The Great Gable Triangle - no photos today. If you have broadband there is a video clip here
It was wet when I left home, wet on the motorway and wet in the Lake District, I had fair warning about what sort of day it was going to be. Passing through Ambleside all that was left of the recent snow were numerous snowmen and huge snowballs in the park. There was no snow left in Keswick but on the Honister Pass road there were large snowballs at either side of the road, remnants of snow clearing efforts rather than play.
I was the first to get to the National Trust car park at Honister Hause but by the time I set off walking there were several other cars there. It was raining of course with a cold breeze, there were plenty of walkers on their way up to Grey Knotts and across the road up to Dale Head but I was the only one on the old tramway to Dubs Quarry. I was carrying my ice axe with me and patches of ice on the path suggested I might need it on the tops.
Shortly before reaching the remains of the old Drum House you turn left across flat, open ground and follow the Moses Trod path which is well marked by cairns. The rain had eased a little as I was walking up the tramway but it started again with a vengeance, waterproof everything went on and I ended up wearing more gear than I was carrying for a change. The strong breeze was driving the rain along and my jacket hood was up and fastened down, it did mean of course I couldn't see much but I know this path well enough and there isn't much to be seen.
After a while you reach a cairn near a fence, the path goes uphill towards Brandreth by the side of the fence. Keeping straight ahead there is a step stile by which you cross the fence and carry on in the direction of Great Gable. The path isn't quite so obvious on this side of the fence and I passed the junction of the faint path to Gillercomb Head without noticing it, although to be fair I couldn't even see Green Gable. I carried on head-down into the wind, crossing the young River Liza in Stone Cove and then continuing in the direction of Beck Head.
As I got to what I always think of as Beck Head I saw two other walkers come from the opposite direction and start to climb upwards to Great Gable. I was puzzled as to where they had walked from, this should have made me look at my map but I was tucked up warm and dry and I continued on my way. It is some time ago that I came this way but I know you have to descend on an eroded path before walking over wetter grassy ground to find the path that contours around the base of Kirk Fell.
What I had forgotten is that the familiar swampy area with old iron fence posts that marks the start of the ascent of Great Gable isn't really Beck Head. Anyway I carried on downwards on a stony eroded path before getting to a wet, grassy area where ice was still present between the melt water puddles. Then I found myself on a path I didn't recognise, I thought I had missed the contour path and found one taking me down towards Ennerdale. After a while I got below the mist and saw a green valley and a lake beyond, I have never seen Ennerdale looking like that before.
I could see ahead the path going all the way down to the valley, I didn't really want to lose all of that height so I decided to contour around the hill once I got past the scree that reminded me very much of Great Gable. There seemed to be a faint path going across the contours but I'm always seeing them, I still don't know if they are a figment of my imagination, animal tracks or just an infrequently used short cut. I was looking across the valley at the steep hill with steep beck and obvious path, it didn't look quite right but then I've never seen it from this direction.
The grassy forty degree slope soon became scree, not loose sliding shale but lichen-covered rocks and slippery boulders, precariously balanced on each other and not always as securely fixed as I would like. After three or four of the scree sections intermixed with grass I didn't seem to be getting much closer to Black Sail Pass. It was strenuous work, slowly and carefully getting across the scree without dislodging the stones some of which are football sized and larger. I had another look round, took a few misty photographs and tried to work out how best to get where I needed to be without losing any more height.
Then I realised where I really was. It wasn't Ennerdale that I could see - it was Wasdale, and that familiar-looking steep beck across the valley was Piers Gill. The worst part was realising that I was on the impossibly steep scree slopes of Great Gable high above Lingmell Beck. How could I have got on to the wrong side of Great Gable without realising it? I tried to put the questions of how I got there to one side, I had a hard enough job as it was to get off the place.
By now the scree was continuous, tennis ball sized rocks and larger that were slippery and really not secure enough for me to feel comfortable on a steep slope that went a long way down. I decided the best thing was to try and descend at an angle, it was too steep to go straight down and who knows what lay ahead. After several minutes I didn't feel that I was getting very far, the path I could see below wasn't any nearer. Then there was a break in the scree, loose stones that were easier to get straight down and then grass between fixed boulders until I got thankfully to the path.
All I had to do now was make the long slog up to Great Gable, this is not my favourite route to my favourite hill. Part way up this monotonous path a water cascade crosses it and with not taking too many photos today I decided to take a video clip of the waterfall. As I pressed the button on the camera I noticed some walkers on their way down who had got in the field of vision. As I carried on upwards I met the walkers on their way down, it was Andrew Leaney and David Hall, authors of two of the better Lake District web sites. Even stranger was that we realised we had crossed paths at Beck Head earlier in the day but were too wrapped against the elements to recognise each other.
When I got to the stretcher box at Styhead Pass I was the only one there until two lost souls turned up asking for directions to Stonethwaite, or was it Seathwaite? The reconstructed path up the Breast Route of Great Gable is safe to walk and navigate but it is still a slog especially on a cold, misty day with not another person in sight or sound. I had Great Gable summit all to myself, the very top still had a bit of snow lying around and it was becoming quite gloomy, this is no time to get myself lost again.
From the summit you can see two cairns both of which show the way to Beck Head with varying degrees of difficulty, neither of which I wanted to tackle at that time. The way towards Windy Gap is unmarked but it is to the right of the right-hand cairn and I set off in that direction. I wasn't too sure I was right so I followed a line of cairns to see where they were going, it became obvious that it was not the right way so I climbed uphill again to where I thought the right path should be. Having found a cluster of cairns within site of the summit I decided it was probably time I looked at my map.
As it happened I was where my instinct said I should be and heading in the right direction. I had chosen the iciest side of Great Gable to descend, not a dangerous amount of ice just enough to make you think on the scramble down the rugged outcrops of rock. It was quite dark by the time I got to Windy Gap and I decided I should get off the hills as quickly as possible. Once I had climbed the steep shale to the summit of Great Gable I had an obvious line of large cairns to follow, unfortunately they would lead Seathwaite so I had to make sure I didn't miss the unmarked junction. The start of the path towards Brandreth isn't very obvious but soon there are plenty of cairns to follow, there is also a line of fence posts that would lead you to safety. There is a steepish rugged descent to the familiar tarns at Gillercomb Head and enough light to see a faint path going off to the left to rejoin Moses Trod.
No more navigational problems on the way back to the car, it was just about dark as I got there when the heavens opened, it rained stair rods all the way home.
Andy Wallace 31st December 2005