Life of a Mountain: A Year on Scafell Pike

STIRRING ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

I live in the north of England and I live in Cumbria.

It's a working environment where so many people still exist here,

just as they used to.

In fact, it's never changed. In little pockets and up valleys

and green dales, life is still like it always was here.

And it's hard-fought, is this tradition. It's hard to stick to.

It's the way we always did it.

Like not losing the dialect and not losing the way,

and not losing words like "aye" and "say nowt", or "that'll do".

And that's what this place is about.

That's what the mountains are about.

It's the centuries of shepherding them,

caring for them, loving them and enjoying them.

Sometimes it might seem that

when you live up here, you haven't got time for it, but you have.

At sunrise, when you look for sheep that have lambed at the back of

a wall, or at sunset when everybody else has gone. You're still there,

picking up stones, putting them back on the wall, re-hanging the gates.

Picking up the litter sometimes.

Managing this place, so it remains always the same.

The Lake District is still honest, like so few places are.

And so are the people. It's time spent and traditions.

It's just a wonderful place to visit and to live.

And I can see why so many have returned time and time again.

You don't have to live here or be born here to feel it.

It draws, I think, thousands every year.

And the draw of the mountains, in particular.

And I think the people as well.

Another happy mother and daughter.

These are twins, that were born yesterday.

And we've sprayed iodine

on the umbilical cord for infection.

Then we check to see whether

they're male or female.

So, if you like, this is the nursery before they're going on to

primary school, out in the field.

So, these... Herdwick's the traditional breed for the Lakeland,

and many people say it was saved by Beatrix Potter,

who bought up quite a number of old Herdwick sheep farms,

years and years ago and donated them to the National Trust.

But it is a traditional Lakeland breed.

It's been around for probably at least 1,000 years,

and I'm told Herdwick is Old Norse for meaning sheep pasture.

So, they've been here just as long as we have, if not longer.

And, you know, we keep these traditions going.

They live up on the fells, here in Wasdale.

And they're as much a part of the landscape

and the scenery as all the mountains and all the lakes.

They are, you know, they are the epitome of what is

the Lake District National Park to me -

not everybody agrees. But they're slow maturing.

They don't breed till the third year.

The lambs, to get ready,

probably almost a year before they're ready for market, as it were.

Herdwicks generally lamb sort of dusk and dawn,

so we're not here in the middle of the night,

but I would say we're around till about midnight,

and then going again from 4am.

So, yeah, it's a... With a little baby as well,

it keeps me...keeps me awake most of the hours.

ROCKS CLATTERING

Unless that's holding it up.

Oh, there's some litter there, Rob, as well.

You like your...

wombling.

It's a bit ironic when you think about how people

are drawn to Scafell Pike to see the biggest hill in England.

When you think these are just the fragments of the landmass

that originally was here.

The old red sandstone that sort of covered this area

would have been way above our heads.

That's all been worn away, and all the slate's worn away.

The activities that created the volcanic series were

relatively recent. And what we see now,

we're at the last stage of the formation of this landscape,

and so all these huge piles of debris

are really just bits of volcanic, er...

volcanic ash that have scattered around.

And then the glacier's came and pushed them around a bit more.

On our timescale we feel that we're doing something important,

trying to preserve what we can.

The balance between the natural erosion

and human intrusion accelerating it,

so this is probably the limit of where we go.

Beyond here, it is natural devastation

so, yeah, this is about as far as it gets.

The drain that I built many years ago.

Doesn't look very good. What's that saying?

But look at the stone. Look at that.

-I put that here.

-I bet that was there originally.

Does remind me of that other drain on Yewbarrow, actually.

Last one on Mickledore.

And then over to Lingmell.

Oh, it's a fine drain this. A fine drain! Look at that.

What a face! Eh?

Nearly as good as this face.

I've lived here for the best part of 25 years.

Been coming to Cumbria since I was a small boy.

A friend, who used to be a governor at the school,

he was also a broadcaster.

He started making DVDs

about walks in the Lake District.

Videos in those days, they were.

And he asked me if I could come and help.

And that started me on my career as a researcher...

for walks.

I mean, what could be better...

than being sent out to go and find a good walk

and a few stories... and being paid for it?

