Drifting Away on Great Gable

(Blog & pics by Steve) The sun was shining in the south lakes so I thought it a great opportunity to get out and get some snowy fells lit up by the sun. As I drove around I thought I'd go further afield and go for an easy path higher up and headed to Seathwaite to get some shots of Great Gable, Styhead & Sprinkling Tarn. As I should have expected I suppose the further into the middle of the lakes you go the more likely it is to be cloudy. Darn, snow looks much better in the sun.

Once you get to Seathwaite Farm, it's a popular long steady route to get to Scarfell Pike. At Stockley Bridge you have a choice, go left straight up to Sprinkling Tarn, continuing left the path winds it way up to several peaks,Eskpike, Lingmell & Scafell Pike. Or at the bridge take a right to Styhead Tarn, Great Gable and up to Scarfell Pike via the corridor route. As you can see the left path go on & on ahead of you all the way up, I prefer going up the path to the right.

Cloud lingered over Great Gable and far below Lingmell so opted to stop at Sprinkling Tarn. As luck would have it the sun came out over Styhead Tarn where I stopped for lunch and had a chat to a nice old man. We made our way up to Sprinkling Tarn both stopping every other footstep to take another photo as the cloud disappeared and the sun and blue sky came out. A churpy chappy from Langdale stopped for a quick chat before he yomped off looking for somewhere to camp (or dig out a snow shelter I think he said) somewhere on the other side of Great Gable.

The sun was beginning to set only minutes after it had came out and was giving the snowy mountains a lovely golden glow so couldn't resist, saying goodbye to the nice man as he made his return journey I headed up to side of Allen Crags to get a view over the valleys. As the sun set, I returned down the other path to Stockley Bridge. At some point I shall try this route up, it's long and stepped a lot of the way and I'm not sure which is best, going up or down steps.

As I got to the bridge, I said hello to the nice old man again as he sat having a snack. Turned out he would have had to walk down the road to the bus stop at Seatoller or wait an hour for it so I drove him down and caught it just in time. Nothing worse to end a good hike than a long tedious road walk.

Some are better equipped for winter walking than others.