Great Gable and Scafell Pike

Tuesday 13th April 2004

The weather forecast for this walk was for rain in the afternoon, however fortunately this didn’t start until after I arrived at my destination so that it was dry throughout the day, but very cold with patchy low cloud so I only got occasional views from the tops. I left Honister after breakfast and headed straight up the fell-side onto Grey Knotts on a steep rough path, but never met a soul, which inevitably was to be the exception on this walk rather than the rule. This route up Grey Knotts follows a fence from the car park directly outside the door of the hostel straight onto the fell and all the way up to the top. The usual route is to follow an old tramway to the foundations of a drum house at the top of the path and then turn sharp left across the open hillside. This would also be the usual route to Great Gable from Honister and it was the route that I took two years previously when I first climbed to the top of Great Gable, so now I wanted to take this more challenging, and to my mind, more interesting route.

Once I had reached the top of Grey Knotts I headed along the ridge between Grey Knotts and Brandreth on an easy path that follows the fence and boundary posts before heading up to Green Gable. On my early visits to the Lake District I always seemed to have poor visibility when crossing Gillercomb Head and even now whenever I’m there it feels strange for me to have a view. On this occasion, Green Gable was in the clouds, but the Windy Gap just beyond was clear and rewarded me with the mesmerising sight of clouds blowing up the valley and through the gap. After a rough climb up to the top of Great Gable I was astonished to find the summit amazingly almost clear, though not of clouds, but of people. There were just three people sitting at the popular summit, but as there was no view to be seen, after a brief pause in front of the War Memorial, I descended the hill all the way down to Sty Head.

On this holiday I had walked along a lot of differently constructed paths of varying degrees of quality. I thought the path going down from Great Gable to Sty Head was very well constructed, but the path from Sty Head to Esk Hause was very poor. It’s a gravely path that’s like walking on scree, or a pebbly beach, with all the inherent difficulties; on several occasions on this path I bemoaned the path makers. In my most recent visit to this area, in September 2013, I found a path that is considerably easier to walk upon than is described here. Either steps have been taken to improve the path or the stones have naturally embedded to create an easier surface for walking. From Esk Hause with clearer skies all around (even Great Gable was uncovered) I walked past Great End, and over Ill Crag and Broad Crag, before arriving at the top of the grossly over-crowded Scafell Pike. It never fails to amaze me how people will go to just one peak in the Lake District simply because of a numerical coincidence that makes it the highest. On Scafell Pike you are surrounded by hundreds of hills many of which are far superior and yet it remains the one hill in the Lake District that everyone wants to go up.

The path up to Scafell Pike from Lingmell Col is part of the heavily used tourist route from Wasdale Head over Brown Tongue and is consequently a fully constructed (I could say over constructed) and well-defined path, but the path on the other side of the pass to Lingmell was almost non-existent so much more enjoyable, as were the views through the gaps in the clouds. After visiting Lingmell I returned to the col and took the fabulous Corridor Route back to Sty Head. This is a really enjoyable path that has retained its rough charm even though it has been heavily constructed in places. When I returned to the path in 2013 I thought there must have been seen some additional construction, but given my comment above, taken from my notes made back in 2004 (and my notoriously fickle memory), it is possible that it hasn’t seen much more construction in the last ten years. Either way it remains an enjoyable route.

The Corridor Route hugs the steep sides of the fell below Broad Crag and Great End while traversing the tops of several deep ravines before descending to Sty Head Pass where I took a seldom used climber’s path that crosses the face of Great Gable. This is a thrilling path that clings precipitously to the side of the fell as it crosses the boulder fields and sheer scree slopes below Great Gable; my heart was in my mouth on several occasions as I negotiated around fallen boulders while just inches away from my feet there was a sheer drop. I returned to this path in 2013 in fabulous weather, much better than on this occasion, and once again enjoyed this most thrilling of paths. There were stunning views down Wasdale and along the length of Wastwater and on many occasions I had to stop and just absorb the scenery while clinging onto the steep slope for sheer life.

Eventually I reached Beck Head where the clouds had now descended requiring that I got out my compass in order to enable me to find the path on the other side of the pass around the side of Kirk Fell to Black Sail Pass. I had taken this path the year before on my way to Black Sail Hut and I took it again the day after and I have taken it several times since. In fact, I think I may have walked along this path more times than I have walked over the top of the fell that this path circumnavigates, Kirk Fell. This is even more surprising given how indistinct the path is, not only at the start near Beck Head, but for much of the route. The only place where the path is clear is where Sail Beck is crossed in a steep ravine and after that point on this occasion I left the path and descended to the bridlepath all the way down to the Black Sail Youth Hostel. This was a truly great walk over some great fells, but most significantly on some truly astonishing paths.