I've just come up from Wasdale Head,

and off at the old pony track that goes

over from Wasdale Head into Seathwaite, in Borrowdale.

That's the original path that people would take,

especially if they were carrying goods.

A new route, of course, is the one that goes high up there,

traverses across the breast of Great Gable.

It's a boring, tedious route, but this is far more exciting

because you come to things like this, the Emerald Pool.

A fabulous little pool, always has a green sheen to it.

No matter what the weather's like,

it always looks... Even looks inviting on a cold day.

Two streams running into it.

Natural little hollow. Perfect.

We're just going a little further on, across the stream and head off,

climbing steeply up towards Scafell Pike.

My favourite route up this mountain.

This is a second feature on this particular walk.

This is Piers Gill.

Now, whether Piers is a surname,

a Christian name,

whether he was male, female, we have no idea.

But this is Piers Gill,

and it gives its name to the route we are on.

Fantastic thing about this route is it hardly ever gets used.

It's not a scar going across the breast of the fell.

It's an indistinct path, one easy to follow.

Absolutely wonderful.

Piers Gill was the haunt of botanists.

They just love this place. Searching in the dark

and dank crevices for rare plants.

And one such botanist fell in there,

broke a leg, I believe,

and lay there for some considerable time.

I'm talking weeks, not days.

And lived on water until he was found and rescued.

And he survived.

Fabulous mountain.

Scafell's... Well, number one, they are the biggest. It's the biggest.

3,210 feet high.

It's the highest in England, and therefore that's got an appeal.

It brings people here because of that.

And I suppose that, for me, going up there is the highest.

Once you get to know the area, you can approach it from this side.

You can't see it from Wasdale Head.

You have to come down the valley before you can actually see

up through Brown Tongue and see to the top.

And I think that's part of its charm, it's so big, it's remote.

When I was taking my young son up there, I used to say to him, he used

to say, "What happens if I get lost?" "You'll never get lost.

"Just walk downhill.

"You'll soon find somewhere."

But, um, he walked down into Upper Eskdale.

It's still a long way down to the nearest farm or the nearest

telephone box. But, er,

people seem to get frightened of these places,

but there really isn't anything to be really worried about.

That's not to say you shouldn't take care.

I'd have mountain rescue at me if I didn't actually say that.

But prepared, properly prepared,

and being able to turn round if the weather does come in bad.

You know, if it starts getting really cold

and you haven't got the right kit.

A lot of people just don't turn around and come back and say,

"We'll do it another day."

People don't make these good,

sound, mountaineering decisions that they should, um,

and that's quite often why people get into difficulties.

ROAR OF RUSHING WATER

That's the end of the Piers Gill route.

It joins up onto the superhighway, which is the corridor route.

And we're now going to break off

and head up to Broad Crag Col.

There's a little bit of snow still lingering in there,

even though it's a beautiful spring day.

It'll be good fun.

Well, made it to the top. And once again, I'm not alone.

I've never been up here when I've been on my own.

There's always somebody else up here.

They say some...

In the region of 250,000 people get up here every year.

It's, er...

We don't need many more to make that number now.

But the view from here is absolutely splendid.

Scafell across the way there.

Just this huge barrier of rock. Just...

almost says, "Go away.

"You can't get up here."

And then there's a great panorama right round.

All my favourite, local Wasdale fells.

Seatallan, Buckbarrow, Middle Fell, Yewbarrow.

The summit cairn, which is massive and has got steps

so you can get onto the top of it,

can hold many, many people.

It's probably the biggest in the Lake District.

Also here's a memorial to all the men of the Lake District

who fell during the First World War.

It was given to the nation by Lord Leconfield.

I've enjoyed the Lake District

and Scafell before

and decided to bring my daughter to come and sample it.

-How have you found it so far?

-Erm, it's been all right.

Haven't really liked the wind but it's good anyway.

It's beautiful. You can see for absolutely miles today!

We were told we could see Scotland, Wales, Ireland from up here.

We can see about 30 yards!

I've managed to get to the top of Scafell Pike.

It's my first big mountain walk and I'm quite chuffed with myself.

I'm just looking forward to the nice stroll down now.

