Scafell Pike

So we had the weather on our side, the daylight was long, and we were staying close enough to get a decent car parking space.  Time for Scafell Pike.

Difficulty: 8
Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Grace (12), Evie (9), Poppy (6 1/2)
9:17, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (102)
13:59, 9.5km 4h41 1027m, Scafell Pike (978, Wainwright, Hewitt)
14:35, 10.1km 5h17 1071m, Broad Crag (934, Hewitt)
15:07, 10.9km 5h49 1107m, Ill Crag (935, Hewitt)
15:54, 12.2km 6h36 1166m, Great End (910, Wainwright, Hewitt)
16:42, 14.1km 7h24 1223m, Allen Crags (785, Wainwright, Hewitt)
17:51, 16.4km 8h33 1312m, Rossett Pike (651, Wainwright, Hewitt)
19:40, 22.0km 10h22 1329m, End (102)

We parked at the National Trust car park at Old Dungeon Ghyll, there were just a couple of spaces left at 9.15am when we go there.  You could tell there were lots of people heading the same way as us, but it wasn't actually too bad until the top.  We met a couple of groups several times, leapfrogging them on the water stops.  Exchanging more than a few words was great, one three-generation group taking their grandfather up to the top.

Up to Angle Tarn, with Esk Pike overlooking on the left.

After the hot climb up we decided to stop for lunch before getting to the summit, so got some peace and quiet before we hit the crowds...  There were several boulder fields to cross, which always slows things down.

Made it to the top, Poppy looking proud.  We got quite a few comments praising her for making it, although we never really had any doubts - she certainly is a star walker with years of practice. There were a load of people at the top - lots of people stopping to soak up the sunshine and recover.

Across to Ill Crag (having crossed more boulder fields via Broad Crag), with great views across to Scafell Pike.  We decided to try and catch a bunch of extra peaks on the way back, not surprisingly the crowds disappeared straight away on these diversions! 

Across to Great End, and met another couple at the summit who offered to take a rare family picture.

Along to Allen Crags.  We'd made sure we had plenty of water, unlike a couple of days earlier when we had run out in the sunshine.

Back to Esk Hause, looking down towards home.

We stopped for a while by Angle Tarn to finish off our last food supplies (maltloaf, appropriately for this blog).

And finally to Rossett Pike, for a last panorama of the growing shadows.