29/01/22 - Scafell Pike and Lingmell. Recovery at the Wasdale Head Inn.

Distance - 6.5 Miles

Geocaches - 2

A friend with a significant birthday and his desire was to be the highest man in England.

2010 was the last time I walked it - from Seathwaite - can I still do it my fifties? We pick the quickest route, from the Wasdale Head Inn. Hopefully, this will come in handy later in the day.

The drive there was as spectacular as the length. Avoiding Hardknott Pass, we ended up on the Cumbrian Coast through Muncaster.  5 hours. We could have made it to Edinburgh.

At 10:30am, we start walking.  I use this term in the loosest possible sense of the word.  The only time we are not climbing up, we are heading down. A few other hardy souls are out in Storm Mallik (wind, rather than rain), including a family of four. During one of our many breathers, my mate with the significant birthday is given inspiration from a 10 year old girl.  She assures him is "doing really well and to keep going".  

A mantra for life, if I ever heard one.

Our route?  Lingmell Gill and up Brown Tongue, past Hollow Stones and across the boulder field to Scafell Pike summit. Where it is too cold to stop for all of our sandwiches. Have you tried to chew a frozen ham bap?  For variety, we drop down and up to Lingmell, providing my first new Wainwright since the start of the first lockdown in 2020. The descent from Lingmell is easy to navigate but so, so steep. My thighs - which have ordered walking poles from the internet this morning - are not sure whether its easier going up or down.

Here are the photos;

View from a car window, as we reach Wast Water

Only fools would purposely leave this pub behind

Somewhere near the top of Scafell Pike

Descending from Lingfell

Mappiman Geocaching on Lingfell

We can see the pub from here!  A hellish descent from Lingmell

4pm when we arrive back at the pub... all of us walking like John Wayne after a particularly lengthy cattle drive.

The Wasdale Head Inn is a classic mountaineering pub and perfect for a single night, which you spend amongst people with the same interests as yourself. They may be better at the mountaineering but I can give them a run for their money at the bar.

Former Farmhouse

Cumbrian Humour

The Parlour

Three hand pulls are on.  Initially, I hadn't realised that the Great Corby Brewhouse was Cumbrian, rather than Northamptonshire based.  All three were in superb condition and I think the landlord knows to avoid people replenishing lost body fluids with anything stronger than 4.5%.  

Wasdale a rebranding Corby Ale?  A 3.8% session bitter

The food was the type of pub grub in epic proportions that was needed after "walking" for 6 miles at an average speed of 1 mile per hour.  Fish and Chips labelled the "Wasdale Whale".