Monday 30 April 2012

Ghyll Scrambling sessions in The Lake District. Saturday 28th April 2012.



Last Saturday, Iain from Kendal Mountaineering services assisted another Lake District based Outdoor Pursuits provider by delivering a ghyll scrambling session on their behalf with 14 guys who were attending a stag weekend.

Photo one shows the party as we set off into Stickle Ghyll in Langdale for our afternoon of wet fun.


Stickle Ghyll is almost always done in ascent and this is known as ghyll scrambling or gorge walking. There are not many deep pools on the Stickle ghyll scrambling ascent deep enough to jump into without hitting the bottom - just a few.

However, the chap in photo two has just slid off the horizontal branch in the top of the picture that overhangs this particular pool about halfway up the ghyll so - this is one place where people can experience complete rehydration.

If you have a look at the pictures taken at this point people were pulling all sorts of faces. Some people clearly found jumping into what was still fairly chilly water quite shocking!

The lower part of stickle Ghyll is fairly interesting with one roped climb and a lot of scrambling upstream up easier waterfalls and through pools with the one opportunity to jump in.

Beyond the jump, the angle of the stream eases to a mere wander up a boulder strewn channel with nothing of interest until one is about 200m upstream of the footbridge. In photo three the party is just entering the upper part of the gorge en route to the next section of pools & waterfalls.
The final section of the Stickle Ghyll gorge consists of a number of waterfall interspersed with pools and as one gets higher, the waterfalls get steeper & more serious.                                                                              Photo four shows one member of this stag party as he gets roped up the second roped climb on Stickle Ghyll. After reaching this point we generally exit the ghyll and descend - unless we have a smaller party and time permits - in which case a further roped climb may be made.                                                                             Ghyll scrambling or gorge walking is great fun and ideal as part of a day out or family holiday in The Lake District and popular with Stag & Hen parties. For something a bit more challenging though, our Ghyll Scrambling & canyoning sessions in Church Beck are hard to beat! For more information about ghyll scrambling and/or canyoning with Kendal Mountaineering Services contact us here.
We look forward to working with you.        
                                                                                       

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