Seathwaite Fell to Scafell Pike - Photo Gallery

It was a sunny morning, there was not a cloud in the sky, no mist on the tops and not as windy as it has been recently. I got to Seathwaite Farm at 8am, well before the crowds arrived, so I was able to park close to the farm gates. I walked through the farm buildings and along the track to Stockley Bridge, there were plenty of people around already even though it was still early. I made the steep climb up the mainly reconstructed path up to the hanging valley of Styhead Gill, close to where it ends abruptly at Taylorgill Force.

I had followed the crowd of several parties of walkers up to that point but didn't follow them up the valley; I set about the task I had set myself, to climb up the steep front of Seathwaite Fell. Although I had planned my route, those kinds of plans never survive contact with an untried route; it looked like a shallow gully might take me to the summit plateau. The grassy slope was steep, and it needed an all-fours scramble to get up the narrowest part of the gully; although it was extremely steep, it didn't cause me any anxiety.

As the steepness eased, I still had to climb up around big boulders until I reached the summit plateau; I was surprised to find somebody enjoying the view from the cairn at the top of a subsidiary summit. He had camped nearby, overnight in order to get there so early, and if I hadn't got a long way to go it would have been a fine place to linger and enjoy the morning sunshine.

Seathwaite Fell has an undulating summit, there are several subsidiary cairned peaks; at one cairn overlooking Great Gable, I seemed to be at the summit, but only then could I see the real summit, some distance away on the other side of the fell. There were more undulations, I made a false start down a quartz-veined rocky ridge, before walking around the head of a deep gully, and then walked up to the real summit.

I made an interesting little descent to a small tarn, where I picked up a faint path; there were several tents, complete with campers, around the tarn. I then walked easily downwards towards Sprinkling Tarn, there were plenty of tents around; it would indeed have been a fine morning to wake up outdoors. I walked around the edge of the tarn to join the Styhead to Esk Hause highway and started to walk upwards towards the latter; the path was leading me away from where I wanted to be, so I started to climb easily upwards, more directly towards the gullies and crags of Great End.

I found the steep grassy gill I was looking for; it soon narrows into a wet muddy mess so I scrambled up rocks onto a firmer grassy ridge, and walked up to small col near the summit of The Band. A small amount of scree marks the start of climb up Great End; you have to scramble up a rock chimney, you don't have to but it's better than the alternative, and is is easy enough in dry conditions. After the initial scramble, the ground is less steep, and there is even a path, at first anyway; the ground becomes wetter, and all signs of a path disappear.

If you keep going uphill, bearing left, you will climb steeply up either loose stones or wet grass depending on your line of ascent, until you reach much stonier ground. I traversed sideways more than usual and ended up on steep eroded slope, I was still able to walk upright until I reached a steep narrow gully. It needs a bit of a scramble to get over the boulders in the gully, it's the one you end up in when you descend from Great End; it is still steep above it, it is eroded and stony until you reach a cairn near the top of Branch Gully.

It is an extremely rough, bouldery climb upwards, there are some signs of a trodden path, but it there is a lot of boulder-hopping required. Eventually I got up to the windy summit, it was feeling quite cool as I walked over to the other two cairned peaks; before walking down to Calf Cove. The breeze kept it feeling cool but the sun was burning down, I replenished my sunscreen at Calf Cove but I had to put on my wind-proof pertex jacket because it became quite cool.

I had not seen many people for hours but now I was part of the rush, across Ill Crag and Broad Crag without visiting summits; at least I know where they are. The climb up to the summit of Scafell Pike was busy, and there was standing room only at the summit; I didn't hang around before making the descent to Lingmell Col. I walked along the Corridor Route, to Styhead and then made my way back to Seathwaite; there were cars parked along the road, almost all the way to Seatoller.

© Andy Wallace 30th May 2009