A wonderful long day climbing Scafell & Scafell Pike from Wasdale Head today.
We set off from the Wasdale Head Inn and headed up over Lngmell Breast to meet the Brown Tongue path climbing up towards Scafell and Scafell Pike.
The weather on the climb was incredibly warm, there was no breeze in the combe and although there was a little cloud it was very muggy.
We made good progress and were soon up over Hollow Stones and crossing Lingmell Coll to Lingmell.
The summit of Lingmell was in cloud today so we didn't get the views over towards Great Gable, we didn't stop for too long, deciding to get to the summit of Scafell Pike before lunch.
We polished off the final climb up to the summit of Scafell Pike in good time and were soon sitting on the rocks by the summit to eat our lunches, there was barely a breeze up here today so no need for the wind shelters.
After lunch we dropped down towards Mickledore, bumping into Geoff and the other group coming up the final slope, they had been climbing from Seathwaite today.
We followed the path down to Mickledore and descended down the scree to the bottom of the Foxes Tarn path, the stream was almost dry today and we had little trouble climbing the path to the very low Foxes Tarn.
We took our time up the final climb, it was very hard work in the heat but were soon up on the plateau and after a short detour to the top of Scafell Crag and Piscah we were up on the summit of Scafell.
Unfortunately we were still in cloud on the summit of Scafell but as we descended the ridge towards Slight Side we dropped below the clouds and had some wonderful views over Burnmoor Tarn and Eskdale and as we reached Slight Side the cloud lifted off the high tops giving us some god views back towards Scafell and Scafell Pike and north over Bowfell and the Crinkles.
After a good break in the sun on Slight Side we descended west, passing the memorial for the 1941 plane crash on the slope below Slight Side before dropping down to follow Oliver Gill down towards Burnmoor Tarn and taking the path just to the north of Maiden Castle to meet the Corpse Road following this north to descend to Brackenclose and the Wasdale Valley and the short walk along the valley back to the Wasdale Head Inn.