I'm Jeremy at the top of Scafell Pike.

Just climbed it for leisure today.

Enjoyed the challenge of it,

trying to get to the top of another mountain. So, thanks.

WALKERS CHAT IN BACKGROUND

RUSHING WATER

Well, the Lake District's always been very special to me.

It's not got the biggest mountains in the world but, you know...

By world standards

they are pimples, you know?

Scafell Pike here is 900 odd metres high.

It's not particularly big.

The Three Peaks Challenge is an interesting one

from the BMC's point of view.

One of the most famous challenges that involve walking in the UK -

doing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in 24 hours.

It's obviously a very popular challenge to do.

But it does have a dark side, with litter. Litter can be an issue.

You know, people just sort of dropping

what they've eaten on the side of the mountain.

Last year, a volunteer found an octopus on top of Scafell Pike.

You know, either you've got a very determined octopus

or somebody brought it up and for some reason decided

they'd discard it on the top of Scafell Pike.

But it can also have a massive impact on local residents

in hundreds of people who sort of turn up,

disturb local residents, go up, come back down and then go away again

and don't actually contribute anything to the local area.

One of the projects we've been involved with recently

is the Fix the Fells work on top of Calf Cove,

on the path leading up to the top of Scafell Pike.

Now, it's one of the most popular routes up Scafell Pike.

It's the one a lot of people doing the Three Peaks Challenge

take to the top.

As such, it sees thousands of visitors walking along that path

and a huge amount of visitor pressure.

The second part is what's called a cairn rationalisation,

but what that means is taking out cairns

which are unnecessary or misleading.

So, cairns are a part of mountain culture so, you know,

in an area with lots of rocks

and there's not particularly a clear path through it,

people will construct little piles of rocks that guide the way.

But over time, you can end up with sort of cairn anarchy

and you can end up with cairns in places where they shouldn't be

and which are actually quite misleading and can be dangerous.

So part of what the volunteers, the National Trust volunteers,

who did that work did

was to basically take out the unnecessary cairns.

OK, what we're doing here on this section of path is just

redefining the path surface.

There's lots of different routes that make their way

through this boulder field and we're just trying to make one

easily distinguishable, easy-to-walk-on route.

So what we're doing is taking out quite a few of the large boulders

that are blocking the main line of the path.

We're using those boulders to then block off alternative paths

that we don't want people to walk on any more.

So we've just been in the clag most of the day.

It's been, you know, fairly unremarkable.

We've just basically come out of all the murk and mist and emerged

to this completely different world where we're above the cloud now.

You know, it's the kind of thing you see when you come into the mountains

and it's very hard to describe how amazing it feels to be up here.

You know, it probably doesn't do it justice in pictures, really.

When you see moments like this, you realise that it was worth it

and that's what the BMC's work is all about.

It's about making sure we always have the right

to be in places like this and that we preserve the qualities

of the mountain environment that make it so special to us.

I can't believe we're here, can you?

This is my first ever time on Scafell Pike. Is it yours?

No, no, no. It's my second time.

-Oh...

-I did it about three years ago.

The weather was a lot different then but it's absolutely gorgeous here.

The views are absolutely spectacular.

I've lived in Cumbria for nearly 20 years.

I can actually see Scafell Pike from my bedroom

but I've never actually climbed it.

So we decided that before I was 40 I'd do it.

And unfortunately, tomorrow is my 40th and I'm running out of time.

The children have actually beaten me.

We've got two children with us today

and it's the third of the Three Peaks for them

so I'm quite proud of them for getting to the top.

I've been up here a few times now.

Mostly working with Duke of Edinburgh Award participants

and just making sure they're safe and enjoying the fells

and the beautiful, beautiful area around here.

What a great day to come up.

As you can see behind me, fantastic weather.

Not very often you get to the top of Scafell Pike

and get glorious sunshine.

And look at the views. They're to die for.

Why would you ever need to go abroad when you've got views like this?

SHEPHERD WHISTLES

HE WHISTLES

Steady now.

Come on, sheep. Come by there.

HE WHISTLES Come on.

They like it here. I don't know why.

Come on, Spider. Come on.

There couldn't be grass where they were but, er...

