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Tuesday 9 August 2011

Green Gable and Great Gable

superdawg tries to ignore cheese butty

All this messing about in the lower reaches of the Pennines with the rangering stuff had me pining for the rocky bits, so early this morning, I had the dog saddled up and orf we jolly well went to the Lake district, parking very prettily down the lane at Seathwaite.

climbing by sour milk gill

We climbed very slowly and laboriously through all those closely drawn contours up by Sour Milk Gill into the beautiful corrie of Gillercombe. This is a very fine place for a camp, I have to say. And the beck is deep enough for a very cold swim.

ennerdale

But no swimming was done. Onwards and upwards through the corrie to bag the outlying top of Base Brown, followed by the green and rocky lump of Green Gable, where we rested not but pushed on through down to Wind Gap and up through the scrambly bit for a lazy lunch on the top of Great Gable, which was Great.

styhead and sprinkling tarns

a scrambly bit

We managed to find a place behind a boulder overlooking Wasdale and with a fine view of Scafell and Scafell Pike and over there, on the far horizon, way out over the Irish Sea, a thin blue line of hills that could only be the North Wales coast.  We got behind the boulder, by the way, because it was perishing cold. It was sunny, but there was a nithering wind creeping down from somewhere just left of Bergen. Brrr…… autumn…….

wastwater

And so, after a cheese and pickle butty and some ginger cake, coffee and chocolate, none of which was enjoyed or shared with Bruno, by the way, oh yes, and a bit of a snooze…  we descended the long slope down to the stretcher box at Sty Head, where it was a bit warmer, so another snooze was had here. This is a long way down on an uncomfortable pitched path. In fact, its more than 1500 feet, for anybody foolishly considering slugging their way up by this route. The views are good, though.

piers gill, scafell pike

scafells, superdawg

Bruno had a paddle and a bark… bark.. bark (echo) and retrieved a burnt stick a few times but it was soon time to leave and we descended by the Stockley Bridge route back to the knipemobile which was still there with all it’s tyres still on and the headlights off. This was good news, so we went home.

bruno, styhead tarn, great end

Great Gable was a busy hill today. I guess there’s a lot of people having their holidays. Good day for this sort of thing, though.

We managed just the seven of your Earth miles and 3180 of your Earth feet of upness. I’ve put more pics in the blog post than normal, cos it was such a nice day. 

gable

7 comments:

Alan Sloman said...

The full frontal assault of Sour Milk Gill has always put me off exploring the charms of Gillercombe. Blast. I am now going to have to clamber up there to take a peek at the perfect little camping spot.
Sounds like a nice change for a PreWalkDaunder spot.

Laura said...

Nice!

TrevorW�� said...

Fantastic....I must get back up to the Lakes for a visit again soon. Thanks for sharing.....

-Trevor

Louise said...

Looks fab. Sunshine would be good round here, it's a bit, er, damp!

AlanR said...

You picked a cracking day Mike and a good route.
Ah, that path down to the rescue box is a bit labourious to say the least. I went up that way on my last foray to the Gable top.

Mike Knipe said...

Ooer - an enthusiastic response. SMG is not too bad, Alan - it doesn't go on toooo long (about 600 feet I think) and its just a little scrambly for interest. Niote alan and my comments about the descent to the stretcher box, though. Its a pain, and I mean that quite sincerely.
Ta Laura, Trevor Louise and Alan. I think I picked the only dry day of the week. Fab spot, too....

markswalkingblog said...

Great area to walk. Excellent photos of Superdawg :)