Climbing in The British Isles. Vol. 1 - EnglandHaskett Smith, W. P. (Walter Parry)
History
Climbing in The British Isles. Vol. 1 - England
Haskett Smith, W. P. (Walter Parry)
Mountaineering -- England; Mountains -- England -- Guidebooks
For the return to Wastdale _Wind Gap_ is very rough and hardly to be
recommended. Mr. Baddeley is not very consistent about it, for he says,
'the best descent is by _Windy Gap_'; but again, 'the descent from
_Windy Gap_ to Wastdale is, for reasons stated before, unsatisfactory';
and thereupon he recommends Black Sail. The latter gives a rapid
descent--the inn may be reached in twenty-five minutes from the top of
the pass; but a quicker return may be made by crossing the ridge after
emerging from Great Doup, and shooting down _Wistow Crags_ into
Mosedale by a large gully filled with deliciously fine scree.
Should it be preferred to make the circuit of Mosedale on the return
journey, an equally fine glissade may be enjoyed from _Dore Head_; but
the screes require judicious selection and dexterity on the part of the
slider.
[Illustration: PILLAR ROCK FROM THE WEST
A, Summit of _High Man_; B, _Pisgah_; C, _Low Man_; D, _Jordan Gap_.
The _West route_ ascends from this side to the depression between
A and C.]
It may here be said that stout walkers may visit all the mountains of
Wastdale Head in one day comfortably, and in few places is a finer walk
to be found. Start, say, at 10 A.M. for Scafell; then, by Mickledoor,
the Pike, Great End, Sty Head, Great Gable and Kirkfell to the Pillar,
returning in the manner described above in time for dinner. In June
1864, as Ritson's Visitors' Book records, J.M. Elliott, of Trin. Coll.
Camb., made this round, including Steeple and Yewbarrow, and found that
it took eight and a half hours; probably, however, he came over Stirrup
Crag and not Yewbarrow _top_, which would entail something like three
miles extra walking. He approached Scafell by way of Mickledoor,
returning from it to the same point, and those who do not know the Broad
Stand well had better follow his example; for it is a bit of a climb,
and the descent especially is not easy to find. By going to Mickledoor
first (and there is no shorter way to Scafell) each man can see what he
has before him, and decide for himself whether it would not be better to
leave Scafell out of his programme.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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