The summit known as Red Screes, with its substantial tarn, sits at 2,541 feet above sea level but is still considerably lower than the Scafells: left to right from the edge of the picture, Scafell, Scafell Pike and Great End. Great Gable pops up to the right. A fine day to be out walking even if the transport arrangements once again…. but what the hell, I expect too much perhaps. Read more on the other blog, if you like.
“Come on a walk up Scafell Pike, son. It’ll be fun. You can have the pleasure of attaining the highest point in England,” says I, a few weeks back. I’m sure there were points today when Joe cursed me for letting me talk him into this particular hike — particularly here on Ill Crag, one of the subsidiary peaks nearby, and the first outrageous excrescence of boulders into the journey. This picture can also be presented with the benefit of hindsight and knowing that in fact, there’s worse still to come before the summit — all 3,210 feet of it (978 metres) — is attained.
But he made it. And it was a beautiful day.
Scafell Pike is the highest mountain in England, at 3210 feet (978 metres). It is also, as this photograph makes clear, probably the busiest. And the stoniest. A stream of people are here hauling themselves up the final slope from Lingmell col, each with their own specific reasons for being there – though in the end, it’s all the same general reason – “because it’s there”, because it’s the highest point in England. Scafell Pike isn’t the most attractive mountain – nor the most interesting – nor the one with the best view, or the best crags – it’s not, in my opinion, even the hardest one (Pillar and Scafell were harder). But it is the highest: and that’s why all these people were there.
Being 42 