Wasdale, Styhead Pass

Wasdale/Styhead Pass - 4th October 2010

5.5 hours

It was quite a long drive from Ambleside via Broughton-in-Furness to Wasdale, but well worth it. The scenery on the West side of the Lakes is quite different....... more rugged and unspoilt.... less grasslands and trees. Leaving the car park at Wasdale Head we started off up Lingmell Beck towards Styhead Pass. We had light rain to start with, but this soon stopped. We started climbing and soon had to peel off our waterproofs as we were getting hot. We stopped at Styhead Tarn for a brief respite, for a drink and the obligatory photograph, before tackling Aaron Slack. Here we were strung out a bit, with Torben taking the lead and Mick bringing up the rear, stopping every 20 yards for air! You simply cannot have a lay off of 6 months from serious walking and expect to run up the mountains. We eventually reached Windy Gap, the col between Great Gable and Green Gable. We had been thinking of a route over Kirk Fell, but we did not want to do much more climbing, so we took a route that followed the contours behind Kirk Fell, overloking Black Sail Pass in Ennerdale below. We contoured around Kirk Fell and eventualy dropped down to Wasdale Head.