Slight Side and Scafell from Wha House Farm

[gld73]

Another fine day, so with MWIS saying the chance of clear summits was 'almost certain', I opted to go high - I'd been looking at the Scafells yesterday when doing Pillar and pals and decided it was time I went back up one of them for the first time in a long time.

Rather than head down Wasdale again, I had a look for other routes and saw that I could tick off a new Wainwright (Slight Side) en route to Scafell from the south. I've never approached from that side before, so off to Eskdale I went, parking in the small NT car park opposite the entrance to Wha House Farm. The woman from the farm came up for a nice chat as I was getting ready, so it was 11am by the time I actually set off.

The route map shown below is an approximate one - there were several times where the faint path I was following split, or even disappeared for bits, but on a clear day like today it didn't really matter, I just kept heading in the right direction and always found the path again. I imagine in the clag this wouldn't be a great route, but on a clear, sunny day like today, it was a fantastic route, really enjoyable and a much quieter option than routes starting from Wasdale. A real mix of terrain and great views of surrounding crags and hills; surprisingly for a Lake District walk, it reminded me a bit of some of the less trodden routes to munros or corbetts in the Highlands.

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Shortly after leaving the car park, the path goes through a couple of sheep folds

It feels quite remote, but on a day like today, all I had to do was head for the big mountain peaking up in the distance, it didn't really matter which way I went round these little craggy bumps on the way

One more craggy little bump to pass by before the more open grassy walk to Slight Side ahead

I was on the path again by this time, this erratic is a good landmark before the path starts heading up, going up Slight Side

The path is grassy on the lower slopes, then there's a steeper stony / scree path before it eases again and arrives at the rocky outcrops at the top. Scrambling time :)

I went left at a small cleft but once on top, saw I should actually have gone to the right to get to the summit. It was an easy hop over, the rocks were lovely and grippy.

Slight Side summit. It's really just a top of Scafell, ahead

Harter Fell tended to dominate the view to the south

Pano from near Slight Side's summit; Scafell is the mountain on the left, a relatively straightforward walk from here

Whin Rigg and Illgill Head above Burnmoor tarn

Scafell Pike and Bow Fell

I left the summit of Slight Side to head onwards and upwards, Scafell's southern crags looked impressive

A look back at Slight Side (middle of pic) - definitely a southern top of Scafell rather than a separate mountain

Scafell summit

...and again, but not looking into the sun this time!

The Mosedale round of hills I did yesterday

Spent about 15 mins wandering around the summit plateau enjoying the views and the weather. View over to Mosedale again, this time from beside Symonds Knott

It always looks like it should be an easy saunter over to Scafell Pike from Scafell (but it isn't, so I didn't)

Despite the perfect conditions, it was still March and not a weekend, so Scafell Pike summit looked relatively quiet

I took roughly the same route back, going over Slight Side's top again, though as I got to the craggy, knobbly section towards the end of the walk, I inevitably took a slightly different line through it all, losing the path and so just continuing roughly south back towards the road (looking back north here)

View over to Hardknott Pass, there is a tiny white dot of a vehicle on the road

Harter Fell had looked pretty bleached out in the sun and haze for most of the day, but now with the sun heading off to the west, I got a good view of it

Reaching the dry stone wall, I followed it back to the sheep folds and then it was just the short grassy walk down to the car park. Enjoyed this route much more than I expected, though no doubt the fine weather contributed strongly to that.