Pavey Ark

Pavey Ark is the big dark cliff rising straight out of the back of Stickle Tarn, and it is the largest crag in the Langdales.

Park at the National Trust car park at New Dungeon Ghyll, next to the Sticklebarn, or take the 516 bus from Ambleside, which stops there. The path up Stickle Ghyll is a mix of stone pitching and rough boulders and crosses the beck twice. The east bank line is the easier of the two. At Stickle Tarn, dammed long ago for water supply, the whole face is in front of you.

Three ways up the crag

Jack's Rake is the famous one, a Grade 1 scramble that climbs diagonally leftwards across the face in a natural groove. A low parapet of rock on the outside makes it feel less exposed than it looks, but it is steep, polished in places and a serious fall risk when wet. Two people died in falls from it in June 2012. Near its foot, look for a stone marked JWS 1900. Easy Gully, further east, is steep scree with some boulder moves near the top.

If you want no scrambling, walk round the east shore of the tarn, follow Bright Beck and take the path up the east ridge that Wainwright named North Rake. It is steep and rough in a cairned gully, but you never need your hands.

The top is bare rock, a short distance north of where Jack's Rake comes out. High Raise blocks some of the view to the north west, but you look across Harrison Combe to Pike of Stickle and out over the Eastern and Southern Fells. Most people carry on to Harrison Stickle and the other Pikes.