Scafell Pike from Wasdale, by Lingmell Col
Photo: © Lee McCoy
Start Wasdale Head
Getting here Parking: Lake Head, Wasdale (NT, paid), 0.0 km from the start (straight line). Getting there ↓ · Route map ↓
Hardest part Severe steepness: Steepest sustained descent about 40% around the 5.1 km mark. Severe navigation: The summit plateau in cloud is one of the most serious navigation traps in England. A wrong bearing off the top leads towards Eskdale or Broad Stand. (Editorially assessed from the documented character of the route, not computed from gradient; not yet personally walked.) Severe – our judgement from the map and the route’s record; not walked yet
Before you choose
- The summit plateau is a boulderfield, and in cloud it is one of the most dangerous places to navigate in England. There are no handrails and no features. Take a bearing off the summit cairn and follow it precisely — people regularly descend the wrong side of this mountain, into Eskdale, towards Broad Stand, or down into Piers Gill, and that is how the callouts start.
- Do not attempt to descend towards Scafell over Broad Stand. It looks like the obvious link and it is a rock climb, not a scramble. It has killed people.
- A relentless, stony ascent — 915 m in 4 km. It is steep, loose in places, and hard on the knees coming back down.
- There is no shelter and no water on the upper mountain. Carry more than you think, and start early — this is a mountain that punishes a late start.
- Piers Gill — go round it, never into it. The great ravine on this mountain’s Wasdale flank is Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team’s worst blackspot: a canyon of waterfall pitches you must never try to descend, and its top looks deceptively benign. Keep well away from the gill and out of its bed; the banks beside it have steep drops and a record of serious accidents. There is no mobile phone coverage around the gill — if you are in difficulty, get back up to signal or attract attention rather than wait for a call to connect. Guidance from Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team; see phone & satellite SOS.
Conditions on this route
We score every Lakeland Wainwright each morning on cloud, wind, rain and underfoot, and this route crosses 1 of them. The worst summit governs the verdict — a route is only as kind as its roughest top.
Modelled guidance — not a substitute for the mountain forecast or your own judgement. See how every fell ranks today →
Daylight & turnaround
Daylight is short from October to February — check today’s sunrise and sunset before you set off, and carry a head-torch and spare batteries. On short days, decide your turn-back time before you start.
See also walking in bad weather and today’s conditions.
Route map
1 Scafell Pike
escape route
Easy 12%Moderate 49%Hard 34%Severe 5%
Heights on this chart and its high point are read from the track itself (a terrain model sampled along the line, or a GPS recording), so a top can differ from its listed height, usually reading lower.
Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).
The elevation profile is under the map; the stage notes follow.
The walk, stage by stage
- 1
Start → Scafell Pike (4.1 km, 915 m)
Decision pointWasdale Head to Lingmell Gill (1.1 km, ~120 m). From the National Trust car park the path tracks south-east across the valley floor — wide, well-trodden, a gentle warm-up. You hear Lingmell Gill before you see it.
Brown Tongue to Hollow Stones (1.5 km, ~380 m). Across the gill the character changes instantly: you are on Brown Tongue, the blunt ridge between Lingmell Gill and Piers Gill, on heavily engineered stone pitching. A relentless, thigh-burning staircase. You crest it into the glacial corrie of Hollow Stones, with the cliffs of Scafell Crag straight ahead.
Hollow Stones to Lingmell Col (0.8 km, ~200 m). Do not be drawn straight ahead towards the cliffs — that is the Mickledore line. Bear firmly left, following cairns and the worn path through scree and boulders to the col between Lingmell and Scafell Pike.
Lingmell Col to the summit (0.7 km, ~215 m). Turn right, south-east, over loose rock and boulders to the wide plateau and its massive stepped cairn — built as a war memorial.Easy to get wrongThe col is the decision point, and the place to set your bearing. In clear weather the line is obvious. In cloud the summit plateau offers nothing whatever to steer by — a vast field of identical grey rock. If visibility is dropping, take the compass bearing from the col before you start climbing, not once you are up there.
