Skiddaw, Lake District, UK
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 10.29 mi
- Elevation gain
- 3,629 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 3,645 ft
- Max elevation
- 3,112 ft
- TrailRank
- 31
- Min elevation
- 372 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Moving time
- 4 hours 7 minutes
- Time
- 4 hours 55 minutes
- Coordinates
- 2926
- Uploaded
- May 14, 2019
- Recorded
- May 2019
near Bassenthwaite, England (United Kingdom)
Viewed 319 times, downloaded 7 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
While it is the fourth highest mountain in the Lakes, it’s not the most exciting. The well trodden tourist route from Keswick is a long, hard slog with little merit - the views are just as good from Latrigg. However, while it may not have the crags and tarns that make other Lakeland fells so appealing, Skiddaw’s secrets are hidden on it’s western flank - a steep wall of scree leading from a 931m peak down to the valley below. If you want to summit Skiddaw and appreciate it properly then this is the way to go. A hard, steep walk up to Ullock Pike gains two thirds of the overall elevation over the space of an hour, followed by a great ridge walk along Longside Edge - not a hands-on-rock scrambling route as with Striding Edge or Sharp Edge but a walking route - leading to Carl Side and then on to the main push up to the summit, a steep path up an even steeper wall of scree. If the soles of your hiking boots don’t stick like superglue then this isn’t the route for you, and it is NOT recommended as a route of descent. This walk starts at the Ravenstone Hotel outside of Bassenthwaite and ends at Keswick YHA, taking in seven Wainwrights: Ullock Pike, Long Side, Carl Side, Skiddaw, Skiddaw Little Man, Longscale Fell and Latrigg. Two hours to summit, three hours to descend.
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