Out in the hills at last, four Wainwrights from Sadgill.

[martin.h]

Time flies, the weather misbehaves, work and life in general all seem to be excuses as to why we hadn't been out these last six weeks so something just had to be done to break the mindset and, with a favourable forecast this weekend for a change, we decided to visit the Lake district and start our year with a walk I'd been keen to do in the far eastern fells.
Denise and I were joined by our youngest, Richard, and with him volunteering to be the driver this was another incentive to get into the fresh air.

Sadgill was our destination and is basically a farm and a bridge at the end of a narrow road along Longsleddale, there is parking for about ten carefully placed cars where the tarmac ends at the bridge and the track over Gatescarth Pass begins.

P3161847 by Martin Hawer Sadgill, farm and bridge

Our intended hills were Branstree, Selside Pike, Tarn crag and Grey Crag leaving a steep descent at the end instead a steep ascent at the start, anything to lessen the impact of inactivity these past few weeks, I know I'm soft but it's an age thing (well, that's my excuse).

P3161843 by Martin Hawer Ready for the off.

We start the walk on the track which is a nice steady gradient to begin with, just right for getting the legs used to walking on rough ground again.

P3161844 by Martin Hawer The way ahead, the weather looked promising at this point.

P3161845 by Martin Hawer Great Howe.

P3161846 by Martin Hawer Looking towards the Gatescarth pass.

This we followed all the way to the head of Gatescarth pass. The sky was cloudy in parts but the sun was shining, it was cold and dry, just right for blowing the cobwebs away and the tops had snow on them. The hills were attracting the cloud which was a shame and as we were getting closer to the head of the pass the hope that they'd get above the tops was fading.

Higher up the pass, we walked above the snow line, by the time we'd got to the point where we left the track for Branstree there was a reasonable amount of snow and the cloud was still bothering the tops with not much hope of it clearing.
P3161848 by Martin Hawer At the top of the pass.

There's a fence to follow from this point which is handy as it stays with you more or less the whole trip, it was helpful in the mist but that said you do leave it in parts but its never hard to pick up again.

P3161849 by Martin Hawer Our friend the fence.

The pull up to Brantree summit is a plod over grass (or snow in our case) never steep just a wee bit monotonous as there were no views by now, the summit is a short step away from the fence but you can see the cairn even in the mist.
P3161850 by Martin Hawer The little summit cairn, small considering Branstree is the highest of our four fells to-day.

P3161851 by Martin Hawer Denise on the summit.

P3161853 by Martin Hawer and joined by Richard.

From here we set off for Selside Pike, you leave the fence for a while to pass two tall and well made cairns,

P3161857 by Martin Hawer One of the cairns.

beyond these we joined the fence again and this is what we used to get to Selside Pike and once there we stopped for a quick bite and photo's and were off again because the wind was a bit raw to be still for too long.
P3161855 by Martin Hawer Two on Selside Pike.

P3161856 by Martin Hawer Our fence taking us back to Branstree.

We went back to Branstree in order not to loose too much height
P3161858 by Martin Hawer Richard on his way to Branstree for the second time today.

We then set off for Tarn Crag which involves a 180m drop into a very boggy coll where the path up Mosedale goes over to meet the Gatescarth Pass track, none of it was frozen so bog hopping was the order of the day, still following the fence which itself is following a boundery line we went up the other side to Tarn Crag which is a 150m pull over peat hags and then good ground.
Still in cloud on the summit, the views were in the imagination only, ah well, at least we're out.

P3161860 by Martin Hawer Two looking a bit fed up with the weather on Tarn Crag.

Grey Crag was next so it was back to the fence, we followed it to the point it changes direction towards Harrop Pike which we decided not to bother with and turned right to Grey Crag. As we were getting to the summit the cloud started to thin so we started to get some views, just typical, right at the end and, as we were leaving the summit, the cloud released the views, not extensive but we did manage something.

P3161863 by Martin Hawer, Grey Crag Cairn, weather looking brighter.

P3161864 by Martin Hawer Views, well, sort of.

P3161866 by Martin Hawer, towards Kentmere Pike and Harter Fell.

P3161869 by Martin Hawer Shipman Knotts.

The descent goes over Great Howe and then down Easy Gully which is pretty steep and hard on the knees, the path down leads you onto the Gatescarth Track a short distance from the car.
P3161870 by Martin Hawer, Richard nearing the track.

P3161871 by Martin Hawer, and now we're down the weather really improves.

P3161873 by Martin Hawer Towards Gatescarth, quite an impressive valley.

P3161875 by Martin Hawer, Looking the other direction to Sadgill bridge.

We had a great day, it was cold but it is winter after all, the cloud was a pain but so what?, it was just good to be out, all we've got to do now is get over the achey knees.

[ChrisW]

Great start to the year Martin, real shame about the weather closing in at the top....and bloody annoying that it always seems to clear up when you come down again I love those early shots

[trailmasher]

Good report and pics Martin despite the bad visibility and they depict just how bad it can get for the unprepared

[martin.h]

Great start to the year Martin, real shame about the weather closing in at the top....and bloody annoying that it always seems to clear up when you come down again I love those early shots

Thanks Chris, I guess most of the Lakes was like that this Saturday, it's just one of things, at least we're close enough to go back at short notice to have another go with better views.


Cheers.

Good report and pics Martin despite the bad visibility and they depict just how bad it can get for the unprepared

Thanks trailmasher, it does go to show you can't take any of the hills in GB with a pinch of salt, we've nearly come a cropper on the most benign of hills in the past, lets hope we can all get down safely from our future days out.
Cheers