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You may find this information helpful when researching the area prior to your visit
Gale Road CP - Lonscale Fell - Jenkin Hill - Skiddaw Little Man - Skiddaw (High Man) - Sale How - Skiddaw House - Gale Road CP - Latrigg - Gale Road CP (Grid ref. NY 281253) Total Distance (inc Latrigg) 11.2 miles, Total Ascent 2900 feet, Equivalent Distance 17.1 miles Total Distance (without Latrigg) 9.9 miles, Total Ascent 2700 feet, Equivalent Distance 15.3 miles
The ascent of Skiddaw has long been an attraction for tourists visiting Keswick and I, for one, don't begrudge them their bit of exercise. For the experienced fellwalker the "tourist" ascent, walking up a long but gradual slope just to walk down it again, is somewhat mundane. With a bit of variation, climbing Skiddaw from the south can be a varied and enjoyable trip - much of it away from the noisy, complaining throng.
The car park at the end of Gale Road is free, but it's also very popular, despite the suspension-shattering drive. Exit the car park at its end, via stile or gate and turn left along the path by the fence. The path bends slightly to the left before reaching a gate to the open fell. The tourist path continues by the fence, going uphill, but our route goes off diagonally to the right and slightly downhill to Whit Beck. Ford the beck and continue, now to the east, along the well-used path (the Cumbria Way) as it rises slightly whilst traversing the fell. There's a good view east to the Pennines from here. A fence, with gate and stile, is reached after about three-quarters of a mile. Cross this and turn left up the hill alongside the fence. The path is hardly well-worn but it is easy enough to follow. The higher one gets the more worthwhile it is to keep need the edge, by the Lonscale Crags, for inspiring views down to the Glenderaterra Beck below. As you approach the top it is easy to make a bee-line to the right for Lonscale Fell's eastern peak, and a last look down on the path by which you will eventually return.
Head west, now, back towards the fence. The narrow path takes you to a stile, broken when I last visited, and then on to Lonscale Fell's true summit. The panorama to the south, the full southern arc, is excellent, as they all are for this route up to Skiddaw. Leave here heading WNW until you reach the fence again. A path continues on the left side of the fence but gradually peters out as most people overstraddle the fence sooner or later and continue on the other side where the path is more pronounced. Follow the fence down to the col and up the other side to the summit of Jenkin Hill, then down to the Skiddaw tourist track. There is a gate here where you can get back through to the southern side of the fence and you can now do a straight-forward ascent of Lesser Man - a subsidiary of Little Man. It is worth going down to the edge of Grey Crags to have a look at the profile of Little Man's south-west arête - you may wish to tackle it at a later date, if you haven't already.