Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club

Broad Crag

"A" Walk Sunday 21st July 2013

Broad Crag

In Childrens’ Fairy Stories, the monster, evil witch, whoever, only reveals their true colours once they have wormed their way into the child’s confidence. The easy walk last week was the first part of such a process.  This week Neil revealed his true colours – a route march in tropical heat,  starting at Seathwaite, scrambling up past Taylor Gill Force to Seathwaite Tarn, only 25 minutes rest there,  and then onto the Corridor Route towards Lingmell and the Scafells.  Instead of the sensible, easy route that all the sensible people were taking,  we stopped near the head of Piers Ghyll and branched off up to the left,  scrambling up pleasant rocks at the start till we came to quite a major cliff face.  Here Neil referred to the guide book he had brought and anxiety levels rose when we heard  “what a pity there isn’t a photo showing the route”. However there was no escape so we launched ourselves at the rock and scrambled up.  At one stage we did find a bit of rock that was peppered with fossils of sea shells and – on one (photo attached) – prehistoric knicker elastic. By some miracle we all not only survived but even enjoyed the climb and it was lovely having the summit to ourselves while only half a mile away Scafell Pike was swarming with (human) ants. The way down was straight forward and we did stop for a paddle / swim at the most stunning of all pieces of water in the Lake District – Sprinkling Tarn. Great walk once again.

Peter Flynn.