Lingmell

Friday 4th May 2018

When I started planning my holiday in the Lake District I decided the best way of descent from Scafell Pike and Sca Fell would be along the Terrace Route into Eskdale. This is a fantastic route, especially in descent, and I absolutely love it having taken it several times including on my first ever visit to the Lake District in 2002. However when I came to booking the Youth Hostels I found that Eskdale was fully booked for the day I wanted, which was a great disappointment as it’s a good hostel. My solution was not pretty, which was to double back from Sca Fell to Borrowdale, but the problem with this is that it is not easy to get from Scafell Pike to Sca Fell as the big cliff of Broad Stand is in the way. There are two ways around with one that is really difficult while the other is almost impossible (I am slightly exaggerating). The official right-of-way involves a considerable descent before a wet scramble up a rough gully to Foxes Tarn, and the other route is the notorious Lord’s Rake. I had not been looking to this walk and was keen to avoid it, so I jumped on the idea that came to me during the week to switch Thursday and Friday's planned walk, therefore Great Gable and Kirk Fell was switched to Thursday and Scafell Pike was postponed to Friday.

My idea now was to descend from Sca Fell down Green How to Wasdale Head and then after climbing the two highest mountains in England I would climb again up over Black Sail Pass into Ennerdale. This was possibly only slightly better than going around Broad Stand twice, but in the end the weather intervened. In good weather these plans would probably have been achievable, but the warmer weather that had arrived the day before was very moist leaving thick mist on the tops of the fells. As I set off from the Borrowdale Youth Hostel I took the same route that I had taken the day before as far as Seathwaite, but then continued along the bridleway past Taylor Gill Force up to Sty Head. Usually I take the much better footpath on the other side of the river that takes an exciting and scrambly route much closer to the waterfall, but I thought I would take the bridlepath on this occasion, because I thought it would be quicker, and because I had never actually taken it before all the way to Sty Head. By the time I reached the stretcher box at the top of the pass I was within clouds and it was very difficult to see where I was going. The paths are not clear at that point and I think I took the wrong path while trying to find a short cut onto the Corridor Route.

I started descending into Wasdale before eventually checking my position and found that I was at the 455 metre level, which is not only lower than Sty Head Pass, but also considerably lower than the Corridor Route. Climbing up the grassy slopes I thoroughly wore myself out and I had still not reached the path, so eventually I checked my position again and found that I was at 619 metres, which must have meant that I was on the Corridor Route! I was wasting valuable time running up and down this hill that I could not spare on my ambitiously planned walk. Soon I came across a deep ravine filled with the sound of falling water that blocked my way and forced me to climb further uphill where I found the wonderful Corridor Route. Greta Gill had funnelled me onto the scrambly section of the path and brought me back on track, but I was now completely fed up with the idea of doing Scafell Pike and Sca Fell. I had not been looking forward to this walk ever since I booked the hostels, so getting lost just sealed my fate. I no longer wanted to do Scafell Pike and Sca Fell as it just didn’t seem to be worth it. Even though I was now safely on the Corridor Route I had already decided to miss out those two fells.

Heading along the fabulous Corridor Route that is always a pleasure to walk, despite the low clouds, I eventually reached Lingmell Col where I turned right away from Scafell Pike and up to the large cairn that marks the summit of Lingmell. There I had my lunch and even though it was only half an hour later than my planned arrival time I started heading down Lingmell towards Wasdale Head. There is a path down the shoulder of Lingmell but is too sketchy at first to provide direction in mist down the broad top so eventually I gave up on trying to find it and decided to cross the grassy slopes until I reached the tourist path down Brown Tongue. This is the first time that I’d descended this path and it’s horrible. It’s very slippery when wet and very steep so I was quite relieved when I finally reached the bottom and was crossing the foot of Lingmell to reach Wasdale Head. Passing the Inn I took the bridlepath that heads into the delightful Mosedale that I can’t say I’ve visited very often. I was entranced by what I saw of this secluded, unspoilt valley where a lovely, little path gently climbs all the way up to the top of the Black Sail Pass. I have only once before been on this path when I came down from the pass in 2004. I remember the path back then as being heavily eroded, but since then a lot of work has done to create a great, well-constructed path.

Eventually I reached the top of Black Sail Pass and on the other side I found a path that is in a completely different condition to the smoothly graded path on the other side: it is badly disintegrated, stony and requires some scrambling to negotiate the steep terrain. In some ways it’s a horrible path, but looked at differently it’s a great rocky path with some fun, challenging scrambly sections down the steep, stony hillside. Passing the Black Sail Hut I walked all the way down Ennerdale to the Youth Hostel at the bottom of the valley.  If the weather had been good then I think I would have had no problems doing this walk as planned, but getting lost after Sty Head stopped me having fun so that I had no desire to continue as planned. It is possible that I overreacted when I chickened out of doing Lord’s Rake in the mist, but if it was a mistake then I erred on the side of caution. As it is I had now failed in my challenge to climb all fifty-six fells in the Lake District that are more than two and a half thousand feet high, so now my challenge was simply to do as many as I could, and with the vagaries of Lakeland weather that is all I ever could have hoped.