Scafel – The final fell

So, at last, I reach the final fell, Scafel. This is the last of this quest of walking all 71 fells over 2000 feet in the Lake District. It has taken some time but there never was any hurry. We just get out when we can and get a walk in.

We had planned to stay over in the Lakes after the walk so we didn’t need such an early start. Peter picked me up at 7 am prompt, ready to head over to Wasdale. The forecast was for fairly heavy rain and potential thunder until around 10am, easing off a little and a reasonably bright afternoon.

We arrived in Wasdale around 9.45 and parked on the village green near the Wasdale Head Inn. Boots on and ready to walk just before 10 am.

Start of the walk

Today marked the return of two old friends. The first one we were about to tuck in to, home made scotch eggs, a very filling start to the day!

Our path took us directly across the path we took to Lingmell last year and down towards Lingmell Gill and on towards Brown Tongue.

We reached Lingmell Gill and walked up the left of it for a short distance and eventually crossed to the other side.

At this point we were making really good time, we were about half way in distance although only about a third of the height. So, plenty of walking ahead. Walking up Brown Tongue, the path forked left and right. The left takes you to Scafel Pike, so the right was our route towards Mickledore. This path was much quieter as the main traffic was heading towards the Pike.

Shortly after the junction we stopped for a cuppa and something to eat.

We had been chasing the cloud up the mountain to this point, the rain had stopped and it was getting a little brighter.

Now it gets harder!

Everything had been fairly easy up to this point, we were making good time, steadily climbing, already well over 2000 feet. The weather was getting brighter. All good we thought! Now the hard work started as we set foot on the loose scree towards Mickledore. This is about a 300 or 400 foot stretch where you take a step forward and slide back. It took some effort to get to the top.

The Lords Rake

At this point you could turn left to go to Scafel Pike. There were four people walking the Pike for charity who were doing exactly that. We turned right towards the Lords Rake. We were still climbing up to about 2800 feet in height, only another 300 feet to climb! Then to my horror I realised that to get to to the Lords Rake, you had to drop considerable height, not once but 2 or 3 times! If you scroll forward to around 2.5 miles into the 3D view of the walk here you will see the drops we had to take.

Not only were there drops in height the climbs were difficult too, on loose stones. It was quite a challenge but strangely we didn’t see anyone else on this part of the walk. Whilst it was hard work it was safe as there was nowhere to fall really.

There used to be a chockstone which rested side to side at the top of the first section of the Lords Rake but it was now fallen. We had to climb over the fallen stone.

We stopped for another cuppa after the first section. As you can see in the photo above which looks back to the top of the first section, we dropped height as soon as we came out of this part.

We continued to climb and fall until we eventually got out of the Lords Rake. We were now in thick cloud, unfortunately the sunshine did not overtake the cloud. It was also quite windy now. Also for some reason my Viewranger app had stopped recording the walk so I had to restart (that’s why there are 2 separate sections of the Viewranger stats.) It was so cloudy we couldn’t see which way to go, left or right! A mixture of getting the app working again and good old fashioned map reading from Peter got us back on track. It was a right turn!

Summit of Scafel

Fortunately we were only minutes away from the summit although we couldn’t see it! We reached the top at 2.15pm. At long last number 71 of 71 was chalked off.

It was very windy at the top, so only time for a couple of quick photos and for Peter to present me my medal. It was difficult to see past 50 yards but the views up here would be fantastic on a good day. We could see there were a couple of shelters and obviously the main cairn.

The Descent

We dropped back down to the col between Scafel and Symonds Knott and noticed this stone cross in the ground.

We found the path back to the top of the Lords Rake and had to make a decision whether to go back down (and up) the rake or to find a different route. I didn’t much fancy the rake the other way round so Peter found a route via Rakehead Crag back down towards Wast Water.

At first this was a steady descent and we were making good time again. However at some point we had to lose height more quickly.

At least we were back in sun again now and got some nice final photos of the surrounding fells.

The final drop was very steep via scree and finishing off on grass. Most of this I spent on my backside. Some of it intentional, some not so intentional!

We finally got back to the campsite and had to walk back to the Wasdale Head In. This seemed straight forward until we reached a fast running stream. Just enough to cover our boots and get our feet wet! Then a similar depth pond, then the stream again, and again! So a nice wet finish to the walk!

Some thanks

I mentioned earlier that today marked the return of two old friends. The Scotch Eggs first but more importantly Steve Carragher joined us for the evening at the pub. Steve and Peter got me involved in this some twenty years ago, maybe more. I did several walks without even recording them. The first official walk I recorded with them was Bowfell back in 2007, although I had walked the Old Man of Coniston in 2004 so that was my first real walk on this journey. Since then I have done 12 walks some years but as few as 3 walks in other years. It has taken some time but I want to thank Peter for getting me through each one and especially for the many extra hours he has spent on the fells waiting for me to sloooooowwwwly descend!

Thanks also to Steve for more than 20 walks for the same reasons as above. Thanks to our wives Julie and Sara and families for allowing us to get up at stupid o’clock and leave for a day over lots and lots of weekends.

Fortunately we have never needed Mountain Rescue but thanks to them for the work they do to rescue people like us who may get into trouble.

If you have read this blog and found it useful then thank you to you too. If nothing else you can be assured that if I can do it, you certainly can, so get out on the fells and enjoy them.

Now time for beer and food to celebrate.

We will be back!

Click here to see phase 1 of the walk in 3d and here to see phase 2.