It all started with a missed call at 3:30pm and a message from my brother Gary saying “Sorry I’m going to be a bit late”. He then arrived at 7:30pm. I’d taken the day off to relax and was chomping at the bit to just get going. I got some food into him and we then proceeded to the YHA at Derwentwater, arriving at midnight, sorry if we disturbed anyone in the shared room.
I was awoken at 7:30am by Gary who seemed a little excited, he said he’d been awake since 6am, WHAT!! It was straight downstairs and a full breakfast for me with extra rounds of toast, washed down with a few croissants and a couple of glasses of fruit juice.
We got ready and out to the car, we were greeted by fresh winds, (I would say other words but this is going onto the website.)
We arrived at Seathwaite ready to attack Englands highest, Scafell Pike. Well, we said we’d give it a go, the weather looked the worst we’d seen with strong winds and heavy looking black clouds. Armed with some tasty treats and crampons we set off.
We decided to take the easy route, no scrambling today. So we headed up past Taylorgill Force, then following Sty Head Gill. The wind wasn’t letting up and we were happily leaning into the wind when we realised we were the first to set off along this route this morning. fresh snow overnight had created a white blanket.
We were overtaken by a small group just as we were passing Sty Head Tarn, they proceeded past the Mountain Rescue Post, here we checked the map and headed towards Skew Gill, the clouds were high enough that we could make out the route we were planning to take, along corridor route. We were just passing the top of Grainy Gill when the group that had passed us earlier proceeded past us for the second time.
The wind still wasn’t letting up but we were lucky the clouds hadn’t opened up. As we came past the top of Piers Gill the wind died down, the clouds came down, it went ‘pea soup’. The group that had overtaken us earlier proceeded past us for the second time.
Before Pikes Crag we headed up, it was getting steeper, the snow was getting deeper. We then allowed a mixed group to pass us, going the opposite way, they were on there way down, they girls were screaming due to the fact they kept on slipping down in the snow.
We duly arrived at the Summit and were greeted by the group that had passed us twice. We could just make out the sun through the clouds. A bite to eat and a few photos and we headed off towards Great End via Broad Crag. Just as we were passing Broad Crag the sun came out and we got a view back to Scafell Pike, this made it all the better considering the grim start.
As we proceeded onto Great End the weather we had known for most of the day returned, although the clouds came down it didn’t bother us, we marched on chatting away.
Mmm I realised, were we supposed to head down towards Sprinkling Tarn about now, as we had been busy chatting I had forgotten to keep an eye on our route, have we gone to far I asked myself, is this where we head down?
After walking around and checking a few features, I was still unsure, I felt reluctant to ask the group of people that were passing. Wanting to work it out myself, we decided on the ‘lets follow the stream as it always goes down hill’. Sure enough it worked, after walking for a while we were able to make out the features necessary to work out where we were. Lesson learnt ‘dont get to wrapped up in chatting that you forget where you are’
We’d located ourselves just above Sprinkling Tarn, so we headed down and onto Styhead Pass.
From here we headed down back along our earlier route passing Taylorgill Force and onto Seathwaite.
All in all a good day out hiking, 8 hours from start to finish. Back at the Hostel we enjoyed a few beers and some food, followed by an early night.
Sunday was an early start again with a full breakfast followed by a short 2 hour, hike. From the Hostel we headed up and over Walla Crag to get some great views of Derwentwater. The wind had died down, the snow was clearing and the clouds were higher up. Once over the top I spotted a small path and headed back along the face of Walla Crag, the path hadn’t been used for some time, there were fallen trees across it and plenty of sliding due to the moss.
We duly arrived back at the hostel, grabbed our sandwiches and headed home.
Kent
Sounds like a great couple of days. How many Munros have you done new?
Great account of your trip. Cool pictures too – shows how tough the conditions were. Really like the stretcher box ones!
Glad I found this – going to have a look for more of your tales