Peak & Lake District Sojourn. Day 41.

Scafell, Wasdale Head, Lake District (2xNuttalls and Wainwright).

Scafell 964m, Symonds Knott 959m and Slight Wide 762m.

Summary

Well the weather has got very British. Full waterproofs, driving rain and couldn’t see bugger all above 500m and then it’s shorts when your back down in the valley. Scafell today should have been a nice hill to do, especially via Lords Rake (A nice grade 1 scramble) as I intended but the weather spoilt my plans somewhat. A long hard single section hike uphill for 850m got the heart going pretty well too fair play. Lots of rocky paths, boulder blocks and a fair share of boggy bits slowed things down a bit too, along with having to do a fair bit of navigating. A no view day but two Nuttalls and another Wainwright done (N:49/256 & W:56/214).

Easy enough path to follow out from the NT car park at Wasdale Head. Turn left on an indistinct path immediately you pass the gate at the edge of the forest. This path gets more defined later but follow this all the way (850m height gain) to the rocky summit of Scafell and its small cairned summit.

Today I had to navigate by compass to Symonds Knott heading NE for a few hundred meters (short down/up section). Again this is rocky/boulder strewn top. Then it was back to Scafell where I headed off South keeping the cliffs on my left in general. There is a path. After a good 1.5k’s you get to your third rocky small cairned summit of the day in Slight Side. I still couldn’t see nothing!

After Slight Side I decided to head across country (no paths) downhill towards Long Gill. Followed the river down a bit, crossed it, headed across the boggy wet valley bottom above Burnmoor Tarn and then picked up a path that took me back to the main Illgill Head path that took me back to the start point. This last section was not too difficult but there is no defined path to cover this section unless somebody can tell me otherwise.

Parking: NT car park and toilets at Wasdale Head. £7 all day parking.

Route: Long uphill section of 850m height gain at the start. Rocky summits and surrounding areas on all three tops. Good paths in general until Slight Side. No paths most of the way from Slight Side to Illgill Head path but the going is not that bad.

Route Statistics: A 12.5km, 950m height gain day done in 5 hours.