7 Pitch Gulley on the Screes - 'F' Gulley
Saturday 17th April 2004 (page created 20/4/04 - updated 7/7/04)
The purpose of the day was to ascend 'F' Gulley and descend 'A' Gulley [next door to 'F' Gulley further west] in order to assess it's usefulness for an evening practice, establish it's condition/deterioration, identify belay locations and potential escape routes. Also to assess how best to extricate either a cragfast scrambler or an injured casualty at any of the seven pitches.
The gulley is not the safest place to scramble / climb in the Lake District and is always littered with sheep bones. Helmets are essential due to rocks being dislodged by sheep high up on the sides of the gulley. It is significantly easier to climb in winter conditions and the day we climbed it the weather was good and the run-off slight.
The descent was via 'A' Gulley, around 300 meters to the west of 'F' Gulley. Purpose was to assess belay locations above the rock step and how best to evacuate cragfast or injured personnel noting that this gulley is a tempting descent route off the summit ridge. The Lake shore path can be seen from the top and it looks like an easy scree run until you get to the 5 m rock step at the bottom where you need to abseil with very little to belay from.
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View of F Gulley [7 Pitch], to the left and E Gulley to the right | |
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Note that there are two descent / ascent routes at the exit of E Gulley. The right hand finish is easier than the left side |
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| Looking up 'F' Gulley - this is where the gulley breaks out into the open scree | |||
| The view to the northeast - Yewbarrow with the white farm building in the foreground 'Bowderdale' |  |
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Kitted up and ready to ascend the gulley | ||
| Looking up the gulley from the bottom | |||
| A small rock step on the left of the gulley gets the joints and muscles warmed up ready for the first pitch another 100 m up the gulley |  |
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1st Pitch |
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This 7m pitch on the left of the gulley is the first pitch but can be avoided by keeping to the right | ||
| Rather fragile holds on wet and slippery rock gets the heart racing before you start |  |
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The easy way up is on the right | ||
| What have we let ourselves in for? The 2nd pitch looms up ahead of us |  |
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Pitch viewed from above | ||
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All the time we are under the watchful eyes of the Wasdale Youth Hostel. They must have wondered who in the their right mind would tackle the gulleys on such a nice day [ they did have a point] | ||
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2nd Pitch |
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Heading towards the second pitch - the route up is initially on the left and then pull up the right hand side, green wet and loose! | ||
| The 2nd pitch is broken into three stages - the first stage is easy but the second is rather delicate. The footholds are outward sloping and covered in green slime............ |  |
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............so lets put some safety first | ||
| Into the back of the cave, under the waterfall to look for a belay. We managed to locate one sound chock placement and one dodgy one. Enough to give a bit of confidence |  |
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Looking back down the 2nd pitch, probably only 10 to 15 meters | ||
| Onwards and upwards |  |
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3rd Pitch |
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The 3rd pitch is not as high but still very thin and slippery. You can either go direct up the broken face or take the slightly easier grassy rake in the right-hand corner | ||
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4th Pitch |
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| When you approach the pitch it quickly becomes apparent that solo climbing is the less preferred option. To the left is the waterfall (see below) |  |
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A wet and slimy left hand pitch with the only real climb to the right hand side of the gulley. | ||
| Just climb up the right side and aim for the hanging chockstone - you climb underneath it |  |
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It is not so clever when you get to this point so.......... | ||
| Bring up the rope (and the ice axes) |  |
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This part of the climb can only be described as delicate. I am safely belayed from below but as my left foot is on shattered rock steps I also tried to get a good placement in case it collapsed. The ice axe was of no benefit. | ||
| As you climb the gulley you can understand why it is a Site of Special Interest - Alpine flora |  |
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The gulley starts to open out and the fifth pitch looms up ahead - the safe~ish route up is to the left hand side where the grass bank lies | ||
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5th Pitch |
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| The rock is a bit thin but there is a way up -- honest (keep to the left) |  |
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Safest way up is via the grass bank | ||
| Looking back down the gulley the YHA is always there, keeping a watchful eye on our progress |  |
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Variation - Left Hand Finish |
