Blencathra Descent Option

[billyreedni]

We have searched the forum but couldn't find much detail on the Middle Tongue descent which Nicky Spinks recently took off Blencathra.
We are planning a CW route this weekend and from memory the Hall's Fell route was quite a scramble and a couple of wrong turns. The obvious answer is to Recce it but we are travelling from Ireland and won't get the chance to do that.

Could someone give us advice on the fastest/most obvious route down? (Doddick looks a lot longer).

Also we had though of taking the Lords Rake option on Scafell. Is that a good choice ?

We are starting at either 6:30pm or 2:00am on Fri/Sat/Sun depending on weather so hoping to avoid clag!!

Thanks for any opinions
Billy

[GeoffB]

By all accounts the Middle Tongue (also known as the Parachute) descent needs a recce. Despite Doddick being longer than Hall's Fell it is almost always quicker in descent - no scrambling, runnable all the way.

Lord's Rake - West Wall Traverse is a good option for Scafell. Just watch out for people above you kicking stones down!

[dantodman]

Phil Hodgson aka Batman in these here parts is the man for this route.

Dan

[Bob]

In addition to Geoff's response there's the option of starting down the parachute then cutting left on a traverse line to pick up Hall's Fell below the tricky part. I think Baggins on here uses it.

I've done the Parachute descent once following Baggins' directions, there's definitely an element of trust in that it looks so improbable from above. Until you get in to the river bed at the bottom it's continuously steep so you are losing a lot of height very, very quickly. Without a recce I wouldn't attempt it in the dark though with your 2am start option you'd be there in daylight.

The parachute descent starts here - http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X...7661&A=Y&Z=115 and head directly south to pick up the highest beck (stream), it then continues in roughly the same line to the 'n' of "Tongue" before intersecting the next beck at the lowest junction. It then follows this down to Gate Gill, crosses that beck to a path on the true left (eastern side) then about halfway down crosses back to the true right bank and down to the fell gate.

Bill's (Baggins) variation cuts across to Hall's Fell before it reaches the first beck joining the ridge somewhere between the 700m and 750m contours. I've not done this so can't be more precise.

As for Scafell - Lord's Rake, West Wall Traverse and the top bit of Deep Gill is quite loose scrambling. There's an in progress landslip at the top of the first rise of Lord's Rake but it may have stabilised temporarily, i.e. the last five years.

Check the sticky thread about BGR route choices.

[howfast]

You can see a trace of Nicky's route here http://spinks.opentracking.co.uk/ 17 mins top to bottom.

[DrPatrickBarry]

Billy is a serious runner see this result - 7th place in the 50 Km Wicklow Way Ultra.

https://www.imra.ie/events/view/id/1223/

This should be interesting.

[Adnan Khan]

Pat is the OS maps not working on strava anymore ?

PS I would love to try the Parachute descent some day. I prefer Halls Fell (as described by Bob, start with Parachute and then left after couple of metres to follow Halls Fell) vs Doddick.

[DrPatrickBarry]

Pat is the OS maps not working on strava anymore ?

Nope - http://veloviewer.com/mapFlipper

The Landscape and Outdoor option is better than Google but not as good as OS.

He was using the Bing Maps API and some licensing issue forced him to disable it.

[elliptic]

In addition to Geoff's response there's the option of starting down the parachute then cutting left on a traverse line to pick up Hall's Fell below the tricky part. I think Baggins on here uses it.

I used that, its a neat option but finding the traverse line is quite un-obvious at first sight, it's hidden by a couple of spurs you have to cross over at the right height after the initial drop down grass & scree. Like the parachute its a subtle line through some very steep and committing ground.

[billyreedni]

Great thanks very much for all the feedback folks.. the parachute option sounds like a bit of a risk so we will play safe with Hall's Fell or Doddick options.

I am sure the day will be an adventure

Billy