When Piers met Greta - Photo Gallery

I have walked the Corridor Route to and from Scafell Pike many times and have often wondered what lies off the path and specifically where is Lambfoot Dub and how would you get to Great End from there? I tell a lie, that was my Plan B after the weather became wetter than I wanted to walk my planned route but it is true that I wondered about how to find Lambfoot Dub and today was my opportunity. Anyway, to start with the weather was warm and pleasant at Wasdale Head although the hill tops were covered in mist, sometimes you just hope for the best.

I parked the car on the Green and walked along the track to Burnthwaite Farm, the walls either side of the track are moss-covered and ancient-looking. There are also curious large piles of stones some of which are enclosed by walls and others just in the middle of the fields, I have often wondered about the origin of these barrow-like features and the unnecessarily numerous and complicated walls. You walk through the farm buildings and through a gate that used to be tethered to get to the path that runs by the side of Lingmell Beck.

It is Three Peaks season and there are huge numbers of minibuses, cars and people in Wasdale but this valley walk is very quiet and very pleasant. You follow a track to begin with until you get to the bridge across Gable Beck, a trickle of water that just ends a few metres past the bridge. The wide stream bed contains a vast collection of stones as does Lingmell Beck and until you see the place on a wet day you would wonder why it needs a bridge. The next section of the path is still easy with the bracken quickly growing on either side and the occasional boggy patch to get across.

Then you get to a gate in a wall that someone had left open although to be fair it's difficult to see why a gate would be needed at this point. The gate leads to the upper half of Lingmell Beck, boulder strewn and much more rugged and surrounded by rugged, steep fells. The beck itself also becomes more interesting, mini canyons and inviting blue pools and a rush of water that can be difficult to get across in wet weather. Keep as close to the side of the beck as you can, a path goes left upwards towards Styhead Pass but you should continue past the point of the attractive meeting place of Piers Gill and Spouthead Gill until you can cross Spouthead Gill.

It would be easy to cross the gill almost anywhere today but there is a crossing place that used to be marked by a cairn, you can see a path on the opposite bank where the stones in the gill are positioned for an easy crossing. Someone has scratched an arrow on the large boulder at the crossing place, I would have preferred to see a small cairn. In wet weather this is the only place to cross and even then it isn't easy. Having crossed the gill there are variations in a path that takes you upwards by the side of the wide boulder filled gully that comprises Piers Gill at this level.

After a short while a fairly obvious path goes towards Styhead Pass but you should keep going up by the side of Piers Gill over generally pathless ground into the mist. At this stage you get glimpses of the dark canyons of Piers Gill and Greta Gill then when the two rocky streams meet everything changes. You cross over Greta Gill and suddenly everything is more rugged and spectacular but today it is also unfortunately more wet as the mist turns to rain; for now though there is still some visibility. There is a faint path but there really isn't much option except to follow Piers Gill uphill; its gully becoming deeper with vertical sides that disappear into the mist.

The path becomes a bit more obvious and there is a cairn shortly before you get to a rock face, it could have looked impossible if I hadn't been there before and if someone hadn't scratched another arrow to point the way. Even on a dry day you would have to take care on this ten metre climb, there are hand and foot holds but you need to look for them and make sure you keep to the correct line of ascent. After the scramble the walking is easy enough but at times you are really on the edge looking down into the depths of Piers Gill, or at least I would have seen the depths if it wasn't so misty.

Finally I reached the Corridor Route where it crosses the head of Piers Gill, I had decided it was too wet to do my planned route so what should I do now? I got out my map and compass and turned left along the Corridor Route until I crossed over Greta Gill again. I turned right and headed uphill following the young Greta Gill when there was a brief clearing in the mist and I saw Round How, a formidable looking crag. The map indicated that it might be easier to get to its summit if I followed Greta Gill and sure enough I got to a flatter area where the gill disappeared and I was able to simply walk up grass to the summit of Round How.

I decided I would try to find Lambfoot Dub in spite of the fact that the visibility was only a few metres at times but first I wanted to find the source of the sound of flowing water. Greta Gill had completely disappeared where I started to climb Round How and I was puzzled by the sound of running water so I headed off in the direction of the sound. In the middle of a large flat area was a metre high waterfall with no obvious source falling into a pond with no obvious outlet. Having satisfied my curiosity I set off to find Lambfoot Dub using a combination of map, compass and instinct – a potentially dangerous combination.

I went through a gap in crags going slightly downhill and reached a point where straight ahead the ground fell away steeply and to left and right there was a slight uphill climb over slippery moss and boulders. I turned left at first and got to a point where I felt I was going back towards Round How, instinct said go in the opposite direction as the map and compass weren't giving any clues. I went as straight ahead as possible avoiding any descents until I reached an obvious col where I decided I should head north towards (I hope) the Corridor Route, the map showed boulders and there were certainly plenty of those.

I descended a little as I walked and reached a point where the ground became wetter and started to descend more steeply, I was beginning to wonder if I should stop messing about. My instinct said go down but the map and compass said go up, in any any event I needed a clue as to where I was, maybe investigating in this mist wasn't such a good idea. If I had worked out my location properly I would find Lambfoot Dub if I climbed uphill for a short distance and as unlikely as I thought it would be I climbed and there it was. I made a half hearted attempt at trying to work out where the Corridor Route was and how to get here from it but it was too misty without descending all the way to the path.

It didn't look that far to Great End on the map so I headed just south of east over grass on an easy gradient. The gradient became less easy and the grass was interspersed with wet mossy areas and boulders under the grass. Then it became very steep, grass at first and then real scree, I became aware that I was walking up a gully, I kept swapping from side to side to walk up grass rather than over greasy stones. Then I became aware that I was heading up to a rock face and there seemed to be a skyline up to the left, I headed towards the skyline and saw that the rock face would have been too steep for me.

This is the kind of climb that looks impossible from a distance and if it hadn't been misty I wouldn't have ended up here but it's alright even if it is a bit steep. I had intended to get to the col at Calf Cove but I think I went around the wrong side of Long Pike which I think is the rock face I almost got to. I eventually got to the summit plateau of Great End, map and compass got me to a cairn and then to the summit all to myself. As I got to the summit the wind became very strong, after a bit of a sit down I was just about to head off towards Calf Cove when a party of cold looking walkers arrived at the summit, the first people I had seen for five hours.

I got to Calf Cove and the main road to Scafell Pike was full of people, many of these first timers to Scafell Pike must rely on the volume of walkers to guide them, there were not many maps in evidence. Ill Crag and Broad Crag came and went and then the final ascent to Scafell Pike, the first timers in their tee-shirts, shorts and trainers were treated to some real Scafell Pike horizontal drizzle. The summit was full of people but I was able to take a photograph of the summit cairn without anybody to be seen, they were all sheltering from the rain on the other side.

I didn't wait around and headed down towards Lingmell Col, the eroded path became replaced by a new reconstructed path when I got near Hollow Stones. This new reconstructed path typifies the worst about man made paths, the stones are positioned sloping down the hill next to each other making a nice smooth surface. This might work on the level but when the stones get wet it makes for a very awkward descent on a slippery surface. There is already a parallel set of foot marks in the grass by the side the path showing just how unsuitable the path is and defeating the erosion prevention purpose of the path.

The path will last for 1000 years because noone will actually walk on it, have the pathmakers ever asked walkers about the paths, I only hear how about how uncomfortable they are. I had a good day anyway, either my mapreading and navigating is getting better or I was just lucky.

Andy Wallace 2nd July 2005