HE WHISTLES Hey!

I'm Joss Naylor. I've lived in this valley now for

nearly 78 years.

I was born at Wasdale Head, a place called Middle Row.

I took up fell running

round about 1960.

There was a mountain trial at Wasdale Head.

At that time I'd never really done any mountain running.

I'd been injured. I had no running shoes or anything.

I just got my knife and cut the legs off my trousers

and went in my big work boots.

And I tell you what, it was absolute magic.

It was one of the greatest things I think I've ever done.

You know, when you're running well and this sort of thing

it's absolutely great, because I know when I did

the 72 peaks over 2,000ft,

it was one of those days when you just went out

and enjoyed the whole experience.

It just seemed like a dream, as though I would never,

ever do it in 24 hours.

And going on to Scafell in 47 minutes.

It was something... It wasn't set up or anything like that.

And I had my friend with us, John Sutherland.

I said, "Just time us and I'll have a run up Pike."

I said, "I've come. I might as well do it."

And I went up the river.

I didn't go up Brown Tongue, I went up Little Brown Tongue.

And I seemed to change up about three gears and just legged it right out.

And I took a direct line to the end of Pikes Crag

and I sprinted across to the...

I touched the cairn and I set off back down.

I was legging it down there pretty fast and the helicopter come

and the old commanding officer said to the film man,

who was taking a film of the Three Peaks for them,

he said, "Hells bells! I've never seen anything like that in my life!"

He said, "It's like a bloody mountain goat going!"

He said, "Just film that bloke down to the bottom."

Anyway, I got down to the bottom and I said to John,

"How long's that took?" And he said, "47 minutes."

And I never thought another thing about it until years after.

It was something special.

I don't come from mountain lakeland. I'm a Cotswold farmer originally.

But I always aspired to come to the Lake District

and I've always loved wild places.

In my early 20s I got to know Alfred Wainwright

and that was a huge transition in my life.

Primarily because I was dyslexic - I didn't read - but I loved drawing,

and I shared a passion for line drawing with AW.

So I had a unique entry into the great outdoors

through the prism of Alfred Wainwright.

And it gave me the confidence to start writing my own guidebooks.

I did the Cotswold Way to start with and I did other routes.

But ultimately, I felt my destiny was here in the Lake District.

And I'm here today, studying the paths as I go along it

and remembering what it was like - how long ago was it? -

about eight years ago when I did the midwestern fells.

That's what this category of fells around here are for me.

The National Trust have done a tremendous job in this area.

Many people criticise the hard paths but I can assure you,

the fells are better for all they work they've done.

And ultimately, walkers are better off.

But you can still explore.

And getting away from those hard, pitch paths is the most obvious

thing for many walkers to do, to really get to know these fells.

I'm standing on the westernmost point of Esk Rigs Crag on Esk Pike.

Now, this drawing was taken a little further down at Pike de Bield Moss.

But because of the temperature inversion

I'm unable to get to that position.

But nonetheless, you can still see Esk Buttress and Scafell Pike

and Little Narrowcove and Ill Crag,

which are majestically seen from this spot.

So, wherever you stand on this southerly ridge of Esk Pike,

you are sure to be wowed by Scafell Pike.

And the joy of turning it into something as enduring

as a pen and ink drawing is something that thrills me.

And there are numerous angles here that I could capture

that would instil this magic of the wild Scafell massif.

These mountains have a special emotional attachment to me.

I love the little summit of Slight Side, for example.

And I got great pleasure in scrambling up Cam Spout Crag.

Seldom climbed, it's seemed, by the average walker,

but it gets you up onto Long Green

and you look across the combe towards Ill Crag.

My very special place is Pen, above Esk Buttress.

Where you're really intimate with Little Narrowcove,

which spills great crags and scree

in a way that you can't comprehend from any other aspect.

And I really love being on Ill Crag itself.

Cos, again, you're looking down on Pen and down into

Little Narrowcove and up and across to Scafell Pike itself.

And this is always very special.

When you can find these special places,

you can find the little combes like Foxes Tarn,

and the greater combe that runs around towards Cam Spout Crag

and then Little Narrowcove itself,

which is an amazing valley that rises raw and craggy

right up to Broad Crag Col.

