Great Gable Round from Honister Hause
Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:02 pm
Hello everyone, a very early start yesterday as with hubby we set off for the Lakes, our base was to be the National Trust Car Park at Honister Slate Mine. We set off on our walk at 8.00am and ascended the old tram way.
We climbed on this pathway until we reached the old drum house. We turned left at the drum house and walked due south, it was quite a nice morning and some great views were opening up towards Buttermere. The views got better but we knew the weather was coming in. We continued along Moses Trod and got our first views of Green and Great Gable with their heads in the clouds. We had decided to climb onto Gillercomb Head and then onto Green Gable. We were still getting some good views before the clouds dropped. We reached Green Gable summit and suddenly teams of folk appeared as there was a two day event happening, some of the members seemed a little ill equipped but the army boys complete with shorts ran past We could see Great Gable quite well from the top of Green Gable, at the moment. Descended down to Windy Gap before the very steep climb to Great Gable. It now started to close in a little and drizzle slightly, there were some views at first but it then became an almost white out, it was a struggle to see more than 15 metres. After descending the same very steep way and back to Green Gable it was very difficult to spot our return to Brandreth and after some time consulting map and Satmap plus a quick glimpse through a cloudbreak when we saw Sourmilk Gill and Base Brown, we reached Brandreth summit. Then it was on to Grey Knotts and although it was still the 700m level the cloud base was above us. Now it was a matter of descending down back to the drum house, we had decided against taking the steep descent back direct to the car park. It was a shame that the weather closed in on us but it was still an enjoyable walk as are all those in the Lakes, at least the rain more or less kept away. Take care all of you and thanks for reading and the comments, see you soon