A surprisingly good day today climbing Scafell Pike from Seathwaite, despite cloud on the summit and some strongish winds we had some great views on the way up and down.
We set off from Seathwaite at 9.20am and followed the track through the farm and along the valley to Stockley Bridge, this was the first time I had been up this way since twice being beaten by the weather on Scafell Pike last week, the streams were much lower today, despite the heavy rain yesterday.
We were soon across Stockley Bridge and taking the steeper path up by Greenhow Knott, through the gate and up above the trees to the boulder that marks the 1'000ft contour.
The winds were light and there were plenty of breaks in the cloud, a few of the higher tops were in cloud, but as many were out as were in cloud and several several including Blencathra and Green Gable were clearing.
We were soon up at the wooded footbridge and getting our first views over Sty Head towards Scafell Pike, it was a little disappointing, the summits were in thick cloud. But as we climbed past Sty Head Tarn to Sty Head Pass there were a few promising breaks, not up to the summit of Scafell Pike but Lingmell and Great End both cleared for a short while and we could see the path ahead as far as Lingmell Col.
We pressed on, aware that we had set off a little later than planned and crossed to the Corridor Route and were soon across Skew Ghyll and climbing up past the 'Corridor' to the plateau above Stand Crag.
We descended the little scramble and crossed to Great Gill, taking the path above Piers Gill to Lingmell Col.
Once on Lingmell Col we were into the cloud, the winds weren't too strong here but as we climbed a little higher they did increase towards the summit of Scafell Pike.
As we climbed from Lingmell Col the path began to become a little icy, there was next to no snow up here today, just a very thin layer of verglas on the rocks on this side of the summit, the side that was catching the wind coming in off the coast.
We were soon up on the summit of Scafell Pike, alas no views again today, and it was a little chilly in the wind up here, we took a short break out of the wind but didn't stop too long.
We were soon off again descending towards Broad Crag Col, as we dropped down the slope here we were soon out of the wind and there was much less ice on the rocks on this side of Scafell Pike and it was much easier than expected to descend the steep slope to Broad Crag Col.
As we climbed up onto the boulder field on Broad Crag there was a little more ice again, although not as much as on the western slopes of Scafell Pike, but there was just enough to make it a little tricky to cross the boulders, but we were soon onto the easier path descending again towards our final climb of the day, up towards Ill Crag, there was no ice on this path and it took us no time to get over Ill Crag to the second boulder field and then down into Calf Cove.
Christian had spent a lot of time here with me this time last year on a Winter Skills Course, it looked very different today with no snow in the cove.
From Calf Cove we descended towards Esk Hause, taking a slight short cut down the grassy slope to meet the path below as it descended towards Great End and to the top of the Grains Gill Path.
The Grains Gill path descends alongside Ruddy Gill, only meeting Grains Gill towards the base of the valley, the top section of the path runs alongside the deep ravine, it's often said that this section of the gill has a wider variety of plant life than anywhere else in the Lake District, you can see why this may be the case, it's one of the few places that the sheep can't get to!
We followed the path down to the wooden footbridge and descended to Stockley Bridge and followed the track back to Seathwaite Farm, a great day on Scafell Pike, up and down in just over 6 hours.
