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BB0714
Ease Gill to Great Coum
Thursday
3rd May 2007
“Something
less taxing” had been the request after last week’s
big one BB0713. For Philip, that meant golfing in Scotland.
Tony, on the other hand, was trying to drink Manchester
dry. Stan guaranteed a shorter day by announcing
he had to be back by half past four on pain of divorce.
Bryan’s recommendation was for a trip to Limestone
country for a change and so the three of us parked up
in Barbondale, by Blindbeck Bridge.
The
weather recently has been quite superb and inevitably
this is being attributed to global warming, but I am
not convinced. My recollection, going right back
to school camps, is that in most years, sometime in
April or May, there is a long settled period of fine
weather around the lake district- often when the rest
of the country is suffering with rain. And after
that comes payback time. It remains to be seen
when payback will arrive but the forecast suggests it
is coming soon so it is essential to make the most of
these beautiful days, whatever the cause.
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Bull Pot
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Pot hole Cover
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Gale
Beck emerges
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Our
route was the easy trail that led south
to Bullpot Farm- named after the nearby
pothole- and now a caving centre. From
here we continued south and onto the tongue
that descends to the confluence of Ease
Gill and Gale Beck.
The
point of interest here is the way that,
in weather like this, Gale Beck looks to
be a dried up river but then suddenly and
effortlessly appears as a seemingly static
pool before gaining momentum and hurtling
down the hill.
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We
started the ascent of Ease Gill. The path got
rather scary at one point as it overlooked a deep pool.
One slip and you would fall quite a way into the
water. That itself wouldn’t kill you, but there
was no obvious way out of the pool- it was in a deep
and smooth vat and the cold of the water would finish
you off long before any help with a rope might arrive.
Next
was Ease Gill Kirk. Stan managed to climb up from
the lower hall to the upper hall but Bryan wasn’t able
to do it. Which left me with a dilemma. On
the one hand, if Bryan couldn’t make it, it was most
unlikely that I could. On the other hand, a serious
attempt to get up was to be preferred to retracing our
steps past the killer pool. Fortunately there
proved to be a third way, an easy scramble up the hill
outside the entrance to the Kirk.
We
reconvened in the upper chamber and were faced with
another climb. Although superficially it looked
simple, the rocks were quite smooth and there were no
hand holds on the ledge and so neither Stan nor Bryan
was able to make it. I didn’t try!
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Ease Gill Kirk Lower Chamber
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Ease Gill Kirk Upper Chamber
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Cow Hole
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Round
the outside again and on we went up the gill. For
a while it was fun, skipping from rock to rock and it
reminded me a bit of the Rouvas
Gorge. Cow Hole was interesting- a
vat you can enter and into which a waterfall was flowing.
But there was no way out and again we had to find
a way round to carry on up the gill. And on. And
on and on and on. It became quite dreary, mainly
because it was unrelentingly all the same apart from
its occasional disappearances and reappearances and
the end was never in sight.
Still,
noon came and as Tony was not with us, we had no reason
not to stop in a pleasant sunny glade for a much needed
lunch.
Eventually
we emerged onto the fell, not quite at the top of Great
Coum and on terrain that was very difficult walking-
tinder dry tufted grass and moss, requiring big pickings
up of the legs to make progress.
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At last the open fell!
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Ingleborough
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At
last we reached the summit and took in the view. Ingleborough,
Whernside, Howgills and in the distance the Lakeland
fells.
Howgills
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Team picture
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The route back
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The
return to the car was much faster. Virtually level
to Crag Hill and then gently downhill thereafter. And
back in good time for Stan to avoid his divorce.
Don,
3rd May 2007
Footnote
for Tony: Sorry, mate, for inducing apoplexy.
We didn’t really eat at noon! It was
well after one p.m. at a cairn near the summit.
Distance:
10.1 Miles
Height
climbed: 2,359 feet
Wainwrights:
Great Coum
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BOOT
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Click on the photos for an enlargement or related large
picture.
This page describes a 2007 adventure of BOOTboys, a loose group of friends of mature
years who enjoy defying the aging process by getting out into the hills as
often as possible!
As most live in South Lakeland, it is no surprise that
our focus is on the Lakeland fells and the Yorkshire Dales.
As for the name, BOOTboys, it does not primarily derive from an
item of footwear but is in memory of Big
Josie, the erstwhile landlady of
the erstwhile Burnmoor Inn at Boot in Eskdale, who enlivened Saint Patrick's Day
1973 and other odd evenings many years ago!
If you want to contact us, click on
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