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Great End, Scafell Pike, and Lingmell: a roundabout journey

This rather fine walk came about due to a spell of hot weather and the need to join up water sources for Jessie to drink or cool down in. So we joined up Sty Head, Sprinkling Tarn, and Calf Cove, before heading over Great End, Scafell Pike, and Lingmell. Then we took the easy route down to Lingmell Gill for water again. It was a lovely way to join up remote places and fells with stunning views, not necessarily taking the direct line.

Great End is often passed by rather than trodden by people who are mainly heading for Scafell Pike. As the name suggests, Great End is situated on the end of the Scafell Massif's north west ridge which comes to an abrupt halt in dark shattered crags - a great end indeed. A small continuation swings north to Sty Head, a broken ridge of crags, riven by Skew Gill, it can be ascended by keen walkers. Much of the fell is covered in large boulders, thought to be the product of frost breaking up even larger boulders! Only the route described here is largely clear with just a scattering on the summit plateau. However, we cannot avoid the boulders on the way to the Pike.

Scafell Pike arguably needs little introduction, England's highest mountain and consequently the most busy.

Lingmell, west of Great End, north west of Scafell Pike and joined by Lingmell Col, otherwise bounded by gills and becks. The craggy eastern face falls to Piers Gill: a huge and dramatic zigzag gash scoured out along fault lines in the rock by glacial ice.

This walk also includes Esk Hause. Everyone should pass through Esk Hause sometime when the conditions and visibility are good. It is a wonderfully remote spot, a good 3 to 4 miles from the valleys of Langdale, Wasdale, or Borrowdale. Below Esk Hause, beside the path from Langdale, is a large cross shelter(1). Apparently quite a few people confuse the top of this path with the hause. It is the path above the shelter, between Esk Pike and Great End, where the top of the pass lays and where stunning views to all points of the compass can be found.

The walk starts from Wasdale Head village green where there is currently free parking. This may change in 2014.