Another great day on the fells, today climbing Great Gable by the Climbers Traverse.

We followed the path by Taylorgill Force to Sty Head before following the traverse path crossing the face of Great Gable below Kern Knotts and under Great Napes, taking in the great views of Napes Needle and Sphinx Rock above us.

We climbed up over White Napes to the top of Westmorland Crag stopping for our lunch at the Westmorland Cairn, by now in a little cloud. As we reached the summit after lunch the cloud cleared and gave us some great views on the way down by Base Brown and alongside a very dry Sour Milk Gill back to Seathwaite.

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.

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.

A near perfect day in the snow today, we set off from Buttermere just after 8am climbing by Sour Milk Gill onto the summit of Red Pike, a wonderful view over the Solway and out to the Isle Of Man with Ireland just visible beyond!

We followed the ridge east climbing to the summit of High Stile and then onto High Crag, descending the steep slope of Gamlin End and onto Haystacks.

The snow was quite deep in places and much of the usually boggy ground on the southern side of Haystacks was frozen over, progress on this ground was slow but we pressed on to climb to the summit of Brandreth and followed the ridge over Green Gable to climb to the summit of Great Gable, watching a snowboarder on theslopes of Green Gable and a paraglider above our heads on Great Gable. We had lost a lot of time between High Crag and Brandreth so it was decided not to climb Scafell Pike, the boulder fields on Broad Crag and Ill Crag would not much fun in the dark!

Instead we descended to Sty Head and followed the path to Sprinkling Tarn and onto the summit of Seathwaite Fell and then over the Allen Crags, here the sun set and we descended by Angle Tarn to Rossett Pike in the dark and down the Rossett Gill path to Mickledore and the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, for a well earned drink, arriving at the hotel at 7.50pm, 10 summits and a great day on the fells.

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

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.

A good day today climbing Great Gable from Wasdale Head.

We set off in persistent rain from Wasdale Head, but this soon cleared as we climbed the steep slopes towards Beck Head, from Beck Head we climbed the steep western flank of Great Gable entering the cloud as we neared the summit.

The wind was blowing quite strongly and we felt the full force of it as we climbed above Beck Head, it was being funneled through Windy Gap, but as we climbed above the level of Windy Gap it eased off a little.

There was very little to see from the summit, and after a short lunch stop behind the summit rocks we began to descend, deciding too drop down to Sty Head and follow the path back to Wasdale Head.

As we dropped down off the summit the clouds lifted giving us some wonderful views on our descent back to Wasdale Head.

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.

Day 4:

After a slightly later start than on previous mornings we set off from Wasdale Head just after 8am, our numbers slightly depleted, but with bad weather forecast for tonight our packs were a little lighter as we had decided it wise to spend the night at Honister Hause YHA instead of camping out in gale force winds and rain, this meant that we could walk the final two days with day packs!

We made good time climbing the steep southern end of Yewbarrow, reaching the top at about 10am and after a short photo stop on the summit we continued, dropping down over Stirrup Crag and climbing the long slope to the summit of Red Pike.

The ridge then lad us up towards Scoat Fell, we dropped our packs off behind a rock just short of the summit of Scoat Fell and crossed the top descnding to the wonderful summit of Steeple, returning over Scoat Fell to pick our bags up and continued crossing Black Crag and climbing to the summit of Pillar, stopping to eat our lunches in the wind shelter above Pillar Rock.

After lunch we continued, descending to Black Sail Pass where after a short detour to pick up some water we made good time scrambling up the steep slopes onto the summit plateau of Kirk Fell.

A slight detour from the main path took us around the lower eastern summit before we rejoined the main path and dropped down to Beck Head, by now the clouds were starting to build and we were wondering whether we would make it to the hostel before the rain started, but we reached the summit of Great Gable in good time and as we turned north it felt like we were on the home strait!

From the summit of Great Gable we estimated that we would reach Honister Pass at about 7pm, but we made good time crossing Green Gable, Brandreth and Grey Knotts and were walking through the front door of the hostel at 6.20! Just in time to order dinner at 7!

Day 5:

As we sat at breakfast at the Hostel watching the wind and rain outside the window we agreed that we had made a wise decision not to camp out last night, although none of us were looking forward to stepping out of the door into the rain this morning we knew that the hard work was done, and this final leg was the easiest of the five.

As we made the final preparations to leave the hostel though the rain and wind eased, and although there was still plenty of could hugging the fells we climbed the slope onto Dale Head in the dry!

From Dale Head we made good progress, crossing to the summit of Hindscarth and across to Robinson, with occasional glimpses of views down into the valleys on either side.

We descended north from Robinson over High Snab Bank and down by Newlands Church, opting to follow the lanes rather than the paths back to Keswick as the rain was now back. We made great time on this final leg arriving in Keswick in about 4 hours, having to wait for everyone else to meet us as we were much earlier than expected!

After a quick drink of champagne outside the Moot Hall and some photographs we retired to the Dog and Gun for a well deserved drink!

Well done to all participants over the week, especially Colin and Mark who competed all 5 days.

Another fantastic weekend of toughing it out on the 24 Peaks Challenge in 24 Hours.

On Saturday morning I met the group in Buttermere, and after a few minutes of finalising kit we were on our way (8.17am). The start of the challenge is not a kind one as we got straight into the climb by heading up the steep steps leading to Red Pike. We made great progress up this steep climb, despite intentionally taking it easier as to not burn out. After the final scramble we were on the summit of Red Pike after 1 hour and 20 minutes. There was a bit of mist on the Buttermere Fells but there was more over towards Great Gable where we would be heading later.

