Lake District 2007 - De La Salle Scout Group Expeditions Series

The Lake District 2007

Above: Members of the Leadership Team before their ascent of England's highest peak, Scafell Pike (977m)
on the 2007 Leaders Weekend in the Lake District.

In 1999 we had held our Leader's weekend in Scotland and climbed Ben Nevis and over the years since we had been up Corran Tuathail, Lugnaquilla, Mweelrea, Snowdon and so on. For the sake of completeness Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England would just have to be climbed and so for 2007 the Lake District became the destination for no less than 20 of the De La Salle Scout Group Leadership Team. The brochures say that the Lake District in Cumbria is "an inspiring area of natural beauty with breathtaking mountains and 16 sparkling lakes". Its scenery has inspired the works of many writers and poets, including William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter. The area is also supposed to have the best walking and climbing routes that England can offer, indeed only five peaks in England are over 900m and they are all in Cumbria. Well, we are fussy about our mountains at this stage so we would just have to go and see how the place measured up.

Above: The Lake District opens up from the top of Rosthwaite Fell.

Leaving the house at 2pm for a flight to Manchester at 3pm is a bit of a treat. Thank God for Waterford Airport. On the other side we eventually tracked down our mini bus and car and we were off down the motorway. The minibus was in the capable hands of John O'Donohue while the car was in the more distracted hands of Colm who had Caroline, Orla and Siobhan in the back and whose conversation became more surreal and shocking with every mile. We were headed for the Borrowdale valley which is in the northerly end of the Lake District so after a quick stop in Keswick for Cumberland sausage and a local ale we headed in search of the youth hostel. It's pretty remote and took a bit of finding but it turned out to be a fine spot. It's a cedarwood building almost at the top of the Borrowdale valley which put is in the perfect starting position for our ascent of Scafell Pike the next morning.

Above: Siobhan enjoys the ascent of Glaramara with Great Gable behind.

Scafell Pike from Borrowdale over Glaramara and the Allen Crags was our intended route and the day started out bright and fine. There might be a shower or two in the evening we heard but everyone had a good spring in their step starting out. The spring uncoiled a little on the way up Glaramara - yes Ken was a bit under the weather, Caroline a little shocked by the speed of our ascent and Kate a little sorry for her three year absence from the mountains. We were however now really in the English countryside. Neat stone walls and hedges, fantastic autumn colours in the trees, neat sheep even and where was Peter Rabbit? A well maintained path brought us to short scrambly section just before the summit of Glaramara and from there the terrain became rockier and a bit wilder. It clouded in a bit and after reaching the col at Esk Hause and from there it was head down all the way to the rocky summit of Broad Crag (934m).

Above: Members of the Leadership Team on the summit of England's highest point Scafell Pike (977m).

We must say that they build very clever stone shelters for their sheep in the Lake District. They are four or five feet high in a cross shape allowing the sheep and stray humans to find shelter no matter what way the wind is blowing. The terrain from Broad Crag to Scafell Pike remains very rocky and slow going but after we rescued Gary and the lads who were headed in the wrong direction for a few minutes, we were reunited with Aidan who had just returned from the summit and so we followed the crowds to Scafell Pike's summit. The day had turned a bit nasty and we only managed half a damp sandwich, a square of Kendal mint cake and a misty photo on the top before we evacuated down in the direction of the Corridor route which would hopefully lead us to Styhead Tarn and get us off the mountain.

Above: Descending over rocky ground from Scafell Pike.

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On the way through the Corridor we passed Piers Gill, the fierce ravine which was the scene of a highly unusual accident in 1921. A walker had become lost while descending Wasdale Head and had fallen into the ravine and injured both his legs. He had lain there undiscovered, with practically no food for twenty days and remarkably lived to tell the tale. We kept heading steeply down and must have lost the Corridor at some stage. With the aid of the evil GPS, a new bearing and a bit of re-ascending we were soon back on course and passed the mountain rescue post at the tarn. From there we had one more steep descent and just the long walk out through the valley to Seatoller. The pace livened up once we were down from the worst of the weather and we had certainly earned our steak and ale pies and indeed our ales for that night. We had the grub at the hostel which wasn't bad at all, although they didn't quite understand the amount of spuds required for Irish mountaineers after a day in the hills.

