WASTWATER VISIT

Wednesday 14/04/2010. After a good day at the lodge with Joy I am setting off this morning to tackle the two Birkett routes on the Screes side of Wastwater which comprise the tops of Illgill Head, Whin Rigg above Wastwater's gloomy depths and Irton Fell and Great Bank lying south of Whin Rigg. In addition I will be starting off with an ascent of the Eskdale Fell tops, that one plus it's outlier Whinscales and the low but appealing Boat How lying at the southern end of Burnmoor Tarn. I get a bus down Borrowdale to it's terminus at Seatoller and from there walk the one-and-a-half miles down the quiet lane leading to it's terminus at the National Trust's Seathwaite Farm. Surveyors were out with their instruments on the approach to the farm measuring up for something with activity on both sides of the road, perhaps Seathwaite is going to get a proper car park - the current arrangements of paking on hard standing by the road while a lot better than the way things used to be are still less than satisfactory, so we shall see what transpires. I have a ten mile walk in to Wasdale by way of the Sty Head pass to gain Mose's Trod over the col and down to one of my favourite valleys in the lakes - Wasdale. I made good time to the tarn, passing a few parties who seemed in the main bound for the corridor route to Scawfell. As I am not intending to tackle my Birkett summits till tomorrow my concern for today is to complete the walk-in and find a decent camping spot and be "in situ" for an early start tomorrow morning, I intend to string the two Birkett-routes together and do them as a single day-long walk, and depending on time will probably need to spend another night on the fells on my return journey. As I was making a good pace; when I reached the junction where the Mose's Trod path and the Sty Head ascent route to Great Gable meet, I decided to have a bit of a proper climb and take the high level route to Wasdale by way of the summit ofGreat Gable. I have not previously climbed this large but beautifully formed mountain from Sty Head so this will be a new ascent route and as I'll be returning via Moses Trod - not having traversed it before - two new routes will be bagged. The climb to Great Gable's rocky summit is direct and steep but pretty straight-forward. I passed a few climbers making their way down from the summit and learned that the weather was poor on top, but ever the optimist I'm hoping it will improve before I get there. Unfortunately this turned out to be a forlorn aspiration, it was cold windy and cloud-fast when I sat down by the memorial to the members of the Fell & Rock Climbing Club who lost their lives in the First world War. On armistice day a memorial service is held here (I have attended, in fact I think the last time I was on Great Gable was for the memorial service in 2007) it's a quite moving experience, especially if the clouds are not down as low as they are today.

From here I descended into Wasdale by way of Great Hell Gate a terrific scree run which must be about 2000' in length down to the valley floor, great stuff and another first for me on Great Gable. I passed through Wasdale by the back door of the Wasdale Inn only just managing to resist the temptation of callling in. Soon I was heading up the drive to Brackenclose the F&R's local climbing hut and taking the track south and up towards Eskdale Fell with the great mass of Illgill Head on my right hand side blocking out any view of Wastwater. The sun is back with a vengeance designed to infuriate as it popped out of the cloud as soon as I came off Great Gable into the valley ! Never mind it is very welcome and gave me a wonderful end to my day as I climbed over the col and dropped down to Burnmoor Tarn and pitched my tent by the side of the tarn, see my picture, for a great night's wild camping. Ideally positioned for a successful days climbing tomorrow morning.