My children scramble over the last boulder and we are there. They whoop with celebration; I gasp with exhaustion. We’ve just walked up the tallest mountain in England. Momentarily, we are the highest people in the country, so I slump down on a rock to enjoy a sandwich and admire the 360-degree panorama.
Just to go one better than me, my 13-year-old son clambers on top of a nearby cairn and shouts: ‘I’m the king of the castle!’ And for once, he is right.
Scafell Pike is 3,209ft high (978m), that’s more than three times the height of The Shard.
Tip top: England’s loftiest mountain Scafell Pike, in glorious Cumbria
From the flat, rocky summit, you can look out over all the peaks and valleys of the Lake District. On a clear day you can see Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.
Half-way up Scafell Pike is Broad Crag Tarn, the country’s highest lake, and at the foot is Wastwater, England’s deepest lake, and St Olaf’s, one of our smallest churches.
With so much to see, this extraordinary spot should be one of the UK’s most iconic attractions.
Reaching peak fun: Simon with his adventurous children Harry, 15, and Millie, 14
Yet while Scotland’s Ben Nevis and Wales’s Snowdon win travel awards and popularity polls, Scafell Pike mostly remains a specialist attraction for hardy hikers and mountaineers.
Ben Nevis takes far longer to climb — but the summit attracts almost four times as many tourists as England’s highest peak. I’ve walked up Scafell Pike several times, and it’s always a memorable adventure. Even if you take your time, any reasonably fit person with the right shoes can be up and back in half a day.
I had worried my 15 and 13-year-old would pull up their hoods and grumble all day — but they seem to love it even more than me. They are certainly faster on the steep bits.
It is healthy, free and great for family bonding. I end up proudly telling everyone how well my children did, posting on social media embarrassing photos of them posing like mountaineers.
So why don’t more people visit this crucial piece of England’s landscape heritage? I puzzle this as we stride back down Scafell Pike with barely another soul in sight. In a recent magazine poll of Britain’s most popular mountains, it didn’t even make the top ten.
Perhaps it’s because this is not an easy place to reach. The busy shops and B&Bs of Windermere are far to the east, close to the M6. In contrast, Scafell Pike lies in the remote west of Cumbria.
The most direct route your satnav will follow is via Hardknott Pass. This is an intimidating stretch of narrow, steep, serpentine mountain track. They call it ‘Britain’s most outrageous road’.
In the right vehicle and with clement weather, it can be an exciting experience, but I didn’t trust my old banger to make it over the Pass in the rain, so took the much longer road looping round the coast.
Beauty spot: England’s deepest lake, Wastwater (pictured), is on the Scafell trail
Then you have to find your way up the mountain. There are various routes: some short, some long, and some much harder than others. They all criss-cross and if the weather changes abruptly, as it does on mountains, it’s easy to get lost.
I once became disoriented in the drizzle and ended up heading down the mountain before I realised my mistake. So it’s best to take a good map or even better, hire a local guide.
For the price of a pair of walking boots, a knowledgeable expert will ensure you don’t get lost and show you the best of the landscape.
If you’re more of a do-it-yourself sort visiting Scafell Pike for the first time, start from the National Trust car park in Wasdale for the easiest, most direct ‘Hollowstones’ route.
And, however you get to the top, don’t forget to celebrate with a selfie and a bite of Kendal Mint Cake. After all, you will have reached what the great Lakeland writer Alfred Wainwright called ‘the summit of England’.