Scafell and Bowfell 1-2 September 2023

Quite a long walk in the Lakes - almost 1800 m of elevation gain. In order not to gain too much altitude, we traversed several ridges. We spent the night on a small flat shelf just three kilometres from Seathwaite, we had already camped there once. In the morning we woke up and there was not a cloud in the sky, no wind, no midges, it was warm and beautiful.

The blue and red lines show our tracks on the 9 and 10 September. Shift-click on the track link will open it in nakarte.me.

We climbed up Aaron Crags and then descended to Sprinkling Tarn. Right in front of us is Great End.

Sprinkling Tarn from Great End. We climbed up to Custs Gully but it was wet and green, so we went around it on the right.

Custs Gully.

The two lazy sheep didn't even move as we approached.

There is a cross on the rock in memory of four climbers who died here in 1903. Last time we didn't know about it and passed it by.	The climb up Lord's Rake is on a steep but stable scree. In the middle of the gully we turned left on the West Wall Traverse.

On the wet rock there were many rosettes of Starry saxifrage (Saxifraga stellaris). After our trip to Norway, we started to look more closely at the plants that grow in England.

Hazy Burnmoor Tarn in the pastel colours.

We climbed Scafell and looked in amazement at the queue on Scafell Pike (you can see it if you enlarge the photo). It is the highest peak in England (978 m), and that's where people flock to.

We had lunch at Foxes Tarn and set off on a traverse along Scafell Pike and Ill Crag, trying not to lose much elevation.

The rocks here are of extraordinary beauty.

Lichen on a pink rock.

We climbed Esk Pike and Bowfell and descended the Great Slab. It looks pretty steep, but the rocks were dry and not slippery.

We followed the Climbers Traverse to the main path.

The path is good, but a slip would be nasty.

We traversed below Allen Crags, climbed Glaramara and descended down to our car before dark.

This was a good walk. We come to these places quite often, but still manage to find interesting routes like this one with long traverses and untrodden paths.