Seldom climbed.

And you get to that point and there's a procession of happy souls,

all thinking they're on the only path that's worthy of being on.

And yet you know different when you're there.

What we're experiencing here at Wasdale Show is something that...

is an unbroken link that goes back

over hundreds of years,

through the farming life of these valley heads.

And this is the most spectacular

valley head in the whole of Britain.

But it's not... They call it a show but it isn't really a show.

It's a shepherd's meet.

It's a shepherd's meet because the shepherds used to come into here

with all the stray sheep, that have come

from all the hefted flocks around the place,

and they would exchange sheep.

You'd have a few whiskys and go home after two or three days

with raging hangovers and the wrong sheep.

-Walking back over the passes.

-Indeed, yeah.

-Well...

-In any weather.

-Well, stumbling, maybe.

-Yeah.

And then, when the shepherds got together, they not only drank,

they also had competitions among themselves -

who had the best boots? Who had the best crook?

Who could run fastest up a hill?

Who could wrestle? Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling, you know.

The only place where you'll see a man

wearing his knickers on the outside with some embroidery on.

BACKGROUND CHATTER

INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMENT

BOY: Erm, well, we're mostly here to, like,

bring sheep to boost business when we're selling and, like,

last Saturday there was a Cockermouth tup sale that we sold tups at.

And one made 3,000 and that's beat us here today with our own sheep.

So one of our own beat us!

You get a kind of mixture of tups.

You get the hard coated, which have been at fell all year

and you get a bit smoother which haven't been to the fell as often.

Around here, you'll get the rough coated. And down the lowlands,

you'll get all smooth and soft coated that's not really that good.

This show is always very well patronised by

the Herdwick sheep breeders.

This morning you'll see the best sheep

probably anywhere in the Lake District.

It's been a good summer, a good back end,

and you'll never see them any fitter than they are today.

It's a credit to the flockmasters who've brought them.

They've got a good length sheep and a good coloured sheep.

A lot of these sheep are no longer fell sheep. They've become spoiled.

Yeah, we're here at the Wasdale Show today for a number of reasons.

One of the reasons being we're the rescue team that looks after

the Wasdale and Eskdale valleys

and we're here to support the local farmers,

and the local shops and businesses,

and basically to show people that we're actually here.

We're quite a busy team.

And sometimes we rely quite a lot on the local people for their charity.

We're also here to raise money

so there'll be people visiting the valley from far and wide

just so they can learn a bit more about the team and hopefully,

at the same time, drop a little donation in

to keep our charity running.

-That's fine. Thank you.

-Is that OK?

-That's all right.

DISTORTED ANNOUNCEMENT

OVER PA: 'Anybody want to win a prize who's got a beard?

'Come into the tent, please.'

-You have to judge them on colour as well, you see.

-Texture.

Can I just say very quietly, at this year's Wasdale Head Show,

and last year's,

David Powell-Thompson won the Best Beard competition.

THEY CHEER

It's just maintaining a long tradition.

Even though I'm not a shepherd,

I've still been coming here for 23 years and I'll be coming here

-until the day I can't come here any more.

-Absolutely.

It's a great honour, actually.

A lot of effort goes into keeping this just the way it is, you know.

And yeah,

It'll go next to the last year's first prize as well.

In the strands, that is.

EDITOR: What does the money go on that you win?

The money? I will spend the money on beer.

It's the one day of the year that I ring-fence in my diary.

And I don't care.

Somebody could come along and offer me double, treble,

quadruple the rate for the job, I'll say no.

The Wasdale Head Show is sacrosanct.

I first came to the Lake District about 31 or 32 years ago

and it's always meant

so much to my wife and I.

We'd gone to the other side to Brotherswater

and two or three days in we were going down Wordsworth's Cottage

and my wife didn't feel too well.

And we went to the guide and said,

"Really sorry, but don't want to interrupt everything

"but my wife doesn't feel too good."

So she said, "Dear, dear.

"Go into the garden but whatever you do,

"please don't be sick on the daffodils."

And it's something that's always resonated with us

for the simple reason that we realised then

that Irene was pregnant with our first son, David.

And the Lake District, since that particular point,

has become incredibly poignant to us.

