BB1426 : King of the Mountains

Wednesday 23rd July 2014

It's been a long time coming and for a while it seemed as if might have to wait a little longer.  However, Mr Motivardaker (Bryan) used his remarkable powers of persuasion to transform a no-go into a mass outing.  It's going to be lovely and sunny, he insisted.

Carpa Diem. Seize the day.  Aches and pains were to be ignored. Tony would achieve his long term objective. Scafell Pike. King of the Mountains.

The route would be essentially the same as the Tonyless BOOTboys previous visit: This is the Way the Wainwrights End nearly four years ago except that some would ignore unnecessary side distractions.

if the weather could have been better, it would only have been by turning down the heat of the sun later in the day.  It was superb as we drove through the heart of the lake district to park at Seathwaite in Borrowdale.

Langdales as seen whilst passing Windermere

Tony sought the sympathy vote by appearing with his right leg heavily bandaged.  

We fell for the ploy and agreed to split his luggage between us so that he travelled light.  

Lots were drawn to determine who carried what.  

For some strange reason, no-one seemed to want to carry the box of pies.

Bryan boldly ended up carrying most of the excess load.

To protect against disenchantment, Bryan had broken the ascent into three distinct phases, each to be regarded as a triumph in its own right.

  • Stage one was to climb to Sty Head Tarn.
  • Stage two up the Corridor route to Lingmell Col.
  • Stage three- the assault on the summit.

Here come the BOOTboys

Great End, Scafell Pike and Lingmell from Sty Head tarn

All along the route, the views were superb.  Tony was particularly motivated to speed up by the sight of the rear of a young lady who briefly joined us.

Tony's motivation below Lingmell

Piers GIll

A short but tricky section

Lingmell summit

At Lingmell Col, we split into two groups.  Those who wanted to "knock off" Lingmell, would come with me whilst those not interested simply in bagging Wainwrights could carry on with Bryan.

John, of course, is on the W trail so he opted for the diversion.  Martin also chose to join me.  The others missed a treat.  It was only a short climb, maybe 300 feet, but the views were excellent.

Scafell Pike, left, Scafell right

Illgill Head and Wastwater

Great Gable round to Great End

We rejoined the group on the final ascent to find Terry taking a photo of a young couple with Great Gable behind.

I took a photo of him and wondered if anyone would want to take a photo of me taking a photo of him taking a photo of the couple but no-one volunteered.

Befittingly, Tony led the charge to the summit only to find that half the youth of England (the better half, it has to be said) were already there.

Nonetheless, Bryan presented him with a celebratory bottle of Wainwright ale.

Photographer Terry, couple unknown

Tony leads the BOOTboys to the summit

Tony with admiring groupies.....

..... and a bottle of Wainwright Ale

Team picture minus Mike, the photographer

After lunch, we crossed the boulder field in the direction of Great End.  

A discussion similar to that at Lingmell Col took place.  Those (the same team) wanting another W should come with me to its summit.  The others, Bryan, Tony, Mike and Terry, would drop down and refresh themselves at a stream whilst waiting for us to return.

John on Great End

Great Gable beyond Sprinkling Tarn

Bowfell and the Crinkles from Great End

The way back by Esk Hause and Grains Gill seemed longer than the ascent, possibly because there were not the three distinct stages in our minds.  

Unbeknownst to me, Mike took this picture of Bryan watching me and asks what was I doing?  Any guesses?

Bryan watching.....

Don doing what?

It had been a stunning day with excellent views and all the major objectives achieved, especially the summit of England..

Most importantly, Tony could now boast his new accolade:
King of the Mountains.

Don, Wednesday 23rd July 2014

The No-Colour Supplement

The Wacky Picture:  

Scafell Pike Summit

GPS Test: Update

We are slowly getting to grips with the new Garmins.  

The map screens would have proved useful had we referred to them more often rather than mostly using paper maps (albeit at a four times larger scale).

We all seem to be making the same mistake in not successfully clearing the registers before setting off.  I was convinced I had done mine but it still said we had travelled some five miles more than we knew we had.  Someone (Martin?) suggested that it thought we had magicked ourselves to Seathwaite from Langdale (BB1425).  That certainly fits with the extra mileage.  Must read the manual more closely.

The strange this is that the tracklog just showed today's route.

Afternote: Shepherds Walks have recommended a software update so this will be performed before the next outing.

STATISTICS:  

BB1426

Date:  

 Wednesday 23rd July 2014

Distance in miles

9.5 ( *10.8 with Lingmell and Great End)

Height climbed in feet

3,236 ( *3,668 with Lingmell and Great End))

Features:

Scafell Pike (plus Lingmell and Great End)

Comitibus:

Bryan, *Don, *John Hn, *Martin C
Mike, Terry, Tony

Tony

John

Terry

Martin

Mike

Bryan

BOOTboys routes are put online in gpx format which should work with most mapping software. You can follow our route in detail by downloading bb1426 .

To discover which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing - although it may not be that up to date - see: Which Wainwright When?

For the totals of the mileages and heights (ditto) see: BB Log.

Photos have been gleaned from many sources although mostly from me!
Likewise written comment.  
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