FOEL FRAS SUMMIT.

FOEL FRAS SUMMIT.

Monday 7 March 2011

#16.Glaramara Group.3-3-11.

Thank's to our friend's at Travelzoo.com me and Julie received a very good offer to stay at the Lodore Falls Hotel in the Borrowdale Valley 5 miles from Keswick.We first saw this hotel about 10 year's ago whilst staying in Keswick and visiting the falls and we both said we would love to stay there.The hotel below.

We left Wrexham at 6.30 a.m. and we turned off the M6 at junction 37 at 8a.m. and stopped at our favourite butty van for breakfast.We then drove through Windermere,Ambleside and Keswick and drove to the hotel to drop our bag's off before driving to Seathwaite to park by the farm.My mate Glyno brought me to this beautiful area last year where we walked to Scafell Pike and Scafell before returning via the corridor route.The night before was very clear with the temperature dropping to minus 3 degree's,it was a very frosty morning and we knew it was going to be a glorious sunny day.We walked past the farm building's and followed the wide gated track on the left side of Grains Gill.Below the farm track with Seathwaite Fell in the distance.

Base Brown from the car park.

Walking along the track the sun was still low behind Glaramara and in the shade it was freezing cold,Julie was using trekking pole's and even with glove's on her finger's were cold.

After a 1 mile walk we reached Stockley Bridge,the surrouding terrain is very undulating,lot's of little hummock's,these being made by the last ice age.

We crossed the bridge and headed up the zig zag path beside's Taylorgill Force.We were now walking in the sun and it was hot enough to take our fleece off and walk in our t-shirt's.We even had to splash our face's with water out of the gill near the top as we were sweating!


We followed Styhead Gill as far as the little wooden bridge below Green Gable and then started the serious climbing on the west side of Seathwaite Fell,it is a tough grade 1 scramble on pathless terrain gaining over 500 feet in half a mile.



Eventually we could see a cairn,this being recorded by Wainwright as 1,970 feet high and is classed as a "Wainwright",here i am on it with the Borrowdale Valley beyond.

A short walk past some small tarn's bring's you to the real summit standing at 2,073 feet high,and 300 yard's away and 3 feet shorter is the second Nuttall top of Seathwaite Fell South Top.Great Gable in distance.

We now walked down to Sprinkling Tarn to join the main path from Sty Head that lead's to Esk Hause.


We stopped by Grains Gill to have a bite to eat,still a few patches of snow about.

Looking across to Scafell Pike left and Ill Crag from the slope's of Allen Crag's.

The weather was glorious and i was surprised by how few people we had seen,hardly any.Me on the summit of Allen Crags with the Langdale Pikes beyond.

A broad grassy ridge with many rocky knoll's and little tarn's lead's to High House Tarn Top 0.5 mile's away.

Looking across to the Seathwaite Fells and Great Gable.

The Nuttall's come thick and fast on this side of the valley,next Red Beck Top and then Looking Steads whose summit area is a mass of boulder's,here's me at the summit.

The chief summit of the walk,Glaramara,lies less than a quarter of a mile away and has 2 top's.Wainwright preferred the east top but the west one is the higher of the 2.

Our origin aim was to take in the other 4 Nuttall's in the group but the hot weather and recent bout of flu saw us struggling a bit so i decided to cut the walk short and head down over Thornythwaite Fell and pick up the Allerdale Ramble Path,this is the view from Glaramara in the direction we took.


We eventually reached Comb Gill and it's waterfall and the path down from Tarn at Leaves which we should have been on,it join's our path by this sheepfold.


I decided to show Julie how strong i was by pushing a tree over.


A very pleasant 1.5 mile walk along the Allerdale Ramble lead's us back to the car,here are a few photo's from along the path.



We walked a distance of 9.5 mile's with an ascent of 3,100 feet and took in 9 top's.


MILEAGE        108.5
ASCENT          28,700
TOPS               39

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