Mickledore is a narrow ridge, 840 metres (2755 ft) high, connecting the mountains of Sca Fell

Sca Fell

Sca Fell is a mountain in the English Lake District. Its height of 964 metres makes it the second-highest mountain in England after Scafell Pike, from which it is separated by the col of Mickledore....

 and Scafell Pike

Scafell Pike

Scafell Pike is the highest mountain in England at . It is located in Lake District National Park sometimes confused with the neighbouring Sca Fell, to which it is connected by the col of Mickledore...

 in the English Lake District

Lake District National Park

The Lake District National Park is located in the north-west of England and is the largest of the English National Parks and the second largest in the United Kingdom. It is in the central and most-visited part of the Lake District....

. It is also a pass between the valleys of Wasdale

Wasdale

Wasdale is a valley and civil parish in the western part of the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. The River Irt flows through the valley to its estuary at Ravenglass. A large part of the main valley floor is occupied by Wastwater, the deepest lake in England...

 and Eskdale

Eskdale, Cumbria

Eskdale is a glacial valley and civil parish in the western Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. It forms part of the Borough of Copeland, and has a population of 264....

.

The ridge is easily reached and traversed from Scafell Pike to the north, or from the valleys to the east and west. However, access to the summit of Sca Fell is barred by the rockface of Broad Stand, which looks much easier to climb than it is (the climb is "Difficult" in the British grading system

Grade (climbing)

In rock climbing, mountaineering and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a climbing grade to a route that concisely describes the difficulty and danger of climbing the route...

 ). In descent, the cliff is even more dangerous. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...

probably made a descent on 5 August 1802; he wrote:

I began to suspect that I ought not to go on, but then unfortunately tho' I could with ease drop down a smooth Rock 7 feet (2.1 m) high, I could not climb it, so go on I must and on I went. The next 3 drops were not half a Foot, at least not a foot more than my own height, but every Drop increased the Palsy of my Limbs — I shook all over, Heaven knows without the least influence of Fear, and now I had only two more to drop down, to return was impossible — but of these two the first was tremendous, it was twice my own height, and the Ledge at the bottom was so exceedingly narrow, that if I dropt down upon it I must of necessity have fallen backwards and of course killed myself. My Limbs were all in a tremble — I lay upon my Back to rest myself, and was beginning according to my Custom to laugh at myself for a Madman, when the sight of the Crags above me on each side, and the impetuous Clouds just over them, posting so luridly and so rapidly northward, overawed me. I lay in a state of almost prophetic Trance and Delight — and blessed God aloud, for the powers of Reason and the Will, which remaining no Danger can overpower us!

The walker seeking a safe route between England's highest mountains must go via Foxes Tarn, which involves a descent to 680 m or so, about 160 m below the height of the ridge. The more challenging routes of Lord's Rake (currently threatened by loose rock following a rockfall in 2001), and the West Wall Traverse, offer alternative ways to reach Scafell Pike.