From Red Pike we followed the ridge and a short climb brought us up to summit number 2, High Stile. From High Stile another ridge walk brought us quickly onto summit 3, High Crag. With 3 summits in the bag within a couple of hours we now had a large descent to deal with. We descended the steep slope of Gamlin End before heading across Scarth Gap. From here we scrambled quickly up the slope to the summit of Haystacks, unfortunately not one of the 24 peaks!

We headed south from Haystacks past Inominate Tarn and weaved our way around the many tarns and outcrops before joining the track that climbs up to the Moses Trod Path. We joined this path for a short while before cutting off to hoin the northern slope of Green Gable. A short drag up into the mist brough us summit number 4, Green Gable. Great Gable soon followed as we headed across windy gap and up over the boulders to its windswept summit. We didnt linger long as we were planning on having Lunch at Styhead pass. We reached Styhead Pass after the knee crunching descent and the break was very well received!

After the break we were back on the ascent and we made our way up the Corridor Route to the summit of Lingmell. We were still climbing really well and focused on now reaching the highest summit in England. The group continued to climb well and after about 20 minutes we were on the summit of Scafell Pike. We were lucky enough to have some views so we took a moment to soak them up before heading onto our next peak. We crossed Broad Crag Col follwed by Broad Crag and Ill Crag before a short ascent brought us up to Great End. We continued with great pace across Esk Hause and summited Esk Pike shortly after. 9 down, 1 to go. We crossed Ore Gap and picked our way through the boulders and onto the summit of Bowfell.

With all of Day 1's peaks done we now just had to descend, and we had 1 hour 30 to get to the bottom to do it in 12 hours. We descended to the Three Tarns before turning east and joining The Band. We walked very quickly down the good path and we got to the bottom at about 12 hours exactly!

The alarm clock went off way too soon on Sunday morning, but we had some unfinished business to attend to, so out of bed we had to get! Unfortunately 3 of the 10 were unable to continue onto day 2 of the challenge.

After meeting in Ambleside at 7am we got our lift to the Kirkstone Pass, a great place to start the second day as its 350m above sea level. However, despite having a head start the first slope up Red Screes was by no means an easy one. We set off and the sun was already breaking through the patchwork of clouds, it was looking like a good day. We actually made amazing progress up this steep slope and we were on the summit after just 35 minutes.

We took a few minutes to have a breather on the summit, but then we made our way across the grassy slopes to Dove Crag. Hart Crag and Fairfield followed soon after. With just over 2 hours gone we were now on the toughest section of the day. We descended down the steep western side of Fairfield before climbing the very steep slope on the side of Seat Sandal. From this summit we had to descend straight away. Back in the col we chose to take the steep runners path up to the summit of Dollywagon Pike, this was hard work, but once again the group climbed well.

We were now onto the easier section of the walk and the summits would start to come much quicker. After Dollywagon Pike we took in Nethermost Pike, Helvellyn, White Side and Raise. We had just 3 summits left and we seemed to be walking better than ever. It had been windier across these last few summits, but the sun was starting to come out again. We cracked on to the Dodds, and we had soon taken in Stybarrow Dodd, Great Dodd and our final summit, Watson's Dodd. We had done it, all we had to do was descend down to the roadside.

We descended down the grassy slope towards Castle Rock, and after passing the rock face we had made it to the roadside. John met us at the bottom and produced some champagne to celebrate our success. We had managed to complete the second day in just 8 hours 20 minutes, brining our total time to 20 hours and 20 minutes! Well done Chaps!!

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.

A very cold day today climbing Green Gable from Honister Pass. Our original target had been Great Gable but today's difficult conditions meant that we had to turn back at Green Gable.

From Honister Pass we climbed the steep slopes of Grey Knotts, the path today was very wet, more like a stream than a path.

We were soon on the summit of Grey Knotts, although if it wasn't for the cairn you wouldn't know, we were now in thick cloud with terrible visibility!

From Grey Knotts we followed the ridge to the summit of Brandreth, here we saw the only other person we would see all day looking for the summit cairn.

From Brandreth we descended to Gillercombe Head and climbed the long drag up to the summit of Green Gable, the summit suddenly emerging out of the mist right in front of us.

After a short discussion on the summit of Green Gable it was decided not to attempt Great Gable but instead to descend back to Gillercombe Head and drop down onto the Moses Trod path and follow this back to Honister by the Drum House and Tramway, getting back to Honister just before sunset.

A very windy day today climbing Great Gable from Seathwaite.

We set off from Seathwaite at 10am and climbed to Sty Head Pass, turning off up the breast towards Great Gable, as we climbed higher the winds got stronger, although it was dry, as we passed the 2000ft mark we entered the cloud, and as we reached the summit it was pretty chilly in the wind. We stopped behind the summit rocks to eat our lunches before descending to Windy Gap, (there was less wind here today than anywhere else!) before climbing to the summit of Green Gable. The wind on the summit of Green Gable was stronger than Great Gable and we didn't stop long before descending down onto the Base Brown path, dropping down into Gillercombe and out of the wind then down by the side of Sour Milk Gill and back to Seathwaite.

Descending below the cloud towards Base Brown