Rakes Return to Pen - Photo Gallery

I was excited about the start of my Wasdale season, partly because I just like the place but also in anticipation of what the scrambles will be like after the winter. It was a sunny morning, although when I got to the Brackenclose car park, the hills I had come to visit were covered by mist. I set off walking in shorts and soon it was warm enough to have to take my jacket off; the rush to Scafell Pike was beginning, there were several groups of walkers on the path behind me. You have to cross Lingmell Gill to reach the Brown Tongue path; it is fairly easy to step across the boulders when they are dry but there were lots of less confident walkers making it look difficult.

Across the stream, more work has been done, and is still being done, on the reconstructed path. It should be better for descent and there should be no need to use the new parallel path (made by people avoiding the existing badly made path), but will the 3-peaks hordes care enough to try it? You can't avoid the slog upwards, even though the path makes the climb a bit easier it is still a long way up. The path splits before you reach Hollow Stones, I can't believe that all the people heading towards Mickledore for Scafell Pike really meant to choose that route instead of the good path towards Lingmell Col.

The mist had been retreating above the summits as I was walking up to Hollow Stones; by the time I got there it was colder, cold enough to put on my jacket, and gloves too. You have a brief respite from the gradient, as you walk across Hollow Stones, before climbing again on a reconstructed path that takes you upwards to a big boulder. A less steep path takes you past a cairn, and shortly afterwards a group of boulders opposite a scree fan, where the view upwards into the intimidating dark damp rocks adds to the anticipation.

I walked up the scree, it has moved and changed a lot since I was last there; as I was almost at the top I met a couple of walkers who had walked along Rake's Progress from Mickledore. They were looking up Lord's Rake, and after the usual pleasantries they asked “is it safe?”; I replied “of course not, why do you think I'm here”; they ran up quickly enough so it can't have been that bad. There were many new, loose boulders in the Rake; it is usual for the time of year, but some of them were quite large and the material at the lower end was very unstable.

I kept to the right hand side as I usually do these days; I had to make some awkward steps to avoid disturbing the loose stones and becoming part of a bouldery cascade. There is bare earth on the steeper upper section, the loose boulders have already moved downwards; the infamous fallen boulder is a bit more undermined, and takes an even more awkward manoeuvre to get underneath it. I walked on to the end of the Rake; there is plenty of erosion happening all along its length, but I was in sunshine at last.

Having walked up to the highest point, and enjoyed the view in the sunshine, I walked back to the boulder again, and got past the top side of it; getting underneath would have been quite a stretch. The way around the side of the boulder is still an awkward step and you can't avoid handling the rock; it always causes me a certain amount of apprehension even though I'm fairly sure it's too heavy for one person to make it move. I clambered up the shattered entrance to the West Wall Traverse, climbing onwards and upwards in the shadow of the impressive crags of Scafell Pinnacle.

As if to emphasise the coldness there was a six foot long fragment of snow in Deep Gill; when I reached the scrambling section of the upper part of Deep Gill, it was obvious that there have been considerable rock falls and erosion. This part of the gill has been static for years, but it is obviously different now, and some of the big boulders are loose enough to move again. The higher part of Deep Gill is more of a challenge than it has been before; as it narrows there is rough, steep ground and slippery rocks, but recently it has become very eroded, there is a lot of new material and great care is needed.

I had to make the usual contortion to get out at the top of the gill, on to the sunny plateau; I walked across to the empty summit of Scafell, where the mist had cleared enough for me to see over to the busy summit of Scafell Pike. I walked along the ridge downwards to Slight Side; I met several walkers coming in the opposite direction who had toiled up the long slope from Wha House. At the excellent rocky summit of Slight Side, I found a little sun trap out of the wind, before clambering down off the summit pinnacle to find the path.

Once you find the obvious path downwards, there is an eroded section of loose stones at first, before you find a more reasonable path going down over grassy ground. You come across an obvious rash of boulders, with a larger flat-topped rock by the side of the path; it has a cairn on it again, this is the place to turn left. This is my secret path, contouring around the grassy base of Slight Side before eventually descending towards Eskdale. When you see Sampsons Stones appear below, you can trace the path leading to them and make your way down to it.

The path leads to an old sheepfold; there is a stream issuing from gateway, and as I was getting across the stream, I slipped on a rock, and hit my knee on my way downwards. I could see the ground coming towards me, but I couldn't quite stop myself in time to stop my forehead from touching the boulder at ground level. I'm not quite sure where my hands were and why I couldn't stop myself from falling, but there was no harm done; I carried on along the small path, ignoring the turn up to the impressive and interesting Cam Spout.

I headed towards the impressive crag ahead, the bold Eskdale-facing side of Pen; I was not really looking forward to the very steep grassy ascent, and was pleased to be able to clamber up a steep boulder slope, it was strenuous but better than the grass. There is a final grassy slope to climb up to the summit plateau where there are three peaks; I climbed middle one, from where I saw a cairn on furthest one and to my surprise there were other walkers there. They asked which peak is the summit and I said the one they were on, but I couldn't find the rock formations I had seen before at the summit.

I looked back to the first outcrop and it was obviously the summit, so I had to go and visit it; sure enough I found the swirls in the rocks that I was expecting. At the summit of Pen, there are curious and unique rock formations; the spectacular view of Ill Crag is also unique to this rocky subsidiary of Scafell Pike. I was looking for a way to climb Scafell Pike, I couldn't see one but I have done it before; I walked around the base of the large crag but I couldn't see any obvious way up.

The potential alternative routes back to Wasdale were unappealing, to say the least, so I had to find a way up. I walked up to the crags and looked more closely, and I did find a reasonable way up between the rocks; there was either a grassy route between the crags or easy scrambling over them. As the gradient eased, Ill Crag showed its best side; it is a rugged, handsome hill and well worthy of its own Wainwright status.

I reached an easier gradient and clambered over boulders to reach the summit plateau of Scafell Pike, then walked across boulders to the still busy summit. The sun finally overcame the breeze and I had to put my sun-hat and take off my gloves and jacket. I walked down the highway to Lingmell Col; I had intended to climb Lingmell for a better descent route, but it had taken longer than I thought to get this far so I made the long hard descent back to Brown Tongue and beyond. The re-reconstructed path is much better for descent than it used to be; I just hope that all of the boulder-filled bags that are still lying around, having been brought in by helicopter, mean that they are going to finish it off properly.

© Andy Wallace 2nd May 2009