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A hard but very rewarding day in the Lakes.

PostPosted: Tue May 07, 2019 8:21 pm
by martin.h
We've been on a mission of late, wanting to finish the Wainwrights together on the same mountain has involved a fair bit of catching up for Denise, when we decided to have a go at doing all 214 we had to get Denise on an even keel with me which meant, at the time, she needed 67 "catch ups" so I've been planning days out that included catch ups for Denise and new ones for us both.

This trip out would gain Denise 3 catch ups, Base Brown, Green Gable and Glaramara and two new ones for us both, Seathwaite Fell and Rosthwaite Fell. It looked a fairly big day on the map, in reality it was but the reward was well worth the effort, this is how we got on :D

We parked up in the N.T car park in Seatoller meaning we had the walk into Seathwaite at the start of the day on fresh legs as opposed to at the end when the legs were about to give up the ghost :lol: we were off for 08:15 for the mile walk to Seathwaite, it was a bright morning, lovely spring colours all around and new lambs in the fields.

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Through the farm buildings and then up alongside Sourmilk Gill. This is a steep pull up to start the day but height is gained quickly and the mind is taken off the effort with the great views of the mountains around, Borrowdale and the waterfalls in the Gill.

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Action shot
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As we got to the start of Gillercomb we chose to ascend Base Brown by the Hanging Stone route, this is a direct and interesting way up, from below it looks a bit daunting but once above the massive fallen boulder there's a path that threads its way around the crags and it gives spectacular airy views of Borrowdale.

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Looking up to the hanging stone you can see how aptly its named :wink:

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Once above the crags it's a straight forward walk up to the summit of Base Brown and on the top we could see most of our intended route,

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Views from BB

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Photos taken and then we were off to Green Gable.

Green Gable from Base Brown is just a steady pull up and the distance between the two is soon covered, on the top of Green Gable the views were ok.

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The cloud had started to cover the higher tops and we had a hail shower so my summit photo session was brief, this was short lived though, by the time we'd arrived in Wind Gap it had stopped and it became a lot brighter as we went down Aaron Slack, by the time we'd arrived at Styhead Tarn it was nice enough to sit down and have a munch.

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Aaron Slack, the photo doesn't do it justice, its much steeper than it looks here.
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Great End from Styhead Tarn.
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Lingmell, tomorrows target.
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From the tarn we did a rising traverse up to the summit of Seathwaite Fell, it looked steep and, in parts, it was but with about 150m of ascent it was soon over with and we were on our third Wainwright of the day.

Approaching the summit
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Aaron Slack, a better view.
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Summit Denise
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Base Brown from Seathwaite Fell
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I knew the 601m top on Seathwaite fell was the wainwright but on the way over to Sprinkling Tarn we did the higher tops as well, just in case :wink:

Great End and Seathwaites other tops
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We had lunch by Sprinkling Tarn and had a good rest before setting off to Allen Crags.

Seathwaite Fell in the sun from our lunch spot.
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As we got closer to Allen Crags I saw an alternative way of gaining the path to Glaramara and went off piste traversing below Allen Crags, we'd done this Wainwright so it saved a bit of time. On gaining the path we could see Glaramara, it looked a heck of a long way off so it was a case of heads down and gerron' with it :lol:

By now the legs were feeling the effects of the rough terrain, once on Glaramara's summit we could make out Rosthwaite Cam, knowing Bessyboot was behind the cam and a bit further on it felt like we may not have the legs to do it so we had a longer break on Glaramara to refuel and appreciate the views, it was now decision time, shall we go for it? of course we will, we're up here now so we might as well continue so off we went.

Glaramara summit Denise.
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Summit Views, Base Brown, Green Gable & Great Gable
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Bow Fell, Esk Pike etc.
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Glaramara pano
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Langdale Pikes.
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The descent from Glaramara towards Comb Head involves a bit of a tricky down climb :shock: which was no problem as it turned out, on tired legs it looked worse than it was and for the first time in ages we doubted our ability :roll:

Once down it was off to Bessyboot.

