Piers Gill to Lord's Rake - No photos today
One of my targets today is Lingmell, I’ve climbed it a couple of times before, both times in mist and it was only afterwards when reading AW’s description of the summit that I realised that I hadn’t been there. A good weather forecast and I was hopeful of seeing its summit, on arrival at Wasdale it was obvious that I was in for another misty day upstairs.
From Wasdale Head I took the path past Burnthwaite Farm and alongside Lingmell Beck, keeping to the path beside the beck until the ground began to steepen. I realised that I had missed my turning for Piers Gill and after a short back track I saw the start of the path across a small stream. At the stream somebody had drawn an arrow pointing the way, do I not like that!
The lower part of Piers Gill is delightful, wild and picturesque, the indistinct path goes along the edge of a wide, stony streambed and there are great views up into the ravine of Piers Gill and back down to Wasdale.
The path isn’t too strenuous and becomes more obvious higher up and there are one or two small scrambles over rock. By the time I reached the interesting part of the Gill the visibility was very poor in the mist with only the occasional glimpse into the ravine. The upper part of the path passes through rocky terrain and there is one super little scramble over a rockface that is annoyingly disfigured with another drawn arrow.
The top of Piers Gill where the path meets the Corridor Route to Scafell Pike is a great place, shame about the visibility because it is very photogenic.
I followed the Corridor Route up to Lingmell Col and using a mixture of local knowledge and navigation by compass I found the path that leads directly up to Lingmell summit. The summit of Lingmell is another great place, the cairn is imposing but distinctly different to AW’s drawing and the nearby subsidiary summit is a wonderful, chaotic collection of boulders. Shame about the visibility, I felt as though I should have a tremendous view downwards.
Back down to the col and up the main highway to Scafell Pike, doing my usual job of dispensing directions to the visitors unsure of their direction in the mist. The summit had its usual coachloads of visitors, on the way down to Mickledore I was asked twice by people who had become separated from their companions if I had seen a large group of people at the summit. What could I say except that there is always a large group of people at the summit of Scafell Pike.
Mickledore ridge is another of my favourite places, shame about the visibility, I walked to the top end of the ridge and then dropped down to the Climber’s Traverse path giving it the respect it deserves, while listening to the sound of sliding scree on the nearby steep path up to Mickledore ridge.
I felt a little bit guilty about ignoring the warning sign at the bottom of Lord’s Rake but the adrenalin got the better of me. The fallen boulder at the top of the rake looked exactly as it did when I was last there in May. If that fell on me then parts of me would become part of Lord’s Rake – what a way to go!
I turned left just before the boulder on to the West Wall Traverse and then up the higher ascent of Deep Gill, this is a wonderful climb, no time to feel tired after walking for over 5 hours, the adrenalin just takes you there!
The final scramble out of the Gill found me on the very quiet, surprisingly large flat saddle below the summit of Scafell, not an easy place to navigate in the mist. I visited the summit and it was empty although by the time I got back down to the saddle there were about twenty people there.
I took the path down to the left heading over Green How and for a while the path is obvious but when the ground levels out, the path becomes very indistinct. I lost the path as the gradient became steeper and a belated look at the map showed the path turning to the right just before the contours got closer together. I turned right and contoured the fell until I found a faint path going downwards complete with a couple of cairns but the path became very difficult to follow further down.
I trusted the map and followed the side of a gill eventually reaching a fence with a stile and then just got down the green slope as best I could until reaching the main path near Brackenclose.
This is one of the great walks, just what I needed after a bad week.
Andy Wallace 27th July 2002