Skew Gill to Lingmell - Photo Gallery

I parked on the Green at Wasdale Head, and walked up the good track to Burnthwaite Farm and then on the rough track by the side of Lingmell Gill to its junction with Piers Gill. It's easy to cross the stream in such dry weather, and after a short walk uphill on grass the path splits, the left branch takes you up a cairned path that leads to a dry stony stream bed. The stones are actually the start of Skew Gill, follow them to where the Corridor Route starts and the climb of Skew Gill begins.

Skew Gill is big and bouldery, but easier without any water in it, as you climb it becomes narrower and the sides are steeper. The first waterfall can't be climbed you have to climb up the steep eroding bank to get above it, there is no choice higher up where you have to climb up the rocky gill, it takes a bit of nerve and determination to find a way up the eroding rock walls.

The climb gets harder and a steep, narrow gill scramble requires even more determination; by this stage the prospect of descending is worse than that of carrying on. The gill opens out, but there is some awkward scrambling over wet rocks to get to the final exit from the gill. The final 20 foot rock wall looks impossible and it is always wet, but the holds for hands and feet are good if not very obvious; the final strenuous manoeuvre takes you onto bouldery scree, the loose rocks are worryingly close to the steep drop behind.

You have a choice of clambering up onto an exposed ridge or an awkward walk up the unstable boulders to the summit of The Band. The ascent of Broad End from there looks impossible, but a small amount of light coloured scree gives a clue to the straightforward rock chimney that you have to climb. A steep climb up muddy grass is followed by a steep climb up an eroded stony path; when you reach the cairn at the top of Branch Gully another bouldery climb takes you to the summit of Great End.

I walked over to the top of Custs Gully to see the balanced boulder but it seems to have disappeared, or I was I at the top of the wrong gully? I walked across the broad summit plateau and down to Calf Cove, before starting the bouldery climb towards Ill Crag. On the easy boulder-hopping section I stumbled, and in spite of some fancy footwork I eventually fell amongst the boulders, finally coming to rest as the side of my head hit one of them.

I carried on across the shoulders of Ill Crag and Broad Crag without visiting either summit, before climbing up the busy ridge to the summit of Scafell Pike. I walked down the eroded path to Lingmell col before making the short climb up to the summit of Lingmell. It's a fairly easy walk down the broad ridge, except for a steep eroded section; shortly after climbing a wall at the bottom of the slope, I turned right on an increasingly eroded path back to Wasdale Head

Andy Wallace 12th Jun 2010