Above: Leaving Glenridding for Helvellyn.

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Above: Ascending to the "Hole in the Wall".

The crossing of Striding Edge is probably the best known walk in the Lake District. The route which brings you to the summit of Helvellyn was billed as a wonderful airy traverse and sounded like just the ticket for our second route of the weekend. There were sadly a few who couldn't be tempted out of the bed early that morning but there was at least a full people carrier load for the drive across to Ullswater and our starting point of Glenridding. It was an impressive journey and we definitely don't get autumn colour at home quite like they do in the Lake District. From Glenridding it's about a 700 metres straight and steady ascent up the Grisedale valley to the famous "Hole in the Wall" which we crossed before getting on to Striding Edge itself.

Above: Put your hand here and your foot right there.

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The ascent of Striding Edge gives fine views into the Red Tarn on your right and back into Grisedale on your left but gradually the views of the whole Lake District that we had missed yesterday afternoon began to reveal themselves. There are indeed a lot of fells and you can see why Bob Graham felt he had to climb all 42 in 23 hours and 39 minutes way back in 1932. It was an amazing feat then as now and his record stood for 28 years. Back on our own fell of Helvellyn we were enjoying Striding which is basically a glaciated rocky arête separating the two valleys and it kept is busy negotiating pillars and rocky steps before we reached a tricky down climb which seemed to slow most parties quite a bit. We were ahead of the crowd though and we got down it with just a grimace or two and from there it was up through the piles of shattered rocks to the summit plateau.

Above: Following the rocky arete of Striding Edge and
Below: Looking back on Striding Edge.

Before we reached the top we paused to read the Gough Memorial Stone where Charles Gough's remains were found in 1805. He had been killed by a fall and his dog had stood over the remains which had been reduced to a skeleton by the time they had been found. There were of course rumours that the dog was involved in this skeletisation. What a summit plateau, you could certainly see how they managed to land an aeroplane there even back in 1926. The mist and cloud that had shrouded it, cleared for our lunch at the top. I stood on the summit trig point from where there are fine mountains, valleys and lakes to be seen in every direction. To me it contrasted sharply to the wilder more chaotic nature of Scotland's landscape but it could get you going and certainly get you plotting more ascents of the peaks around nonetheless. Rotating the map in your hand and reading the names of all the villages, townlands, crags and fells feels quite unique as well. Old English, norse and anglo saxon words across 2000 years have come up with "Little Mell Fell" and the like and its interesting to reflect on how the place names of an area give it a history and an atmosphere that can certainly affect how you experience a range of mountains.

Above: Paschal and Betty at the end of Striding Edge with the Red Tarn below.

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After such pondering it was down carefully along Swirral Edge. We had worn out poor Betty's knee but she managed to keep up a determined pace. I ran up on to Catstycam with Aidan before we all dropped to the Red Tarn. Having texted Sid a picture of the blue sky from the summit in was on with the shades now to prove in photos that this really had been a fine mountain day and against which stories of shopping, Windermere and the match would not redeem him from missing. A fine stone wall led us from there across Birkhouse Moor and then slowly and steeply down in to Glenridding. In keeping with the country we were in, we had to stop for tea and cakes at the village teashop and we also picked up seven good bottles of Striding Edge Ale.

Above: Looking down on Glenridding with Ullswater behind.

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The Borrowdale hotel had never seen the likes of us before. We had been asked to wear slacks for our silver service five course meal but we came up a bit short on those and Caroline surely had the most shocking head of hair ever to grace the hotel's lounge. We hadn't seen the likes of it before either and nobody can recall a group of leaders having such a sumptuous meal on a leader's weekend before. It will be a difficult one to better as will the weekend itself but you can be sure that the men and women of De La Salle will give it a good try.

Above (L-R): Aidan Ennis, Keith Cunningham, John O'Donohue, Billy Collins, Kate Hayes, Claire White, Paschal Guilfoyle, Betty Guilfoyle, Gary Sinnott, Mary Winter, Colm Ennis, Peter Murphy, Ian Sinnott, Orla Quinlan, Caroline Gauthier, Emily Dixon, Siobhan Ryan, Robert Windle and Kenneth Rouse at Borrowdale Youth Hostel in the Lake District.
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Above: On Striding Edge.

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