Mellbreak, as seen from the Loweswater road at Kirkstile
Height: 1676 feet above sea level.
Volume: Book 7 (The Western Fells).
The north top of Mellbreak.
Date climbed: 17th October 2012 (walk 67)
Bagged as number: 209 out of 330. [ << Caudale Moor (208) (210) Hen Comb >> ]
Route of ascent and descent: Ascended from Lanthwaite Green – more or less by the route depicted on Wainwright’s page Mellbreak 5, but with a longer preamble. Descended via the south ridge, down into Mosedale and on to Hen Comb.
What Mr Wainwright says(from page 1 of his chapter): “In West Cumberland, where Mellbreak is a household word… the fell is highly esteemed, and there have always been people ready to assert that it is the finest of all. This is carrying local patriotism too far, but nevertheless it is a grand hill in a beautiful situation with a character all its own and an arresting outline not repeated in the district. There is only one Mellbreak.”
Mellbreak and Lanthwaite Green. The ‘collapsed boat’ shape of the fell is apparent.
What I say: Actually I’d like to make a case for Mellbreak having a sibling elsewhere in the district, indeed in the same volume, and it’s Yewbarrow. Mellbreak is definitely easier to get up, particularly at its southern end, but this whole ‘collapsed hull of a boat’ thing is very familiar, as is its generally spiky ascent and the fact that it then decided to throw grotty weather at me for the duration of my time on the summit, as if to punish me for having the temerity to make it that far.
I’ve walked all around Mellbreak before climbing it – it’s come so late in the sequence that was inevitable – and it’s always looked good. But that haul up from Loweswater is pretty tough, don’t underestimate it.
The 214 Wainwright fells: without a car 
[…] walk 67 saw me bag the last two fells from Wainwright’s volume 7, The Western Fells – Mellbreak and Hen Comb – and thus leave myself only with peaks that can be bagged at any day of the […]