Base Brown
Base Brown in the Western Lake District Fells
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Great Gable from Seathwaite
A more diverse day its hard imagine, with smiles all round and a new route record to boot. Whats more I got to try out my new over-trousers, sort of, and at least from a breath-ability perspective I am more than satisfied. Thanks Haglofs.
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Great Gable from Seathwaite
A windy, warm and sunny Easter Sunday climbing Great Gable from Seathwaite with some beautiful panoramic views of the Lake District.
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Great Gable from Seathwaite
A good day today climbing Great Gable form Seathwaite, cloud on the tops but some good views as we descended by Base Brown and Gillercombe to Seathwaite
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Great Gable from Seathwaite
A wonderful day climbing Great Gable from Seathwaite with some great views throughout the day. A little cooler than the last few days with a slight breeze on the tops
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Great Gable
A great days guided walking climbing Great Gable from Honister by Grey Knotts, Brandreth and Green Gable before descending over Base Brown to Seathwaite.
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Great Gable from Seathwaite
We left Seathwaite and took the path up to Talyorgill Force, which was flowing well. From here we followed the stream path up to Sty Head.
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Great Gable
A great walk up Great Gable from Seathwaite taking in the summits of Green Gable and Base Brown along the way.
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Great Gable from Seathwaite
A wonderful day today climbing Great Gable from Seathwaite.
We set off from Seathwaite a little after 10am and climbed by the Taylorgill Force path and up to Sty Head alongside Styhead Gill.
As we approached the stretcher box at Sty Head we met the crowds descending from today's remembrance service on Great Gable. It felt a little like we were fighting against the tide as we climbed the path from Sty Head to the summit of Great Gable.
As we reached the summit of Great Gable all was quiet, all the crowds had now left and we had the summit almost to ourselves. We dropped down to the Westmoorland Cairn to eat our lunches with one of the best views in the Lake District in front of us.
After lunch we again crossed the summit before descending north, dropping down to the remarkably still Wind Gap and climbing again to the summit of Green Gable.
After a short break on Green Gable to admire the wonderful views we were off again, descending north to Blackmoor Potts and then up to the summit of Base Brown.
We descended north down the steep northern shoulder of Base Brown to meet the better defined path below as it descended alongside Sour Milk Gill and back to Seathwaite.
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Great Gable from Seathwaite
A fantasitc clear day climbing Great Gable from Seathwaite today.
Starting from Seathwaite Farm we followed the good track to the Stockley Bridge, from which we climbed by Taylorgill Force. The weather forecast had stated there would be '10% chance of cloud free summits', however at this time the cloud was clearing and the sun was even beaming through from time to time. After about an hour and a half we were standing at Styhead Pass. We stopped for a brief snack stop here before starting our ascent up the eastern flank of Great Gable.
This track has a good path, but it has many false summits which is always fun when climbing mountains! Everyone climbed well and when we got to the summit we were rewarded with amazing views in all directions. We stopped just off of the summit out of the wind and enjoyed our lunches with amazing views over Wastwater, and over towards the Scafell Massif.
We descended from the summit across the boulders into Windy Gap, from which a short climb brought us up onto the summit of Green Gable. We stopped just for a few minutes to admire Gable Crag and the view down over Haystacks. We continued to the north and up to the summi of Base Brown. We retraced our steps a little way and descended into Gillercomb on a good track, which we followed back down past the lovely Sourmilk Gill and back to the farm.
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Threading the Needle, Sphinx Ridge and Pinnacle Ridge
With my friend up, a few days off and the nice break in the weather continuing, we thought today would be a great day for some scrambling! We set off from Seathwaite and made our way up to Styhead Pass. We took the start of the climbers path that traverses across the amazing Southern face of Great Gable. We made our way across the boulders following the track towards the Napes. Soon enough we were staring up at Napes Needle, but we stopped here for a spot of lunch and admired the clear views over Wastwater and over to the Scafells. 'Threading the Needle' is to scramble around the back of the Needle, which is easier said than done, but still great fun all the same! The right hand side is a steep chimney which tests your climbing ability, but with a bit of shimmying and twisting we were standing behind the Needle. To complete the thread we had to down climb the left hand side, which is a steep polished section, and after a few careful foot placements we had done it. This was a great start to the scrambling, and now we were to follow the Climbers Traverse to the start of Sphinx Ridge. The Sphinx Ridge has the aptly named Sphinx Rock at its base, so the start of the ridge is easy to find. The ridge starts up a gully but soon enough you emerge onto the crest of the ridge for some fantastic scrambling. At the top of the scramble all the Napes Ridges merge into one grassy bank, which gives it a great Alpine Feel (but no snow! :( ) In front of us we now have the Westmorland Crag, which holds Pinnacle Ridge. A very short descent down some scree leads to the base of this Ridge. The scramble starts with some steps and then goes past the pinnacles. It finishes with easy rocks which turn into a path that then leads to the summit. We enjoyed the view from the summit and then descended over Green Gable and round Base Brown back to Seathwaite.
