Walk 07/2008 – Easter in Wasdale

Saturday 22nd March 2008

Today had a special celebration as it was Mei Sim’s 13th birthday and she spent the day with Debs, but they did do some walking.

For the first main walk of the weekend the rest of us broke into 2 separate walking groups, the advanced and newly formed “duffers” group.

Duffers walk

We ascended up Irton Fell and then plateaued [Ed – is this a technical term?] through pretty forest areas for some time before taking our coffee break in the shelter of trees and a rock. As we relaxed, we engaged in interesting chats with a passing group of adolescents doing their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. Alan later greatly amused us all by highlighting that he had now fully joined the exclusive walking club ‘lippie holder club’ and showed us his black silk designer version acquired from his Christmas cracker. After coffee, we passed through several farmyards and farmlands viewing some new-born lambs, very apt for the Easter break. Unfortunately as we passed through one of the farms a very cute black puppy reminiscent of “Spit the Dog” came to greet us with his accompanying dog friends, however his cuteness rapidly turned into a Mr Hyde as he skirted round Barbara to give her ankle a significant nip! First aid was applied and then we were back on route across more boggy moorland before passing over a ridge to Barnmoor Tarn where we lunched by a tree.

We basked in some temporary sunshine over our lunch break taking in the delightful views of Scarfell and of the enchanting shepherd’s croft to our left. As we commenced the post lunch walking the sudden arrival of a heavy hailstorm prompted Mr ‘Supercool’ Alan to wear his goggles [Ed – well it was as well one of us could see where we were going]. Our walk took steeper ascending up to Illgill Head and then along the rocky ridge looking down over our hostel.

Click here to see a video clip taken from Illgill Head. I suggest you only try this if you have a broadband connection.

The walk was 14 miles with approx. 800 metres of total ascent. The weather was very unpredictable with brilliant blue skies and sunshine and with the punctuation of a number of strong gales/gusts and hailstorms. The temperature felt very cold with a wind chill of minus 16 degrees. [Ed – no Cathy; minus 16 was on the top of Great Gable at 900m, which was where the other group went. It was much warmer at our highest point of 600m. Pro rater, you would have needed 10 or 11 layers had you gone up Great Gable!]

That night we relaxed by the cracking log fire before being served our welcome meal and celebrating Mei Sim’s birthday with chocolate birthday cake. The staff at the hostel managed to find thirteen candles to traditionalise proceedings.

Report – Cathy

Advanced walk

10 club members decided they were up for the challenge of climbing Great Gable which formed part of an 8.5 mile walk setting off from The National Trust car park near the Wasdale Head Inn. The walk took us up Black Sail Pass, Kirk Fell and Great Gable and down Sty Head Pass with approx 1000m of climbing.

The main feature of the day was the weather which constantly changed from sunshine, cloudy, mist, snow, sleet and very painful hail! Two consistent factors were the very strong winds and extremely cold temperature. For lunch we huddled in a cairn on the top of Kirk Fell and discovered the water in our drinking bottles was beginning to freeze. No one ate very much – only food which could be managed without taking gloves off was tackled.

At one point scrambling up the side of a rocky slope Mark’s hat blew off and across the hill. He thought it would never be seen again but Angela, who was nearest to it managed to scramble across and grab it before the next gust took it out of reach.

At times this walk was very hard work in pretty arduous weather conditions. However once we made it to the top of Great Gable we were rewarded with a clear sky, sunshine and a fantastic panorama of the Lake District. All around us we could see the snow capped hills of Scafell, Pillar, Hellvellyn and Skiddaw as well as Wast Water and Buttermere below us. The view was totally amazing and given the weather we were so lucky to see it like that it all it’s glory.

Most people were pretty tired after this walk and we had a couple of walking wounded in the form of a blister and a black toe nail. But everyone enjoyed the walk and we all had a great sense of achievement.

Report – Angela

Pictures – Alan, Simon and Stuart

We start to get some views as we get higher.

Miterdale

Burnmoor Tarn

This proved to be a nice sheltered spot for lunch.

Upper Wasdale.

It’s not really cold up here.

But the girls don’t look that warm.

More strange ice formations.

You can just see the hostel on the edge of the lake.

The main group set off for Great Gable.

Looks like finding shelter was difficult.

Don’t stop too long you might freeze to the spot with that wind chill of –16.

Great Gable – shame there‘s a bit of dip between there and here.

Are you serious?

The views are quite good though.