To Bouldery Go - Photo Galleries Lord's Rake and the rest of Scafell
My last trip to Wasdale this year and I had planned to climb Great Gable but the weather is clear and the forecast is good, this could be a good day for getting some photographs of Scafell.
From the car park at Brackenclose, take the familiar Brown Tongue up to Hollow Stones, this path has recently been visited by the Path Fairy.
Shortly after the big boulder is a collection of smaller boulders facing the fan of scree coming down from the start of Lord’s Rake. This is my usual resting place before climbing the scree and as I was sitting there a bank of mist rolled in over the crags, maybe I wouldn’t get any pictures after all.
There were quite a few people climbing up the scree, unusual this year because of the warning notices regarding Lord’s Rake but apart from myself they were all climbers, presumably attracted by the Cumbrian Mountain Festival event being held at the Wasdale Head Inn.
Lord’s Rake is an excellent place to be alone, a different world far away from whatever is was I was trying to forget.
Instead of taking the turn off for the West Wall Traverse immediately I want to explore the full length of Lord’s Rake, the mist has cleared and the visibility is almost perfect.
The fallen boulder isn’t as massive as I had thought, it is between eight and ten feet tall and two to three feet in diameter, but still big enough to put a dent in my head. It hasn’t broken off the vertical wall of the rake, it is a different type of rock, and the erosion of the loose material at its base has caused it to lose its footing. Further erosion of the loose material will eventually cause the boulder to fall into the Rake but for now it would take more strength than I could muster to dislodge it.
I wouldn’t climb under the boulder because of the steepness of the loose material around its base, there is a one foot wide channel to the right of it where I could squeeze past. On the opposite side of the boulder it is easy to see that the base has moved about three feet from its original fixed position whilst it has fallen and come to rest at an angle of 45 degrees, its top firmly lodged against the opposite wall of the Rake.
Continuing along Lord’s Rake there is a small dip and rise up to the second col, what it lacks in difficulty it more than makes up for with its views along the Rake and of the magnificent rock scenery all around. The slippery descent and climb up to the third high point of the Rake are not as difficult as the first section but care is still needed because it’s a long, steep way down to Hollow Stones.
I then retraced my steps back to the boulder where getting down to the start of the West Wall Traverse is quite awkward over the loose, steep base of the boulder.
On the Traverse the views, the closeness of the crags and the precipitous surroundings make this one of my favourite places, the climbers on Scafell Pinnacle are almost within arm’s reach. The climb up Deep Gill is another splendid scramble and the surrounding high walls of rock and narrow view down the gill make it feel almost like a lost world, whereas the usual misty conditions make it feel like a different planet.
The summit plateau of Scafell is unusually clear and unpopulated as usual, scrambling to the rocky tops of Pisgah and Symonds Knott gives a real feeling of being high up, Scafell Pike looks bulky but inferior. The summit of Scafell is a fine, airy place, a place to be satisfied that you have got there.
The second half of the walk involves losing lots of hard earned height, walk the easy path along the ridge to Slight Side, another summit with real character, well worth a few minutes exploring the complex rocky tops. Each time I descend Slight Side I seem to find the wrong way down and have to cross over bouldery scree to get to the path that leads easily down towards Cowcove Beck.
I don’t want to go all of the way down to Cowcove Beck and on reaching a large boulder with a cairn (two stones today) sitting on top of it I turn left and follow a faint path northwards. I lost the path and crossed a boulder field, I felt that I was walking where nobody else had walked before when I came across a string of cairns. A faint path took a natural easy line across the contours, when I lost the path I looked for a similar easy line and kept coming across the path. High above Sampson’s Stones I finally lost the path and it was time to descend the grassy, bouldery fellside, the not-too-difficult descent took me across the stone wall that goes high up the stony side of the fell and then to Sampson’s Stones.
A more obvious path then leads to the waterfall at Cam Spout, looking magnificent, and the scramble up the crags alongside the waterfall. I was expecting the climb up to the start of Foxes Tarn Gully to be more painful but I kept myself hydrated and walked slowly and steadily until I arrived at the start of my final climb of the day. Tired legs were forgotten as I scrambled up the gully to the puddle-like tarn and I got something of a second wind to take me up the path across the scree to the summit plateau of Scafell.
By now the weather was glorious, the sky was the bluest blue, downhill now all the way. The Green How path is a fast way down but it isn’t free, it takes its toll on tired knees and feet as your toes are wedged against the front of your boots on the steep grassy descent.
A most splendid end to this year’s Wasdale season, it was dark by the time I got home, it truly is the end of summer.
Andy Wallace 21st September 2002