Retreat to the quiet of the Western Lakes
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Date : Sunday 9th Nov. 2003. Occasion : The Remembrance Day walk to Great Gable with Pete Burgess, Ann, and the dogs, and about 500 other people !! Walk details : 5.3 miles 2450 ft of ascent via Moses Trod and Beck Head. Back via Green Gable, Brandreth and Grey Knotts. Weather : Cool southerly breeze with sunny patches in the otherwise misty and overcast sky. Visibility poor at times. |
The Buttermere Pines with Haystacks but no Great Gable.
It was lost in the low mist on the fells.
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Parking at Honister was courtesy of the Honister Slate Mines, which was most appreciated. We arrived just after eight and after parking the car were away by 8.15 am.
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Our route took us up the Dram Road via the incline from the Honister Quarry buildings.
The number of cars and mini buses should have given us a clue to the numbers we would eventually find at the summit.
Pete (in orange/red) lets a large group go by as I stop for the photo.
Moses Trod path, and we were by no means the last making the ascent.
Overcast and misty without being at all damp. Warm trousers and a windproof fleece would do nicely.
A view down Ennerdale from below Brandreth.
Windy Gap from Moses Trod,
with a long line of people walking the skyline down from Green Gable.
We decided to push on for the Beck Head ascent to the top of Gable.
The top was in the mist, but the strong wind was blowing rapidly over the summit so that it was not oppressive or heavy. The view was continually changing.
The path led directly to the summit and here we found a clear rock to sit on, a scarce item this close to the top.
Several people who presumably arrived earlier were sheltering under bivvy tents, and there was a general hum of conversation amongst the crowd.
Click here or on the photo for a full summit photo.
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Ann and Myself, Holly and Layla
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Pete, a banana and a hopeful dog.
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| The summit was rather inaccessible today |
due to the presence of so many people. |
Fellwalkers, who are normally more solitary in nature, were gathered together with a common purpose,
to remember those who fought and died in the cause of freedom and peace.
Just before eleven, a short speech by the Vice President of the Fell and Rock Club
John Robinson, was followed by two minutes silence.
Even in the keen wind everyone simultaneously removed their hats as a mark of respect.
The Summit Memorial.
The high fells all around this area were purchased, and subsequently donated to the nation, by the Fell and Rock Club in memory of friends who have died, so that this country and its fells should be free for all to enjoy.
Gradually the people dispersed from whence they came,
making their way back down to Honister, Seathwaite, Wasdale and even the Langdale valley.
There must have been five hundred at least on the top today.
Our route took us to Windy Gap path and over to Green Gable.
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Ann on the final leg down to Windy Gap
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Pete with High Crag and Haystacks behind.
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Gaps in the mist provided many evocative views of the fells around us.
Here Kirk Fell emerges for a few moments in a patch of bright sunlight . . .
. . . which stretched across to Haystacks
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From Green Gable we stayed high and walked to Brandreth summit and on to Grey Knotts. Visibility was variable as made our way across. Here Pete nearly disappears in the mist on the opposite side of one of the tarns on the Grey Knotts ridge. |
The crags and quarry road caught in a patch on sunlight,
as seen from below Grey Knotts summit.
As we ended the walk the sun was beginning to break through the mist and lit up the Honister Crags
and also the road at the top of the pass. Journeys end, and one small ambition fulfilled.
Technical note: Pictures taken with a Canon IXUS 400 Digital camera.
Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.
This site best viewed . . . with a few moments silence.
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