I particularly love Wastwater.

There is something about this specific location

that just hits you here.

And when you look at Scafell and Scafell Pike,

it isn't this huge, dominant turret

that stands out amongst everything else.

But it has a majesty to it.

You see the two sides of the Pike and Scafell

and it's almost like a king and queen, looking down upon everything.

And it fits in beautifully.

It's dominant without being over dominant.

But the beauty of that particular fell is there's so much to it.

So many facets. And I think that gets missed sometimes.

You see some of the sunrises

and sunsets here that are just absolutely staggering.

You get this incredible pink and orange light which is just surreal.

I thought I'd try something out, something I've never done before,

and went completely against the grain.

Brought the iPod with me,

settled myself here about half five one morning

and just as the sun was beginning to rise over the back of Gable...

..I put on this piece of music that meant so much to me.

The feeling that was engendered...

Wow!

It's just something that you can't replicate cos you only have

this sort of 10 or 15 minute window for sunrise or sunsets.

I took out the earbuds and just listened. And I was...

I think I was probably the only person on this water.

And the feeling of specialty was just unbelievable.

Ravens were going overhead then. You could hear the Herdwicks. Staggering.

Just staggering.

Yeah, it's quite unique, Wasdale.

I mean, everywhere has the four seasons

but each season here in Wasdale is very different to another.

And there's different jobs throughout the year we have to do.

We're currently in autumn and, yeah, it's a little bit frosty

this morning, a bit chilly,

hence we decided to have a bit of a warm up after work.

But, yeah, the process at the moment is basically breeding for next year

so whether that's the goats or the Herdwicks that we have,

we've got to plan for next year.

And a lot of work goes into getting

the tups ready and the billies ready.

We need to make sure they're fighting fit and strong

so that beforehand they all get extra feed

and build up their strength. So that when they go out to the girls,

because of the amount of work they have to do,

they lose a lot of weight, a lot of...

They put a lot of energy into the work they do.

So they lose a lot of condition throughout the breeding time.

Steady.

Good girl. Good girl. Steady on.

Steady on. That's it, good girl.

Good girl.

And down. Good girl!

Good girl.

She's a top dog, top dog! Good girl.

But, yeah, the Herdwicks come down from the fells.

All the breeding is done on the in-bye land.

And the goats as well. They come down from the high ground

and they do all the breeding as well on the lower in-bye land.

It's...

It obviously adds to the...

..the diversity of the work from being either up on the higher ground

and then the animals being on the lower pasture ground.

For the Herdwicks themselves,

they're not overly keen on being on low, flat, square fields.

By the time their breeding season's out of the way,

they're telling you they want to go.

They're knocking walls down, they're clambering over fences.

You can tell when it's time for the Herdwicks to go back to the fells.

Steady on.

Herdwick sheep's an important breed of sheep for this part

of the Lake District. It is the figurehead of the Lake District.

It's what makes the Lake District looks like it does.

So, when you're out walking the fells, climbing the mountains,

just take a moment of your time and look around and see why it looks

the way it does. And that's because of the Herdwick sheep

and the generations of farmers that have farmed these valleys,

and these fells, that make it look the way it does for you to enjoy.

SIREN COMES ON AND GOES OFF

THEY CHAT INDISTINCTLY

The Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team are based in Gosforth,

which covers the valleys of Eskdale and Wasdale.

We are quite a busy team.

We deal with lots of things, from the sad fatalities,

to just dealing with people who need

a bit of a helping hand on the Fell.

They just need a bit of a telephone call to tell them,

"Yeah, you're on the right path, keep going."

But also, every now and then, we get called out to help the local farmers,

the communities, and we'll go out

if the farmer's got a sheep that's cragfast.

We have been called out once to a cow that was missing up on Scafell,

and some of the team turned out to that.

Nowadays, we do ask ourselves some certain questions before we go out,

especially in the summer season when the Three Peaks Challenge

is going on, we need to be thinking,

"Well, do we want to turn the team out

"at one o'clock in the morning to get some lost people?"

And then the team are tired,

so we start looking at, "Well, is a life that risk?

"Is there any medical problems? Is anybody injured?"

