The celestial peak of Scafell Pike viewed from afar

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/04/celestial-peak-scafell-pike

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It was near the point where William Wordsworth's father is said to have lost his way on Cold Fell in freezing mist, and subsequently died after being benighted and catching a severe cold in 1783, that I saw a most unusual view, and only because the light fell in such a way. The occasion? Driving this wild upland road between Ennerdale Bridge and Calderbridge, just past Kinniside stone circle and not far before the turn-off to Matty Benn's packhorse bridge across Friar Gill, said to be the oldest such span in Cumbria. What was that peak afar? How it brought to mind Kipling's poem: "Something lost behind the Ranges. Over yonder! Go you there!"

Lakeland is replete with skyline on skyline, and with peaks peeping into view through gaps. I remember another such car-stopping vision on the way back to Langdale over the tops from Little Langdale that appeared across the steel-cold waters of Blea Tarn. What looked so like the tip of some mythical Himalayan peak seen through a notch in the skyline above was none other than the summit of Bowfell, its buttress tinselled white, an ivory tower aloof and inaccessible – and just when you thought you knew your mountains.

So too on Cold Fell that day, this celestial peak from afar looked mystical, not a Lakeland peak as I knew them. I stopped the car and, zooming in to the maximum setting, snapped a picture with my mobile phone, later showing this to the fell runner I was visiting in Wasdale. The hardest iron man of all as rated by the late Chris Brasher glanced at the glowing screen, his aquiline profile intent, before finally saying: "It can only be Scafell Pike," And, yes, it fell in place, with classic climbs I had done on Pikes Crag so many times like Grooved Arete, The Sentinel and Juniper Buttress to the fore. Halcyon days now seemingly long ago, yet recalled in a moment as everything suddenly gelled.