Rosthwaite Fell is a series of ups and downs and quite tiring, we went on to Rosthwaite Cam on the way to Tarn at Leaves and saw our final Wainwright just a wee bit further on and, to be honest, it looked bigger than all that had gone before, it was only a short hop but, crikey, it felt a whole lot further, we took our time and arrived on Bessyboot, a bit weary but happy we'd done what we'd set out to do.

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After more munchies and a couple of photies we set off on the descent to Combe Gill so we backtracked to Tarn at Leaves and took the path from there, we lost the path about halfway down so headed for the sheepfold we could see from above, found the path again and this led us to the sheepfold, we crossed Combe Gill here and picked up the path coming from Glaramara. From here we followed it back down to the road and then back to Seatoller.

Springtime in Borrowdale.
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This was a great day out, I knew it was going to be long one but it did all the fells we had left in the area in one go, I suppose when the ultimate goal gets closer the sense of urgency becomes greater.

Nearly there now, excellent :D

Re: A hard but very rewarding day in the Lakes.

PostPosted: Tue May 07, 2019 10:42 pm
by dav2930
That looked a great day out indeed, and a tough round of gnarly fells! Rosthwaite Fell is especially tortuous and must have been tiring near the end of a long day. Well worth it, though, as you say. Borrowdale is very beautiful at this time of year. Good luck with the few remaining Wainy's. :)

Re: A hard but very rewarding day in the Lakes.

PostPosted: Wed May 08, 2019 9:10 am
by martin.h
dav2930 wrote:That looked a great day out indeed, and a tough round of gnarly fells! Rosthwaite Fell is especially tortuous and must have been tiring near the end of a long day. Well worth it, though, as you say. Borrowdale is very beautiful at this time of year. Good luck with the few remaining Wainy's. :)


Thanks Dave,
It's Buttermere next, Red Pike, High Stile and High Crag, this will bring Denise right up to date with me, then the same two to finish, fingers crossed :D
Cheers.

Re: A hard but very rewarding day in the Lakes.

PostPosted: Wed May 08, 2019 9:52 am
by prog99
martin.h wrote:
dav2930 wrote:That looked a great day out indeed, and a tough round of gnarly fells! Rosthwaite Fell is especially tortuous and must have been tiring near the end of a long day. Well worth it, though, as you say. Borrowdale is very beautiful at this time of year. Good luck with the few remaining Wainy's. :)


Thanks Dave,
It's Buttermere next, Red Pike, High Stile and High Crag, this will bring Denise right up to date with me, then the same two to finish, fingers crossed :D
Cheers.

Thats a great ridge walk.

We were across the valley from you on sunday climbing on gillercombe buttress, think I sw you as some point in the distance. Glaramara feels like Knoydart with its lumps and bumps.

Re: A hard but very rewarding day in the Lakes.

PostPosted: Wed May 08, 2019 11:13 am
by martin.h
prog99 wrote:Thats a great ridge walk.We were across the valley from you on sunday climbing on gillercombe buttress, think I sw you as some point in the distance. Glaramara feels like Knoydart with its lumps and bumps


Hi prog99
We could hear some shouting from across Gillercomb in your direction, we saw some folk calling a dog away from the edge above, I was wondering of anybody was climbing, if stones are dislodged it could make it a bit uncomfortable for people below :shock: :(
We are toying with the idea of doing the Knoydart munros this year, still researching and looking at the map for wild camp options, hoping for two good weather days to absorb the stunning views I've read about :D
Cheers.

Re: A hard but very rewarding day in the Lakes.

PostPosted: Fri May 10, 2019 10:39 am
by trailmasher
A nice biggie there MH and D and a great walk done in a most beautiful part of the LD :clap: The route from Glaramara to Bessyboot is undoubtedly tiring over lumpy, humpy terrain especially after a fair walk beforehand :roll: but hey, you did it in good style 8) so well done on another catch up and nearer to your final goal :clap:

Re: A hard but very rewarding day in the Lakes.