This was a fantastic day of scrambling, and one of the many routes we will be offering in 2012 on our scrambling days.
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Great Gable from Seathwaite
Wow! What a great day!
I met Rob and Elena at Seathwaite Farm this morning, and the weather was looking absolutely fantastic. I decided to mix it up a little bit this morning (for a few various reasons) and reversed the route. We climbed the steep path straight out of the Farm up past Sour Milk Gill, and the Waterfalls making our way towards Base Brown. Instead of following the well established track that skirts around Base Brown alongside Grey Knotts we made our way off the track up towards the Hanging Stone. After making our way around the face of Base Brown we reached its summit. This is an interesting place to look back on where you have come, as horizontally we have only travelled about 400m, but we had climbed a massive 646m vertically. We could now see our next two summits, Green Gable and Great Gable. We climbed some more to the summit of the lesser Gable but got some fantastic views over towards Pillar Rock, down Ennerdale and also down into Buttermere. We descended into Windy Gap and then picked our way across the boulderfield to the summit of Great Gable. From here we got amazing views over Wastwater and also the Scafells. As we had made good time to the summit of Gt. Gable we chose to descend to Beckhead instead of Styhead Tarn. After a short lunch stop at Beckhead we decided to take the climbers traverse across the front of Gable to Styhead Tarn. After a bit of fun on the climbers traverse we were at Styhead Tarn, and now just had the easy descent back to to Seathwaite Farm. An excellent day walking on a great route with great weather! Written by Matt Burt
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The Great Gable Traverse
A spectacular day on The Great Gable Traverse today.
From Seathwaite we climbed by the Taylorgill Force path to Sty Head and onto the climbers traverse path on the southern flank of Great Gable.
We had some gret views as we passed Kern Knotts and climbed towards Great Napes across Great Hell Gate. We climbed up onto the Dress Circle to get the best view of Napes Needle and wathed a couple of climbers on the first pitch of needle ridge before following the scramble to our left crossing the high level traverse to get a oodview of the Sphinx Rock before scrambling back down to the path.
We crossed Little Hell Gate and picked a route up over White Napes an climbed up the side of Westmorland Crag to the Westmorland Cairn where we stopped for our lunch.
After lunch we climbed the short distance to the summit before descending north towards Green Gable, as we descended towards Windy Gap we passed a group with an injured member, but Mountain Rescue was on their way and no help was so we carried on descending to Windy Gap.
At windy Gap the RAF Sea King Helicopter passed over our heads and as we climbed to Green Gable hovered just over our heads, we watched for a few minutes then carried on descending the path towards Base Brown and down into Gillercombe and dropped down to Seathwaite on the path next to Sour Milk Gill.
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Great Gable
A very mixed day on Great Gable today, low cloud and drizzle on the way up, great views from the summit and a storm on the way down.
We set off from Seathwaite at 10am taking the Stockley Bridge path to Sty Head, other than the odd light shower the weather was good until we reached the Stretcher Box but as we turned up onto the Great Gable path the cloud blew over the pass and a light drizzle started, this continued until we reached the summit, although there were odd bright patches in the cloud and the rain had eased a little by this time, so we descended a little to the Westmorland Cairn where we stopped for our sandwiches.
As we ate our lunch the clouds parted giving us a wonderful view over Wasdale and Wast Water and as we re-climbed the short slope to the summit we also had views as far as Windermere and the Langdale Pikes and down into Ennerdale and Buttermere.
There was however a very dark cloud now moving towards us along the Wasdale Valley, so we pressed on, descending the steep rocky path to Windy Gap and climbing the short path to Green Gable. As we descended Green Gable the cloud caught us up and the rain started to fall again, light at first but by the time we were down into Gillercombe it was heavy.
The stream above Sour Milk Gill had burst it's bank and there was plenty of water flowing down the path, but we pressed on taking our time as we descended alongside the impressive waterfalls of Sour Milk Gill and descended back to Seathwaite, a little wet but having enjoyed a great day on the fells.
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The Great Gable Traverse
Another great day on the fells, today climbing Great Gable by the Climbers Traverse taking in the summit of Great Gable, Green Gable and Base Brown
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