If you need to get offAt about 3.4 km, where the path splits (left for Lingmell Col, right for the descent line), turning back returns you the way you came, down Hollow Stones and the Brown Tongue staircase to Wasdale Head, on ground you have already walked. Higher, at about 3.9 km, if the weather closes in on the final boulder slope, you do not have to reach the summit: turn round and go back over Lingmell Col, the clearer line, and do not drop off towards Mickledore, which is far more complicated ground.
Scafell Pike → Finish (3.9 km, 0 m)
Decision pointYou are retracing exactly: back to Lingmell Col, left into Hollow Stones, down the Brown Tongue staircase, across the valley floor to the car park. Set the compass on the summit, not halfway down. You want a firm north-west bearing, roughly 315°, to hit Lingmell Col.
At the col, actively turn left to drop into Hollow Stones — going straight on takes you up and over Lingmell instead. You want to feel the ground dropping away into the corrie.Easy to get wrongThis is where the route goes wrong, and getting down is the mandatory half. Leaving the summit on the wrong bearing is the common error: drift east and you finish in Eskdale, miles away; drift south and you are above the cliffs of Broad Stand.
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Planned route · not yet walked
Escape routes
- At about 3.4 km: descend to Back down Hollow Stones and Brown Tongue to Wasdale Head — Where the path splits — left for Lingmell Col, right for the descent line — is the natural place to change your mind. Turning back here returns you the way you came, down Hollow Stones and the Brown Tongue staircase, on ground you have already walked.
- At about 3.9 km: descend to Turn back short of the summit and return via Lingmell Col — You do not have to reach the summit. If the weather closes in on the final boulder slope, turn round and go back the way you came, over Lingmell Col — the clearer line. Do NOT be tempted to drop off towards Mickledore instead: it is far more complicated ground and a poor choice in bad conditions.
This route has not been walked; these escape lines are checked on the map only. In poor visibility a marked descent can be safer than retracing a ridge.
Make it easier or harder
Why this direction: Out and back by the same line — on this mountain, a route you have already walked in daylight is a real safety asset when the cloud comes down.
Summits bagged (1)
- 1Scafell Pike978 m
More about this walk
Wasdale is the classic base for the Pike and this is the classic line from it. It is not the prettiest route — the Corridor Route is finer — but it is the direct one, and on a clear day the view from the top reaches the Isle of Man and the hills of Galloway.
Conditions and timing
Check live conditions in the “From the fells” panel, on MWIS (opens in new tab) and the Met Office mountain forecast (opens in new tab) before you set off.
Getting there and back
Nearest fuel to this start: Holmrook, A595, 14.5 km by road (06:00-20:00 daily when checked on 8 August 2026; hours change, so check on the day). Nearest shop: Budgens, 13.1 km. Both measured along the road from the parking we publish at Lake Head, Wasdale, checked 8 August 2026. Coming in from a particular direction you may pass a closer one — the last petrol before each valley →
Parking
Positions are approximate.
Vehicles are left at their owner’s risk: we list places people park and cannot vouch for any of them. Take valuables with you and leave nothing on show.
Buses
We don’t know yet. Wasdale Explorer (seasonal) serves this area, but we don’t hold its stop positions, so we can’t measure the walk from it — and we won’t tell you to drive on the strength of a gap in our own data. The Wasdale Action Group lists it as running Saturdays, Sundays and bank holiday Mondays from the start of May to the end of August (read 30 September 2026): check before you travel.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before travelling.
Toilets and refreshments
The essentials
- Arrival The National Trust car park at Lake Head, Wasdale, beside the start: £7 up to 2 hours, £8.50 up to 4 hours, £10 all day; free for members. It fills very early, and mobile reception is poor, so carry coins as well as a card. 22 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (National Trust, prices checked August 2026; its access statement (January 2024) on payment and reception; our parking map, checked 10 August 2026)
- Toilets Toilets are mapped about 45 m from the start. 46 m in a straight line, not a walking distance. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Refreshments No café or pub is mapped within 250 m of the start: bring what you need. (OpenStreetMap, as mapped on 13 September 2026, checked 13 September 2026)
- Limitation The summit plateau is a boulderfield with no features: in cloud, take a bearing off the summit cairn and hold it. Keep well away from Piers Gill, which has no phone signal. (our route notes (this route's own warnings), checked 1 October 2026)
Everything mapped near the start
At Lake Head, Wasdale (NT, paid), the closest parking we hold to where this route starts:
Distances are straight lines from the car park, not walking routes. Opening hours change; none of this is checked daily.
