For most people, getting to Wasdale is a journey so epic it may require assistance from grey wizards with staffs. The temptation is strong, having got there, to throw yourself at the big hills around the dalehead, with Scafell Pike standing in for Mount Doom. But the flanking fells are also well worth exploring, with knobbly summits, deep gullies and no fewer than three tarns tucked into their folds. This route takes a clockwise circuit of the Nether Beck drainage basin, with an excellent finish on the rocky escarpment of Red Pike and the upturned boat of Yewbarrow.
