BB1428 : These Boots Won't Make No Walking

Thursday 7th August 2014

After several days of rain, the previous evening's weather forecast was encouraging and indeed the early morning blue skies promised a fine day for what was to be Andrew's inaugural BOOTboys and the official start to Philip’s training for his forthcoming Nepal trek (November).

Our starting point at Seathwaite, is reputed to be the wettest place in England, with around 140 inches of rain per year. We would soon bear testimony to this as the going was certainly very wet from the aforementioned rain. The leader for the ascent was to be Stan, who immediately decided that we would eschew the initial "tourist" route, taken by Tony’s team only two weeks previously, for a more ‘interesting start to the day.

To cross over to the other side of Taylor Gill Force required an element of scrambling/climbing; was this the "interesting"’ element that Stan had promised?

We were soon back on track to Sty Head and had already covered many topics of conversation including impassioned diatribes on the NHS and SLDC!

Stan proved to be either a very effective motivator or a hard taskmaster, as, via the Corridor Route, we made rapid progress and soon after seeing Seascale in the distance, we arrived at Scafell Pike.

Scafell Pike panorama, Great Gable directly ahead

As on the previous visit there were at least two dozen "summiters" so after a comitibus photo it was decided to trek on and find somewhere quieter and shaded from the wind.

We took a much welcome lunch stop on Broad Crag with excellent views across to Great Gable. It was agreed that our descent should first take in Glaramara, which proved to be a succession of false summits!

First was Allen Crag, with its white marble deposits, then Red Beck top and finally Glaramara. The three mini descents and climbs were well worth the terrific views over to Derwentwater and Keswick.

At this point it was Stan’s intention, if it wasn’t too steep, to descend via Hind Gill down to Seathwaite, however the final route was decided for us as we had inadvertently passed the fork to Hind Gill. It was now time for Stan to be trail-finder general!

The route found required some scrambling, walking across boggy ground (sorry John), a couple of climbs and steep descents, to finally arrive in a farm yard approximately a mile further down the road from our car park. Initially it seemed that the farmer was going to send us back to rejoin the official footpath; however after 9 hours walking we must have looked exhausted and fortunately he took pity and directed us through the yard towards the Seathwaite Road.

Stan adds:

Thursday was a great day to be out- virtually perfect conditions - dry, good visibility and just warm enough to walk without overheating.  The downside was that every man and his dog was on the fells - I've never seen so many people in one outing.  Even though we arrived at Seathwaite just after 9 a.m., we struggled to find a parking place and in the end squeezed in just before the farmyard.  In front of us was a full coach party of Italian walkers heading up the tourist route to Sty Head so there was no hesitation on my part about taking the Taylor Gill Force path.   We saw only a couple on our more interesting route but could see a continuous line of walkers on the tourist route.  

We stopped for photos etc at Sty Head but I was appalled to see the coach party heading for the Corridor route so cracked the whip to make sure we got ahead of them and fortunately never saw them again.  

Life of a Mountain: Scafell Pike

BOOTboys routes are put online in gpx format which should work with most mapping software. You can follow our route in detail by downloading bb1428 .

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!
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