiful watersmeet”.
The initial grassy section ends as the ravine of Greta Gill is met just before it joins Piers Gill. Another tricky crossing that involved some “hands on” assistance to get everybody across and some standing in not-so-shallow water.
The weather became colder with occasional showers of rain, the walk alongside Piers Gill gave awe-inspiring views looking down into the gill whilst standing on the edge. There is a twenty-foot scramble at one point that requires the use of all four limbs, slightly intimidating but with plenty of good holds and without any slippery rocks. Eventually the path joins the Corridor Route at the head of Piers Gill and for once the visibility was good enough to see the waterfalls at their best.
Following the Corridor Route towards Lingmell Col, we were resting just below the col when the Mountain Rescue helicopter flew up from Wasdale, circled around and then landed on Lingmell. I thought it must have been something to do with the Fell Race up Lingmell and it was only afterwards that I learned that it was a real rescue, one of the organisers of the race had been injured.
At Lingmell Col we parted company with Jeannie and David who didn’t feel that they could manage the planned route and they took the less arduous route over Lingmell. The rest of us climbed the familiar highway to the summit of Scafell Pike that was typically misty by the time we arrived.We went down through the mist to Mickledore and through a gap in the clouds we could see Lord’s Rake and Broad Stand. We had a quick look at the Fat Man’s Agony at the start of the Broad Stand route, you couldn’t take a big rucksack through that gap.
We dropped down on to the Climber’s Traverse path and made our way to the bottom of Lord’s Rake, where the warning about the fallen boulder caused some discussion about the safety of the Rake. Having got this far I wasn’t going to be denied and the others followed me up the Rake, the boulder at the top hasn’t moved for 12 months and it would take a large explosion to move such a massive object.
We took the left turn along the West Wall Traverse and then scrambled up the higher section of Deep Gill to the grassy plateau below the summit of Scafell. I had to do some real navigating to find the path up to the summit and then the Green How footpath to descend back to Wasdale. Shortly after starting the descent we were hit by a shower of hail followed by heavy rain that set in for the remainder of the day. This was the first time at the third attempt that I successfully found the not-too-steep grassy path, a relatively painless descent compared to my two earlier attempts.
I was glad to get into some dry clothes and re-join the group in Ritson’s Bar where I also met Fellrunning and Fornside.
The following morning was much brighter, an excellent walking day but unfortunately most people had to make their long journeys home. I couldn’t go straight home and Simon joined me on a short-ish walk over Yewbarrow.
Yewbarrow must lure many people as they drive past Wastwater, a nice green path leading to the top of the fell. Well, not quite, the path diverts to the right around Dropping Crag and takes on a completely different personality. At first it is just a rough stony path until reaching a point at the same height as the top of Dropping Crag.
As you reach a small cairn there is a curious short length of stone wall on the opposite side of a stony gully, cross the gully at this point for a strenuous but interesting climb. We chose the direct route upwards for an exhilarating steep scramble up the rocky gully and re-joined the main path across the loose and slippery top of the gully.
Reaching the ridge at Great Door is a wonderful moment as you look straight down to Wastwater, the short scramble to the top of Bell Rib should be compulsory but most walkers ignore this splendid little viewpoint. As you climb higher up the ridge the views of the Scafells are very impressive, on the way up they were topped with mist but later, on the way down it was difficult to not take a photograph every couple of minutes.
The descent of Stirrup Crag after crossing the wide flat top of the fell is the second shock to the unwary walker. An intimidating looking steep drop, over large rocks requiring some leg stretching and slightly awkward manoeuvres but without any real exposure makes an excellent scramble that anybody should be able to manage.
At the bottom of the crags is a scree path down to Dore Head, time to turn around and enjoy the upward scramble. Walking along the broad ridge southwards the mist had cleared from the surrounding tops giving the most excellent views of the Scafells.
At the summit, passing the time of day with another couple of walkers, a sheep standing nearby gave me “that” look, no - not THAT look! I unwrapped a Marathon bar and with a small amount of encouragement it came to eat out of my hand, they’re not as daft as they look.
When descending we took the more sensible route making sure to cross over to the left of the scree gully when we reached the wall on top of Dropping Crag. This was a splendid short walk of just under 4 hours in super weather.
Andy Wallace 7th & 8th September 2002