Bob Graham Route Choices

[Mark Smith]

We'll meet on the summit of Skiddaw and compare notes. I suspect if there is no more than a couple of mins in it, then the normal route is likely to take less out of you, but if the gap is significantly in my mate's favour (say, more than 10 mins), then it's certainly worth thinking about.

I'll report back afterwards and hope people find it useful.

ST

Well we did it amd Paul was 5 mins quicker via Carl Side. He went 0.8miles shorter. We both took it easy, although Paul confessed that the steepness was harder going than my canter up the tourist route. My time 79mins, his 74.

[NotOnUrHelly]

Great Stuff Mark,

I have been waiting for the results of that little BG race.

I spent saturday looking at the back end of leg 3. We picked it up from Harrison Stickle and tried to keep to a 23hours schedule between peaks.


We made a school boy error after rosset pike/crag and went to the right of Angle Tarn and continued up what we thought was the climb up to Bowfell (summit was in the clouds) we had actually skirted up Esk Pike. Oh Well, still lots to learn.

We then progressed to each summit on route upto to scafell pike and down to mickledore.

Ill Crag and Broad Crag are rocky little buggers are'nt they.

Saw another chap out reccieing the same route. So we did follow his footsteps in the snow upto great end.

Great Stuff, I was cream crackered after that, still a lot of climb and time on feet to get into my legs

Jamie

[Bob]

Jamie,

Since the Gallery is still down, here's a shot showing the rakes up Bowfell taken from near the summit of Rossett Pike. http://www.aqvi55.dsl.pipex.com/pict...fell-rakes.jpg The Head of Rossett Gill is just out of shot bottom right.

A is a grassy area on the summit plateau of Bowfell that is at the top of one line.
B is Bowfell Buttress and is about 100m nearer the summit than A
C is an alternative entry/exit and is found just short of the summit of Hanging knotts at a trough in the ridge.

The dashed and full lines show the various options available.

I'll leave this shot up for a while but if anyone wants a copy for their own use then I don't mind it being saved from the above link.

Bob

[NotOnUrHelly]

Thanks for that Bob,

Ill be back up that way later in March, Ill get it right next time. It was quite cloudy on the tops.

Cheers
Jamie

[Baggins]

.

One more to consider is the route to red pike from yewbarrow

Conventional wisdom is to find a long traversing rake across patches of scree that hits the yew barrow/red pike col: Ive had a couple of goes at dropping straight down one of the steep grassy slopes between the screes from a couple of hundred feet height above the col, heading straight for red pike. It is shorter by a couple of hundred m but loses and extra 50 feet height. The descent is no worse than some of that scree crossing, and it can be wet after rain. Im guessing that it is quicker on a dry day.

Tried this today, it seemed less rocky than the normal traverse, so better for tired legs? You do lose more height but you cut across on a more direct line to Red pike following a stream at first so less distance, there was not much difference in my times, about 2 minutes faster but I was 2 minutes fast between each summit than I was last year.

Bill

[Baggins]

Also on the way to Pillar has anyone tried the path that traverses to the SE of black crag?
Descending off there to wind gap is very rough and slow in the wet so just where the path rises up again to the cairn above black crag I dropped down to the right (SE) after a short descent came upon a cairn and trod traversing around to bring you out a few meters above wind gap.
Do people use this in reverse on the Ennerdale?

Bill

[Mark Smith]

I think the 'sod it' approach to crossing the caldew works best - your feet should be a little moist by then anyway after the splashy trod off Hare Crag and up Calva.

We took a straight line from the south summit of Calva to the summit of Blencathra on Sat and just headed down the heather and up the common on the other side as the crow flies. We rounded the head of Roughten Gill and kept the height and popped out on the summit without going across the saddle. This is direct, saves a bit of re-ascent (i.e. the saddle depression) and the ground is no worse than anywhere else around there (that's the 3rd line up there i've tried - it's all the same marshy then tussocky stuff).

I would suggest taking the shortest possible distance between GC and Blen and get your feet wet! That's my plan for the big day!

ST

[Bob]

The quickest (and easiest underfoot) way between GC and Blencathra is as follows:

From the south summit of Great Calva, head down the path on the South ridge for about 100m. Then break left and take a direct line for the summit of Mungrisedale Common. This line crosses the Caldew about 300m downstream of a fence crossing the river which may be used if the water is particularly high.

Once at the summit of MC, there is a faint trod that appears to head to the left of Foule Crag (the left end of Blencathra) take this. It soon bends back and improves and takes you to within a couple of hundred metres of Foule Crag. Continue in the same line until level with the base of the scree slope on the right. Now bear right and pick up a faint path across the scree which leads to the saddle. Direct to the summit.

This line has the advantage of being mostly runnable even in the dark - only the section from the river up to the cairn on MC is walking. It is also very direct and loses no unnecessary height.

[Bob]

Also on the way to Pillar has anyone tried the path that traverses to the SE of black crag?
Descending off there to wind gap is very rough and slow in the wet so just where the path rises up again to the cairn above black crag I dropped down to the right (SE) after a short descent came upon a cairn and trod traversing around to bring you out a few meters above wind gap.
Do people use this in reverse on the Ennerdale?

Bill

Not sure about on the Ennerdale but the Wasdale race uses it - fairly certain it was in the race notes when it was a championship race the other year.

I missed it on my round as I had only reccied that section under snow and it isn't the terrain you'd cross in fell shoes when on your own as a slip would be "interesting". Definitely easier underfoot than going over the top though.

[Baggins]

Not sure about on the Ennerdale but the Wasdale race uses it - fairly certain it was in the race notes when it was a championship race the other year.

I missed it on my round as I had only reccied that section under snow and it isn't the terrain you'd cross in fell shoes when on your own as a slip would be "interesting". Definitely easier underfoot than going over the top though.

That explains it Bob forgot the Wasdale goes that way

Bill