PostPosted: Fri May 10, 2019 3:45 pm
by Sgurr
A big day. We need some of them, but doubt if we will be doing them in such a long walk. My Wainwright map looked very strange to start with, as unlike people who work methodically through AW's books, we had already picked off all the Marilyns and only done the others if we walked over them to get there. However, this is the only list that we have walked entirely together, with Munros (R had done 240 when I started) Corbetts, Grahams and even Marilyns leaving many catch ups. I had one great Marilyn catchup that R had walked through a forest 6 miles each way to do, and DIDN'T fancy doing it again, when a friend took a look at my Marilyn map and noticed that he was contracted to work on the pylons near by making paths to the foot of each with his digger. He drove down the rough track in the banger the company gave him to get to digger and picked me up at lunch, taking me back at close of day....pity Denise doesn't have such an easy way of catching up.

Re: A hard but very rewarding day in the Lakes.

PostPosted: Sun May 12, 2019 11:19 am
by martin.h
trailmasher wrote:A nice biggie there MH and D and a great walk done in a most beautiful part of the LD :clap: The route from Glaramara to Bessyboot is undoubtedly tiring over lumpy, humpy terrain especially after a fair walk beforehand :roll: but hey, you did it in good style 8) so well done on another catch up and nearer to your final goal :clap:


Hi trailmasher
Yes, I can remember getting to the top of the first hilly outcrop thinking we were on the Cam, I thought the walk over was shorter than expected, it was a bit deflating when I realised we were on the wrong side of Great Hollow and that the next outcrop across the hollow was the Cam, I started thinking "will this ever end" :roll: :lol:
Next time we're up there we'll take our time and explore a bit more, I quite liked the lumps and bumps and the little Tarns.
Cheers


Sgurr wrote:A big day. We need some of them, but doubt if we will be doing them in such a long walk. My Wainwright map looked very strange to start with, as unlike people who work methodically through AW's books, we had already picked off all the Marilyns and only done the others if we walked over them to get there. However, this is the only list that we have walked entirely together, with Munros (R had done 240 when I started) Corbetts, Grahams and even Marilyns leaving many catch ups. I had one great Marilyn catchup that R had walked through a forest 6 miles each way to do, and DIDN'T fancy doing it again, when a friend took a look at my Marilyn map and noticed that he was contracted to work on the pylons near by making paths to the foot of each with his digger. He drove down the rough track in the banger the company gave him to get to digger and picked me up at lunch, taking me back at close of day....pity Denise doesn't have such an easy way of catching up.



Hi Sgurr

Its been an interesting journey for us both, most of the catch ups were the hills frequently visited or had established ways up, planning some of these days out to tick off more than one or two took us off the beaten track so we managed to find the quieter parts of the hills, its been very enjoyable. Denise has 9 Munros to catch up and most of those are in and around Glen Coe so shouldn't take too much planning, now, there's a place to immerse yourself :D :lol:

Looking at what you two have been doing over the years I bet you've found many quiet and interesting places to enjoy.

All the best.

Re: A hard but very rewarding day in the Lakes.

PostPosted: Fri May 17, 2019 8:21 am
by johnkaysleftleg
I can appreciate that being a tough day, the Glaramara ridge just goes on and on (as well as up and down) for what seems like forever so combining that with others is always going to take it out of you. Still it's a great ridge and with the end now so close what better motivation for pushing the extra mile.

Re: A hard but very rewarding day in the Lakes.

PostPosted: Fri May 17, 2019 7:20 pm
by martin.h
johnkaysleftleg wrote:I can appreciate that being a tough day, the Glaramara ridge just goes on and on (as well as up and down) for what seems like forever so combining that with others is always going to take it out of you. Still it's a great ridge and with the end now so close what better motivation for pushing the extra mile.


Hi Anthony,
Yes, we're getting there, it seems to be becoming more and more of an obsession, nothing else seems to matter now, except the Wainwrights, it's very enjoyable :D :lol: