Link to review: https://hdclump.com/wainwright-walks-episode-4/
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00:00Nestled in the far northwest of England, this is the Lake District, a land defined by its
00:12natural beauty. Unknown to millions who love the lakes was the late Alfred Wainwright,
00:27author, guide writer and talented artist. But above all, he was the greatest fell walker.
00:37Wainwright's guides have inspired generations of walkers to roam these glorious fells. And
00:42now, a century after his birth, it's my turn to go in search of the real Wainwright experience.
00:57Today, I'm setting my sights on the toughest of all Wainwright's challenges. I've had a cooked
01:09breakfast, I've packed my lunch, you can see I've got my waterproofs, and it's not even
01:19eight o'clock. At 3,210 feet, Schorfell pike tops the charts of English peaks. I can't
01:26fully appreciate Wainwright's Lakeland until I've tackled its greatest fell. He described
01:31the pike as the one objective above all others, a mecca. But I also want to know why Wainwright
01:38thought this particular fell walk was the finest of all. The crew and I have been waiting for
01:44about three days to try and get the right weather to tackle Schorfell pike. And today, to be
01:51honest, it might not be it. It feels like it could rain. And it looks like we're not the
01:55only ones trying it as well.
01:57Wainwright's recommended route starts Seathwaite Farm near Seatoller village, right in the heart
02:04of the Lake District.
02:06It's a great place to go in search of the lake.
02:09It's a great place to go in search of the lake.
02:12The crew and I have been waiting for about three days to try and get the right weather to
02:15tackle Schorfell pike. And today, to be honest, it might not be it. It feels like it could rain.
02:18And it looks like we're not the only ones trying it as well.
02:21Wainwright's recommended route starts Seathwaite Farm near Seatoller village, right in the
02:26park.
02:27It's a seven hour round trip for most walkers, but much longer when there's a film crew tagging
02:32along.
02:33What you could find disconcerting about this walk is that you can't see the destination.
02:42The goal isn't in sight. It's such a mountainous area. All I know is the summit is five miles
02:48in that direction. Luckily, I'm meeting a man who's studied these peaks very closely.
02:55It's a great place.
02:56Whereas Wainwright famously roamed the fells with his pipe, there's another legend of this
03:04area who tackles things at a much faster pace. Joss Naylor is the most famous of all fell runners,
03:11a local sheep farmer by trade. But this is a man who ran to 70 peaks on his 70th birthday.
03:17And he once conquered all 214 Wainwright fells in just seven days.
03:26So Joss, arguably as a fell runner, you know these parts better than Wainwright.
03:30Well, probably, I think I've put maybe more miles in Wainwright than I've ever done.
03:35Now, an extraordinary record of yours is that you've covered 214 fells, all 214 fells, in
03:41seven days.
03:42All the Wainwrights. Oh, I think it was a tribute to Wainwright really, because I'd read
03:47most of his little guide books. And I thought they were well put together, very well documented.
03:52And I thought it would be a nice thing to do. And I used to remember him in that way.
03:58And the last two days I was running on empty. My mouth was very, very sore in my throat.
04:03I got an infection and I couldn't eat.
04:05So you were running for the last two days with no food?
04:07No food. I just was getting a bit of glucose and sort of stuff like that down there.
04:11So, you know.
04:12And sleep? Anything like that?
04:14No, I didn't sleep much. I think the last night we didn't lay down at all.
04:17Now, you ran 70 fells on your 70th birthday. Are you going to do 80 on your 80th?
04:22Well, I rather promised my wife it would be the last one. Like, you know, she was getting
04:26a bit concerned. Like, so, I said that she could take me, long distance licence off me.
04:32Let's talk a little about Schofield Pike. What's the fastest time you've done Schofield
04:37Pike in?
04:38Er, 47 minutes. But it was a gift really, because I touched the summit and I set off the
04:43bomb back down. And just to come over the Pike's crags, the helicopter come in, it filled
04:46us down.
04:47Yeah.
04:48And it was absolute magic. You could sprint as fast as you could in the downdraft off the
04:53helicopter, pull you along, and it seemed as though it held you safely.
04:56You were like a little angel of the fell being carried across.
04:58I was.
04:59You couldn't describe it. It was just like floating from coming down, like, you know,
05:03while our legs were hardly touching the ground.
05:05I have to say, I'm not very sure that I'm going to make it in 47 minutes, or an hour,
05:09in fact, up to the top. What are your tips for me? What should I be looking out for?
05:13Oh, it's picking the right weather. On a clear there, you see all the views, you can look
05:18back into Keswick. You can see most of the lake that's kicked off the summit of the pike.
05:23So it's definitely worth getting to the summit?
05:25You'll make it all right. You've just got to keep going.
05:29I think I might take Wainwright's advice and watch my feet and see where I'm going.
05:33That's it. Concentrate on the ground, Billy. Beneath your feet, I think.
05:37I will do. All right.
05:38I'll give Wainwright's advice.
05:39Jos, it was a pleasure to meet you.
05:40Yes. Enjoy your walk up the pike.
05:42I will. I'm going to walk, not run.
05:44That's it. I'll just enjoy it. Bye now.
05:47So this is it, the biggest climb in England. But before I start, let's take a closer look
05:54at the longest Wainwright walk I've tackled yet.
06:09At the southern end of the Borrodale Valley, Seathwaite Farm is not only the beginning of
06:13my ascent, but also the focal point for one of the most popular walking areas in the lakes.
06:21I'll be starting off very gradually, as the path follows the River Derwent southwards,
06:26up to Stockley Bridge.
06:30Things get steadily steeper as the valley narrows and I head up Grain's Gill to a height of 2,000
06:35feet, looking out for the Great Ravine at the top.
06:41Above the ravine, there's a brief detour past the sheer face of Great End to find sprinkling
06:46tarn dramatically set beneath.
06:56Heading back on the route, there's a long and steady climb up to the plateau at Eskhorse
07:00for a lunch spot with views to remember.
07:03Turning westwards, I'll pass around the back of Great End and finally get onto the rocky
07:13Scorfell Ridge.
07:18This dramatic stretch takes me past the lower peaks of Ill Crag and Broad Crag, before the
07:24last testing climb to the pike itself.
07:39But back at Seathlake Farm, it's a long time before I get a clear view of the summit.
07:43The peak is only three miles from here as the crow flies.
07:46But with so many twists, turns and other peaks to negotiate, I'll have to go a lot further
07:51than that before I'm getting close.
07:53Wainwright sums up the challenge in book four of his pictorial guides.
07:58The ascent of Scorfell Pike is the toughest proposition the Collector of Summits is called upon to attempt.
08:07And it is the one above all others that as a patriot he cannot omit.
08:13Inspiring stuff from Wainwright.
08:15Hey, and look, this is the first walk that I've seen that actually covers two pages.
08:19Slightly ominous.
08:20We started at Seathwaite, we're going to go all the way to the top, back a great end and
08:24bloop, back to the bottom of the page again.
08:26It's a biggie.
08:28But I'm a lot better kitted out than Wainwright would have been.
08:32When A.W., as he was known, was writing his guides, there was more tweed than Gore-Tex.
08:38And when he came on holiday for a whole week of walking in the 1930s, he recalls bringing
08:43his sturdiest shoes, a Mac and just one set of clothing.
08:58It's a biggie.
09:23Stockley Bridge is my first major landmark.
09:26Originally, it was an important pack horse crossing between Borrodale and the Wasdale
09:30Valley in the west.
09:34In the mid-60s, the bridge was almost destroyed by storms, but now it's fully restored and probably
09:40carrying more traffic than ever before.
09:45It's also my cue that things are about to get steeper.
09:56I made that mistake earlier of stepping in a stream and getting one foot wet by accident,
10:11which is never a good idea at the beginning of that walk.
10:14So if any little bit of heat dried out, you're most welcome.
10:22Wainwright loved to walk on his own, but his lonely career mapping the roots and ridges
10:28mean the fells today are more popular than ever.
10:31And various conservation schemes are underway, including these great bags full of boulders,
10:36ready to reinforce the path.
10:38I can see a chink of blue sky up there.
10:44This is more like rock climbing than walking.
10:47Well, the good news is we're coming to the end of Grain's Gill because there's the ravine.
10:52The bad news is that's not where I'm heading.
10:56That is just great end, which we're going around.
10:59So that is not the highest point.
11:14I love the sounds of bubbling brooks and gentle streams.
11:18It reminds me of when I used to go tickling trout with my dad in Derbyshire.
11:23Just that gentle noise.
11:26By now, I've covered almost half the walk in terms of distance.
11:29But as for height, it's a different story.
11:32There's still over 1,500 feet left to go.
11:40The central heating system is really working now.
11:43And look at Burra del Valle.
11:51That is just beautiful.
11:53You can just make out Castle Crag.
11:56Turban water behind.
12:00Just gorgeous.
12:01At the top of Grain's Gill, Wainwright recommends a detour.
12:11Now, I'm a city girl.
12:13That's my goal.
12:14That's my destination.
12:16I don't usually like detours.
12:18So I hope it's worth it.
12:19Sprinkling Tarn is one of this walk's best-kept secrets.
12:33Lying just a few hundred yards off the main route and over a slight mound,
12:37it's visited by just a few of the thousand that trek up to Scorfell Pike.
12:45Oh, but that's worth it, huh?
12:48That is definitely worth a detour.
12:53Sprinkling Tarn.
12:58That's very, very gorgeous.
13:00That's very gorgeous.
13:03And listen.
13:07Listen.
13:12Nothing.
13:17It's lovely.
13:30The silence here is magical.
13:37The odd sheep.
13:41Little trickle of water.
13:43Ravens flapping above you.
13:45That's it.
13:47I could stay here for hours and just listen to nothing.
13:50Just the little sounds.
14:01What's interesting here is that you don't feel very high up.
14:08It's a deceptive plateau, but we're nearly 2,000 feet up.
14:20You can see the mountain range over the tip of the Tarn.
14:24Hello!
14:26Hello!
14:28Hello!
14:30It's very strange to be the noisiest thing around.
14:34At home, I step out of my front door and there are buses and motorbikes and people.
14:38And...
14:40And my walking and the rustling of my jacket is the noisiest thing here at the moment.
14:44The sun's really trying to get through now.
14:46This is a tiny world.
14:47Lost to all those that aren't prepared for a serious walk.
14:55The sun's really trying to get through now.
14:59The sun is really trying to get through now.
15:11This is a tiny world.
15:14to all those that aren't prepared for a serious walk.
15:18And once you're here, the temptation is to linger.
15:25Too many walkers bound for Scorfell Pike
15:27have given up the ghost here, daunted by the sight of Great End
15:32and bewitched by the beauty and solitude of the town.
15:37Onwards must be the cry.
15:39Much remains to be done.
15:44That was a really worthwhile distraction.
15:48But the summit beckons.
15:54This is the second ravine, Ruddy Gill,
15:56so named, according to Wainwright, because of the red subsoil.
16:01We must be having a day off today because it's not looking that red.
16:04But the good news about all of this is that we're nearly at Esk Halls,
16:09which means we're at the top of the first page of the walk.
16:12Halfway there, according to the book.
16:27Aha! So here is the answer to the black bag mystery.
16:29Hello, gentlemen.
16:30Hiya.
16:31Afternoon.
16:32I've been seeing these all along the footpaths, now I know what's going on.
16:36So you've got to do a good sort of two-hour walk before you even start with this lark.
16:40Yeah, that's it.
16:41We usually walk up first thing in the morning, get up, have a cup of tea and then get going after that and work till lunch and all that.
16:48They must be very fit, healthy boys, that's all I can say, because those are big rocks.
16:52Now, these you don't bring up yourself?
16:54No, we fly these in by helicopter.
16:57We try to use as much as we can that are lying around, but the quantities we need means it's best to get them from a big source.
17:03These rocks came from about a mile over there. We can't touch the rocks on this side because they're protected, so we have to get them from as near as possible.
17:12Now, I've walked over an awful lot of these paths. What's the technique for them?
17:17Yeah, it's basically just, you just find where the old where's eroded away and then you basically dig all the stone into the ground in a random fashion.
17:26And then you sort of join them all together. It's like a big jigsaw, really.
17:30Now, what would Wainwright have made, do you reckon, of these crazy paving stones in the sky?
17:35I would imagine he would have been pretty scathing about them. He was very hostile to human imprints in the hills.
17:42I would imagine he would have been throwing his pipe down in disgust if he saw a path like this, I think so, definitely, yeah.
17:48But it's a necessary evil now, isn't it?
17:51He popularised a lot of the routes here that 50 years or so ago, when he sort of walked up there, the main route went straight ahead to the head of the valley and then turned right.
18:00And, of course, he identified the sort of shortcut to the right and at the time it was sort of barely discernible.
18:05Yet now, 50 years later, it's a big wide track so we had to have some substantial repair on it to try and take away the big scar that used to be visible up there.
18:15Right. So the shortcut's the main route now?
18:17That it certainly is, yeah.
18:18It cuts about 20 minutes off the journey up to Scarfell Pike. Wouldn't be surprised if, like, 100,000 people had come up this path, the path there, all up towards Scarfell Pike over a year.
18:29Well, lads, you've got a lot of work to do, so I won't help you up any further.
18:34All right, lads, thanks a lot.
18:35Cheers, thank you. Mind your backs.
18:49Wainwright's shortcut, confirmed with its brand-new footpath, marks a point where my walk changes in character.
18:55The long view down the massive valley to Seathwaite Farm is gone. The gentle pastures are out of sight.
19:02And after five hours, I'm up amongst the wild high fells.
19:07The new path takes you straight to Eskhorse, which, at 2,500 feet, makes it the highest pass in the Lake District.
19:26Well, there's definitely a T-junction here where you've got to make up your mind which way to go.
19:33And, well, I know this is Eskhorse and I know this is Great End, so I'm going to make my way that way.
19:39It's amazing how the terrain changes up here. You're exposed all of a sudden. It's become, you know, much more open.
19:45It's time for a bit of lunch, check the plasters, check the book.
19:58Eskhorse has been an important pass for centuries and was used to transport wool from farms in Burrowdale
20:04to the Cistercian Monastery at Furness Abbey, way to the south.
20:10With views down into three valleys, this is a commanding, if utterly exposed, spot.
20:16Now, I assumed that that was the top of Schofeld Pike, but sadly, take a little look.
20:30This is Eskhorse here and much further up the path.
20:34He says, summit now in view for the first time.
20:37So that can't be. That must be Ill Crag.
20:41So there's much further to go.
20:43Many wishful thinkers, as Wainwright describes them, have mistaken Ill Crag for the peak.
20:53But no, there's still a mile and a half of the most difficult Lakeland terrain to negotiate.
21:03I love the way Wainwright describes Ill Crag.
21:05He says it's a desolate scene.
21:07A frozen avalanche of crags and stones, much of it unexplored and uncharted.
21:12A safe refuge for escaped convicts or an ideal depository for murdered corpses.
21:18That's nice, isn't it? Hiya.
21:20Hiya.
21:22Watch out for the bodies.
21:24I'm going to go.
21:25Leaving Eskhorse, I cross the grass to Carve Cove, the point where I climb up and onto the ridge that takes me right to the summit.
21:36This is where the legs start to burn.
21:46The Scorfell Ridge is the most consistently high ground in England.
21:49For over a mile, the path that runs from Great End, past Ill Crag, Broad Crag and ending in the pike, never drops below 2,800 feet.
22:01This desolate volcanic rock is inhospitable, yet captivating.
22:07I thought the winds were pretty cutting down there.
22:10This is the top of Scorfell Ridge.
22:12And these are proper grown-up wings.
22:13I mean, look at my trousers.
22:14They look like they've got ferrets running up and down them.
22:16I may be on the final ridge, but the crew and I have been going for seven and a half hours now.
22:28We've got to keep pushing on if I'm going to reach the summit in daylight.
22:35And there it is, the summit.
22:40Let's check it out.
22:42Yeah, that's got to be it.
22:44It's pretty like the picture actually.
22:46Take a look.
22:47Huh?
22:48And turn it around.
22:51Yeah.
22:52That's it.
22:53I think some people have got there before me.
22:55I know that's hard to believe, but...
22:58Come on then!
22:59Keep going!
23:08This is almost like being on another planet.
23:10It's like the moon or something.
23:11It's just a boulder graveyard.
23:13These sharp, jagged rocks everywhere.
23:15It's very difficult to walk.
23:17And even the sheep have disappeared.
23:24Amongst this landscape, the path completely disappears at times.
23:27The only clues are the small cairns that other walkers have left behind.
23:31But Wainwright talks about the magic of camping out alone in a hollow just below here.
23:38He loved to watch the sunrise cast its pink glow over the dark crags and boulders.
23:42But for me, I've just discovered that there's still one last hurdle to get over.
23:52This is really depressing.
23:54It looks very much like I've got to go all the way down this boulder highway, which is all it looks like to me, to get to the bottom, to get all the way up to the top.
24:08Just when you think you've sort of cracked a bit of it, what's slightly worrying is that there's nobody else up there.
24:18Nobody. Not a sausage. Just a couple of birds flapping around.
24:23It's when faced with this peak at close quarters that Wainwright poses an interesting question in his chapter on Skorfell Pike.
24:34Why does a man climb mountains?
24:37Why has he forced his tired and sweating body up here, when he might instead have been sitting at ease in a deck chair at the seaside?
24:45It is a question every man must answer for himself.
24:49And now it's just the small matter of the final ascent.
24:53To the top of Skorfell Pike.
24:55And I think I can safely say that's the steepest thing I've climbed all day.
25:02Climbing and filming make for some seriously slow progress.
25:06It's now late in the day and all sensible walkers have conquered and long since left the summit.
25:11I suppose it's only fair that you have to work this hard to get to a peak this high.
25:23I've been on the go for almost 10 hours now. But now I know why Wainwright rated this fell walk as the very best.
25:36In one long day I've seen everything the Lake District has to offer.
25:39From wide valleys to steep ravines, silent tarns to windswept rocky ridges.
25:46Wainwright's biggest climb has it all.
25:52Wainwright's biggest climb has it all.
25:53Wainwright's biggest climb has it all.
26:03I think I can see it. Less than 100 yards away. Yes, that's it.
26:07There it is. The cairn. Atop of the summit.
26:14Nearly there. Spitting distance away now.
26:18The wind has really picked up up here.
26:27Another little challenge to overcome. To make it.
26:37Woohoo!
26:44Made it!
26:48Look at that!
26:50It's a pretty fantastic feeling, I've got to say.
26:52You're not at the top until you're at the very, very top. Here it is.
27:03It's ridiculously windy up here.
27:05So this is the tallest mountain in England.
27:09That's Waspwater, which is the deepest lake.
27:12You can see hundreds of fells all around you.
27:15And now over there, just glistening in the sunshine, is the Isle of Man.
27:19And apparently, on a really clear day, which is not today, you can see Blackpool Tower over there.
27:26But right now, just to be here is fantastic, spectacular, and ridiculously windy!
27:35Woohoo!
27:37There are places I've been to recently where you'd be happy to spend hours.
27:54You choose to come again and again.
27:57But this spot has a very different quality.
28:03It's about being able to sit and look out across miles of cliffs and peaks, knowing you're above them all.
28:10There's nothing like the feeling that you've conquered everything that could be put in front of you.
28:15Wainwright says that fellwalkers are not attracted to this summit for its beauty, because it's not beautiful.
28:23It is sturdy and rugged and strong.
28:26It is simply the fact that this is the tallest mountain in England.
28:30And when you get to the top, you can say, I did it.
28:34And I did.
28:35France King
28:37English
28:46English
28:48English
28:50And English
28:51English
28:52Annie
28:53routes