A great day today climbing Scafell Pike from Seathwaite, despite a lack of views from the tops there was plenty of snow up high today.
We set off from Seathwaite Farm a little after 9am and headed up the track to Stockley Bridge, the river was much lower today than it had been the last few times I've been up this way and Taylorgill Force had just one waterfall coming down above us as opposed to the three that were there last week.
From Stockle Bridge we climbed up by Greenhow Knott and up alongside Styhead Gill following the path upstream to cross the wooden footbridge and up by Styhead Tarn to the stretcher box at Sty Head Pass.
After a short break by the stretcher box we crossed to the start of the Corridor Route, turning right onto the Corridor Route we descended a little and followed the path crossing Skew Gill and climbing above Stand Crag.
The snow started today near Greta Gill, a little higher than it's been the last few weeks and not nearly as deep. The snow was a little damp today and we were often walking on rocks until we were at Lingmell Col.
From Lingmell Col upwards the snow was better, more consistent, but still pretty damp in places, as we approached the summit of Scafell Pike the snow firmed up a little and we stopped to put our crampons on.
It didn't take us long to walk up to the summit of Scafell Pike, here we saw the only other walkers of the day, a couple leaving the summit to head back down towards Wasdale Head, soon we had the summit to ourselves, unfortunately there was no view today.
After a short lunch break behind the summit platform we headed off, following the ridge down towards Broadcrag Col and then up onto Broad Crag, there was enough snow up here to cover the boulders and it was solid enough to walk straight over the tops, we were soon up on Ill Crag and crossing the second boulder field with similar ease and descending through the deep snow in Calf Cove.
From Calf Cove we followed the path down towards Esk Hause, the southern side of the hause was almost bare of snow but the northern side was still holding reasonable amounts, we followed the snow down to the north to meet the path leading below Great End.
There was very little to see of great end in the mist today, we stopped on a grassy bank next to the path to take our crampons off and took the path down over Ruddy Gill to take the path down towards Grains Gill.
There was a little slush on the path to start with but this soon petered out as we descended to the first stream.
As the slush petered out so did the cloud, giving a few good views over the Borrowdale Valley as we descended back to Seathwaite Farm.