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Before you head up the gulley to the cave and major chockstone pitch, you can take an easier route on the left. It is more of a stone chute so progress is frustratingly slow and hard. In the photo below (taken after we had climbed out) you can see this easier route. There are also a number of grassy rakes which lead out of the gulley. Care must still be exercised. | ||
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Heading back down the gulley before moving across to the left to tackle the cave pitch | ||
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6th Pitch |
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| Before tackling the cave pitch there are some fabulous views out of the gulley and across the lake |  |
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The shortest but most taxing. To the right hand side of the cave there is a 3m climb in the corner. Its a cross between a chimney and an overhanging pitch. Bridging on the right wall is the way to get up and there is a great jug right in the corner to pull yourself up on ( razor sharp so take care). It is best to leave your rucksack and pull it up on a rope afterwards. It can be done with your rucksack on but take care not to get jammed (as I did the last time) | ||
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Top of the cave pitch and only one more pitch to go |  |
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YHA is still there in the background | ||
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7th Pitch |
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| This pitch is broken into three distinct steps with safe stances at 3m an 10m. |  |
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There are routes on the left wall but we took the right hand side followed by the central ascent | ||
| It cannot be done without getting a little wet and dirty |  |
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Safely at the top there is a good belay to bring up the rest of the group | ||
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This is the only tricky bit |
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At last you appear on the top of the Screes - F Gulley is the only gulley with a stream running into it from the ridge path so it is very easy to locate in the mist (not that you would want to descend it during poor conditions unless on MRT business | ||
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Job well done | ||
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Descent via 'A' Gulley (next one west) |
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Descending the stone scree is easy at first |
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But then it gets steep......the ice axe did come in handy here believe it or not. Ice axes are not essential - it was the first time I have gone up in summer with an ice axe and it was just an experiment. Next time I will leave it at home. | ||
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Colin at the top of the rock step |
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There is a route off to the east but we couldn't find it so sacrificed a tape thread and set up an abseil. The rock step is only 3m but very slippery | ||
| Rob at the bottom of the abseil |  |
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Colin tried climbing back up but it was too risky so came back down | ||
| The easiest route up is probably
just behind me - its very grassy, loose and easy to peel off. Julian
Carradice went back up there with Dave Willey and found a route which is
described below.
From here on down its a straight forward walk down the boulder scree to the lakeside path and back to the pump house |
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Rob safely down the abseil having had to leave an old tape above the rock step as a thread for the abseil rope. | ||
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Safely down you can now look back up E Gulley towards the rock step. The abseil line is just to the right of the large boulder. There is a traverse on the left but we didn't locate it - however see notes from Team Leader who went up to have a look a few days after | ||
| Team Leaders notes from visiting
the gulley with Dave Willey on the 22nd April after a call-out.
Having climbed the right side of the chock stone, we went across easily to the left (looking up). There is a path and a few trees but I agree that it is not a good line for a stretcher. The path traverses until you are overlooking a big and very steep wall and slab dropping into 7 Pitch Gulley. From that point it is possible to descend a zig-zagging path just to the side of 7 Pitch but watch out for steep drops below, both left and right although the path is easy whilst you are on it. There are a number of good solid trees that could be used to protect us escorting cragfast type people. Almost at the bottom of the ridge, there is another steep drop off but look out for a small hidden gulley on your left (going down). The small gulley goes easily enough, with one steep move just before you step off onto easy grass, right at the toe of the buttress. By now you are a long way below the start of E Gulley and on a horizontal traverse path (on grass) between the E Gulley scree and 7 Pitch. There is a single large Larch tree a little way down the slope but directly in line with where you step off the buttress - it might help locate the right point if you are looking to find the route on the way up. We had left our sacks at the chock stone and had to walk a fair distance back up. Quite a lot of ground on our left looked OK to climb from below but when we were on it and coming down, it looked VERY steep from above. I would advise sticking to the line from the toe of the buttress if you want to go up that way |
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A further view of the Screes showing D Gulley, Great Gulley and the terrace route to the top. Difficult to locate and definitely not to be tried for the first time in mist |