Mapped as nearby on OpenStreetMap too, as of 13 September 2026, within 250 m of the start and not already listed above:
Also mapped within reach: 4 benches, an information board.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (opens in new tab), ODbL.
Water, shelter & getting away
Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is not proof the water is drinkable, so carry your own or use a supply you know is safe. Never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock upstream and leave you seriously ill. Use a treatment method suited to what might be in the water, and follow the device’s own instructions. Boiling and ordinary filters do not make water with dissolved metals or chemicals safe: where that is possible, choose another source.
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors — an absent marker does not mean the facility isn’t there.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Planning detail
How each grade on this page is set, and the timings stage by stage.
Difficulty profile
Severe overall — hardest: Steepness and navigation (our judgement from the map and the route’s record; not walked yet)
Five independent axes, not one score. This route has not been walked yet, so none of them was set on the ground: three of the five are our judgement from the map and the route’s record, and the rest are computed from the recorded track and the map, which measures the line rather than surveying the ground.
How we grade: each axis is Easy, Moderate, Hard or Severe, and a route between two bands takes the higher one. Length: under 8 km, 8–14 km, 14–20 km, over 20 km. Steepness, the steepest 500 m of the track: under 15%, 15–25%, 25–35%, over 35%. Terrain, navigation and exposure are judged rather than measured, and each note says why. How we grade.
Pacing
| Summit | Cumulative | Ascent | Time (fast–steady) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Scafell Pike | 4.1 km | 915 m | 2:21–3:08 |
| Finish | 8.0 km | 915 m | 3:08–4:09 |
A fast–steady range from Naismith’s rule, deliberately on the slow side. Breaks, weather, rough ground and the slowest person in your party all add to it. How we time walks.
Access & barriers
Can a dog, a buggy or dodgy knees manage this route?
- Buggy: Not a pushchair route.
- Knees: A long, steep ~43% drop over 250 m around the 4.9 km mark — hard on the knees.
With a dog
Hardest for a dog here: rock and scrambling. The steepest stretch is a sustained descent of about 40% around the 5.1 km mark.
- Rock and scrambling: Ground underfoot: Hard – our judgement from the map and the route’s record; not walked yet. Steep, loose and stony, finishing on a boulderfield. (Editorially assessed from the documented character of the route, not computed from gradient; not yet personally walked.)
- Drops and exposed ground: Moderate – our judgement from the map and the route’s record; not walked yet. No scrambling on the walkers’ line — the danger here is navigational, not exposure. (Editorially assessed from the documented character of the route, not computed from gradient; not yet personally walked.)
- Stiles and gates: Only gates and kissing gates are mapped: no stile a dog can’t get through. That is the barriers alone; check the route’s steep or rocky ground before you bring a dog. (OpenStreetMap, mapped as of 12 July 2026)
- Ways off early: Marked on this route at about 3.4 km: Back down Hollow Stones and Brown Tongue to Wasdale Head; at about 3.9 km: Turn back short of the summit and return via Lingmell Col. The escape routes section below has the detail.
- Livestock, shade and water: Not recorded for this route yet. We never call a stream safe for a dog to drink, so carry enough for both of you. The lead rules, and what to do around cattle, are on dogs on the fells.
On the line: 2 gates · 2 kissing gates
Barriers as mapped on OpenStreetMap, which can miss some. Spotted one? Tell us (opens in new tab). Barrier data as of 12 July 2026. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).
Places to stay near this start
We have not verified an independent place near this start — these are the chains and charities that serve it.
- YHA Wasdale Hall (opens in new tab) hostelabout 4.8 km
We have not stayed at any of them. We take no bookings or affiliate fees. Distances are straight lines from the route start, never walking times. Properties found via OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab).
Walks from places nearby
- Walks from Wasdale — 0.0 km from this start
- Walks from Ritson's Force — 1.8 km from this start
Straight-line distance from this walk’s start. Those lists hold the routes we have mapped and every Wainwright and Outlying fell within about 5 km of the town, ranked nearest first.
