Tuesday, June 26, 2018

A (very) Few More Passes - Saturday 23rd June '18

The planned outing started to unfold with our arrival at the New Dungeon Ghyll at the due time of 08:00. The party was smaller than originally expected, just YJ, Stevie B (he didn't like his originally given name) and yours truly, but despite this this compact nature it was still another 40 minutes before we left for Stool End Farm.
Progress was slow, as it was all day, due to my lack of fitness.
We reached Three Tarns then descended to Upper Eskdale and Lingcove Bridge, where our shy and retiring companion posed for this:-

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This seemed to be a venue for the now popular activity of Ghyll scrambling and amidst the throng we felt decidedly underdressed without wet suits.

Then it was down to the valley bottom and a brief call in at the Woolpack for soft drinks.

We discovered later, that the Iceman had aimed to meet us along this stretch but we had managed to miss each other, and he had continued up to the valley head, to take in Scafell and Scafell Pike.

We passed through Boot village, over the Burnmoor Corpse Road and down to Wasdale Head.The view below is an old picture of Bulatt Bridge over which we had hoped to pass en route. Unfortunately, by the 23rd June it had been destroyed and we had to paddle across the Whillan Beck which it had previously spanned.

See the source image

By the time we got to Wasdale Head we (yet again) realised that we were not going to complete our planned route, which would have taken us over Black Sail Pass and we opted for Sty Head, Esk Hause and down Rossett Gill


Here the less flamboyant members of the party were photographed as we prepared ourselves for the awkward descent by the Gill:-

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Then an even slower trudge back to the NDG. Over twelve hours on our feet and not back to Bolton until the pubs had closed!!!

Thank you to YJ for providing the transport and thank you to both for your company.

We had hoped to put the route to bed this time, but we still have unfinished business with Black Sail and the Loft Beck descent into Ennerdale - maybe in another two years time?


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