If there's no severe weather forecast, the chances are,

if people have got the right equipment, we are going to

leave them and expect them to come out in the morning,

that is general mountaineering. People should start to recognise

that they should be doing that in some cases.

And I think it's important for people to remember that we are

a voluntary organisation when they make that call.

We are coming from work. We may be coming from dinner,

or we may be taking our wives out for a nice meal.

It never goes down very well.

So people need to remember that sometimes,

that we are volunteers, we come out of our own good will to do this job.

So, just sit yourself there.

Do you recall losing consciousness at all?

I went a bit delirious at the start, yeah.

So, Scafell Pike usually attracts most of our attention.

England's highest mountain and all. We get all sorts of rescues up there.

So, you know, we get the odd turned ankle.

There was one recently where we had a turned ankle.

The husband thought it was just a simple twist and we got up there,

and it was quite a nasty fractured dislocation.

We get really serious ones.

The serious ones on Scafell Pike tend to be around

Broadstand's sort of area.

People venture onto Broadstand, slip on the rock and, unfortunately,

usually fatality.

But winter approaches, people tend to be going out without crampons

and ice axe, and you just tend to attract a few more incidents,

twisted ankles, but we do get the odd serious one where, you know,

people have taken considerable falls from the top

of Lord's Rake path, for example.

We had a devastating fatality just on the Lord's Rake path last year.

I think it was December sort of time.

He took a fall and he come down the front of Red Gill area.

It was quite a sad time for the family. Yeah, he was in a bad way.

Well, today

I'm exploring slightly lower down this area.

This side of Scafell

on the Lakes I think is the wildest side.

Here, it's quite complex terrain.

There's all sorts of interesting little knolls.

There's little bowls, there's streams,

there's waterfalls, there's pools,

so it's changing all the time.

You're in this fantastic bowl of hills,

stretching right round from Crinkle Crag, right the way round

to Bowfell and Esk Pike to Scafell, which is behind me.

Well, I've been exploring round these crags,

and it's really quite interesting what you find and what you see.

On the crags behind me here, you can see a line of dark juniper bushes

growing on soil on the cliffs themselves.

But there's none above and below there

and that's because of the sheep.

And that's one of the things with this landscape.

Whilst it feels really wild, it's not an untouched wilderness.

If there were no sheep, there would be juniper bushes

and probably other trees scattered all over this area.

As it is, they can only grow where the sheep, good though the sheep are

at some mountaineering, but there's a limit to what they can do,

and if the sheep can't get there, the bushes can grow.

One of the great things about wild camping somewhere like this

is that because I'm staying in one place for a while,

while I'm in camp, I can look at the hills and see the details,

see the changes as the hours go by in a way that, if you're walking,

you miss because you're moving on. And it's always a different view -

I'm seeing new details, new bits and pieces, little valleys, and so on.

One of the great things about being here at night is that you can see

the whole sky. There's no light pollution at all.

There's no glow on the horizon from even a house, let alone a town.

So, when the stars are out, everything is absolutely

clear and sharp.

At the moment, there's the moon, there's some stars,

there's drifting clouds.

But it's all natural, it's all what's up in the sky,

that's not affected by town lights.

I'm Alan Hinkes, mountaineer and mountain guide.

I've climbed all over the world but I love climbing in Britain.

It's an absolutely brilliant place to rock climb and winter climb.

You can see the black streaks where icicles form and then,

behind me, is the main cliff with all the famous climbs on,

like Botterills Slab, Central Buttress, Moss Gill, Steep Gill,

Deep Gill, you can see the full nine yards.

Fantastic. One of the best cliffs in the British Isles.

In fact, one of the best cliffs in the world.

It's just sheer quality, from bottom to top.

And you can have a fantastic experience.

You can have a whole day out on the Scafells.

Usually, you need a whole day to get something done, a long day in winter.

You'll set off predawn and come back in the dark with a head torch.

This is Mickledore, which is between Scafell and Scafell Pike.

It's a rocky col that separates Wasdale from Eskdale.

And I came up here as a teenager,

one of my first big fell walks I ever did.

And I stayed in Black Sail Youth Hostel,

and then I came over here to Mickledore, intending to get

to Scafell Pike, and I got sucked in in the mist, the clag, the cloud.

