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The Fellwalker by Peter John Farnworth
WALK 33 SATURDAY JUNE 18th 1988Glaramara. What a wonderful name for a mountain! But I don't have fond memories of the place. That was the hardest walk to date on the fells. When I first looked at the map to see where it was situated, I could see there were three possible ways for us to climb to this summit. The first way was to go up Rossett Gill and over Allen Crags, however I ruled this way out. I just do not like going this way as, for me, it's so boring. Secondly, we could go by car all the way round to Seatoller in Borrowdale. That was also ruled out, because it would have meant more driving and less time walking in the mountains. So I decided to take the third option, which was to walk down Mickleden in the Langdales, and at the bottom of the valley pick up the path which leads up to Stake Pass. At the head of the Pass where it levels off, we would then re-assess our position. Another good reason for this choice was that we would spend more time in the mountains! Our first attempt to climb this summit, was on September 21st in 1986. Looking back at my notes in my walking diary, I wrote: ''The day itself was misty as we followed the path towards Esk-Hause. When the mist came down very dense ,this stopped us dead in our tracks. We waited for three-quarters of an hour to see if it would lift, but there was no way it was going to move, so it was about-turn, back down and home."
As I have said many times in this write up, if conditions are against you then turn back, there is always another day. So on with the story and, as they say, fasten your seat belts. We arrived very late in the morning at Dungeon Ghyll car park in the Langdales. Time now 11.00am. It was full to the rafters and we just found room to park the car, as you can imagine for that time of the day. The walk down the valley of Mickleden was just perfect, as was the weather, very warm and clear. We arrived at the guide stone indicator at the bottom of the valley, which points the way to Stake Pass. Time now 12.10pm. We followed the very stony path to the head of the Pass and with the sun beating down on us, it was very hard work to get to this point. When we stood here at the top getting our second breath, we could see over the valley towards Glaramara, but first we had to descend down this very steep side of the fell to the valley floor where Langstrath Beck flows. I found it was very steep going down at this point and it was at this time that I felt both my legs pulling at the thighs. I was not enjoying the walk one little bit. It seem to take ages getting down to the valley floor, and worse was to come. We had to cross the Beck and climb up the other side of that fell to reach the summit of Glaramara. As the saying goes, When things start to go wrong, it will get only worse before it gets better. And that's what was happening to me. Somehow I managed to get to the top of the fell with cramp in both legs. It was very painful indeed, but we were nearly at the summit. We arrived there at 4.00pm. I was very tired by now, and all I wanted to do was to sit down and rest my legs, but at the same time I was very pleased we had made it here. We had a bit to eat and a well earned drink of water, plus a very gentle massage to both legs to get the circulation flowing again, which helped. Now for the return journey. There was no way we would be returning the way we had just come, so we decided to go back via Allen Crags. By this time I was feeling very low and was walking with difficulty, as the cramp had returned in both legs. I rested to ease the pain and massaged both legs. By doing this they seemed to improve, and I was feeling much better in myself now. What can anyone do when this type of thing happens to you, only ''bite the bullet" as they say. We continued over level ground to Allen Crags, where we had another rest. By this time I was feeling much better in myself, the pulled muscle in my right leg was easing off and as we walked further on my left leg was improving all the time. As we made our way down to Angle Tarn the time now was 6.25pm. When we arrived at the car park the time was 8.15pm (what a long day it seemed.) All the cars which had been parked there early that morning had gone, bar one (I wonder whose car that was?) This brought a smile to my face, because I half expected to find a note on my car windscreen to say, "When you leave the car park, lock the gate" (it was that late in the evening.) On this day, we saw some wonderful scenery, and that made up for the little bit of pain, I went through. You ask, would I go there again? In a word, yes. Would I go the same way again? In a word, no! Mountains walked that day: Glaramara 46 Allen Crags 43 [[]] Diagram & Stats
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