So I managed to get up here and I bivouacked here in the cloud,

bivouacked in the thick mist next to this rescue box.

I actually thought it was going to be a hut,

so I spent a night here alone in the mist.

And then, afterwards, I carried on up to the top of Scafell Pike.

But this place is absolutely rich in climbing and walking heritage.

You've got Broadstand here, which leads up to the top of Scafell,

but that's not to be attempted by hillwalkers.

In fact, a lot of climbers can't even do Broadstand.

It's never been done by Wainwright.

I think it was possibly the first climb ever done or ever recorded

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The Scafells definitely feed my passion for the hills

AND the mountains, whether it be rock climbing in summer,

on the fantastic cliffs,

or winter mountaineering, snow, and ice climbing

they've just got everything you need.

Sometimes it's frustrating cos the weather can be very,

very inclement, very bad, and then you can't get out and do anything.

So it's pleasure.

You could almost say it's pleasure and pain on the Scafells,

and certainly a test of your stamina and resilience and determination.

They're as testing as any mountain.

You only need to go out for a day, really, on the Scafells,

and get back for a decent pint and a meal unless you get benighted,

or unless you decide to go and camp.

Fat Man's Agony, here we go.

Squeeze through this.

Open up, get me arm stuck, so I've got to bite it off to escape.

So many accidents happen here. People try to descend it in the summer.

Some people have mooted putting a ladder. I think that would only

increase accidents cos it would encourage more people to come here.

Let's hope it doesn't get any wetter.

That's wet.

Some wet hand holes here. Other than that, the rock's not too bad.

People often ask me to compare the 8,000 metre peaks,

like Everest and K2, to the Scafells. It's not really...

There's not really a comparison as such, other than

they're all mountains, and Scafell is, obviously, a lot smaller.

In many ways, I'd rather be on Scafell than Everest or K2

because you can have a fantastic experience and it's just a day trip,

or you can go and camp and have a couple of days there.

To commit to Everest or K2 is accepting that you may get killed.

Well, I don't think I'm going to get up this slimy rock today.

It's still draining from the winter and there's a lot of lichen

and moss on it, so it's very greasy and slippery.

And the holes are slabby, slipping out, not any good...

particularly good hand holes, and even a bit of overhanging rock here.

So I think retreat is the better part of valour.

No point in dying on this.

So, this is Broadstand, a very tricky, rocky step,

not to be recommended to hillwalkers or fellwalkers.

It's not the way up Scafell.

Or it's not an easy way up Scafell anyway.

In summer, if you're a rock climber, it may be possible.

But it's very tricky.

And a slip has generally very serious or fatal consequences here.

So I'd better get down.

Not laughing. I'd better get down!

Tell you what, don't you know the rescue team?

Could they get to the top and lower me a rope, do you think?

The Wasdale Rescue Team. "Wasdale Rescue Team!"

Yeah, that'd be embarrassing.

Just nip round to the top and lower me a rope.

I'll get down.

I hope.

In winter, the whole area can change.

It sort of has, in a way, menacing friendliness.

I mean, the whole area seems friendly to me. It's like an old mate.

I love going back to Scafell.

You could be going up in a blizzard,

fighting against the teeth of a gale, or, if you're lucky,

it can be fantastic blue skies and crisp, perfect snow and ice.

Like any mountains, though, the Scafells shouldn't be underestimated.

In fact, I often point out to people I've been avalanched on Great End.

People can't believe it.

They say, "What, you've been avalanched in the Lake District?"

And, yeah, I escaped by the skin of my teeth.

It was me who set the avalanche off at the top of a climb on Great End.

I'd soloed without ropes up a Grade IV route,

through Grade III, IV.

Somehow, I managed to crab crawl and swim out of the avalanche,

and got away.

Whenever I'm mountaineering, rock climbing, or ice climbing,

or even just fellwalking, I feel in my element.

That's when I feel alive, in the Scafells.

I'm as alive as anywhere.

It just feels like you're on one of the best mountains

in the world really, and it's fantastic.

Other peaks in the Lakes and all over Britain, but, for me,

I've just got to be out in the fells and then that's it.