Helvellyn and Striding Edge

Friday 16th April 2004

After the terrible weather I endured on my previous day's walk I now felt as if I was being rewarded for my achievements as the weather on this walk was perfect and allowed me to complete a feat that I thought I would never be able to do. At the start of the walk I left Grasmere and headed off on the route of the Coast-to-Coast Walk that climbs beside Tongue Gill up to Grisedale Hause. After that gruelling climb I circumnavigated Grisedale Tarn and walked up the steep southern slopes of Dollywaggon Pike. Once I was at the top all my hard work for the day was effectively over and I was simply able to enjoy myself to such an extent that the rest of the day was a breeze; it was pure joy. The early morning low cloud had quickly cleared to reveal a magnificent panorama and tremendous weather for the rest of the day, and soon I was at the summit of Dollywaggon Pike, Nethermost Pike quickly followed and it wasn’t long before I finally reached Helvellyn.

This was only the second time I had been at the top of Helvellyn, and after the low cloud and strong winds of my first visit in 2002 it seemed to be a completely different place. The sun was out this time and there was hardly a breeze; the conditions were so good even the crowds failed to distract me. Carelessly I wandered over towards Striding Edge, but only to get a closer look at it. I have been afraid of Striding Edge ever since I first heard about it, so never thought I would ever dare to walk across it. I thought I was only going to look at it, from afar, but to my surprise, before I even knew what I was doing, I found myself climbing down to the start of Striding Edge. The weather conditions were so perfect I couldn’t stop myself walking across, and by the time I reached the end I was wondering what my problem had been. I guess when the conditions are this good then even Striding Edge is not too difficult.

As I think back now, more than ten years later, about my first trip across Striding Edge I have also been thinking about my subsequent visits and I have made an astonishing realisation. I have only ever been across Striding Edge three times and the last time was at Easter in 2006, which doesn’t feel right, but I can’t remember any other time I have been across that fearfully narrow ridge. Even more astonishing is the last time I was at the top of Helvellyn was second of January 2009, more than six years ago! I remember more recently planning on walking up Helvellyn, most recently in 2013, but I had to change my plans due to bad weather. Helvellyn is a great mountain that doesn’t deserve to be ignored like this, and Striding Edge is such an icon of the Lake District that it is shocking that it has been such a long time since I was on the edge. My plans for this Easter are going to have to be changed!

On my first trek across Striding Edge I had my lunch on the hillside just above the Hole-in-the-Wall and when I resumed walking I turned back towards Helvellyn passing Red Tarn before reaching Swirral Edge. At the start of the ridge I turned right in order to visit the top of Catstye Cam before returning along the ridge and up Swirral Edge back onto Helvellyn. I had heard that the best way to tackle Swirral Edge is to stay at the very top of the ridge and based on my experience on this occasion that seemed to be exactly right as I found it surprisingly easy. When I climbed Helvellyn for the first time two years before, via Swirral Edge, I had some difficulties due to high winds that encouraged me to veer away from the ridge in favour of climbing the perilously steep side of the fell. Conditions were completely different on this occasion and consequently I found the climb considerably easier.

From Helvellyn I walked over to Lower Man and turning north I headed down a short, narrow ridge that led me up to Whiteside and on the other side I began my descent into Glenridding. At Greenside Mine I crossed the river and continued around the side of the hill below Birkhouse Moor to Lanty’s Tarn and down into Grisedale. The youth hostel in Patterdale was reached by walking along the path below Glenamara Park. This was a sensational walk in gorgeous weather and over stunning mountains that deserve to have been climbed more times than I have. When the weather is this good the top of a mountain is a sensational place to be and makes even foot-wide ridges seem easy. Great mountain days only occur when the weather is good, and when those rare occasions happen I never want to leave.

Ennerdale to Grasmere in bad weather

Thursday 15th April 2004

The weather for this walk was the worst I encountered all week with strong winds and rain almost all day, in fact it was probably the worst weather I’d ever found in the Lake District, or on any walk up to this point. Until this walk I had always been rather afraid of being out on the fells in bad weather, and I had every reason to be as the scare stories I’d heard were not wrong. Despite the dreadful weather forecast I had little choice about my options for this day as I had been staying at the Black Sail Youth Hostel in Ennerdale and was booked to stay in a hostel in Grasmere the following night. The safest plan (short of catching several buses once I’d reached the nearest road, near Buttermere) would be to climb up Loft Beck and over Honister Hause into Borrowdale, on a reverse of the end of the previous day's walk, and then climb over Greenup Edge into Far Easedale. That is still quite a trek in bad weather, but is still the easiest route to walk despite reaching a maximum height of about two thousand feet at the top of Greenup Edge, while the route that I did take took a more direct, much higher and more exposed route.

I walked away from the Black Sail Hut towards the head of the valley on a gently rising grassy crest between the infant River Liza and Tongue Beck. As I climbed the Tongue I could see that the rain that had so far held off during my ascent was rapidly advancing up the valley and would overtake me before I reached the Windy Gap at the head of the valley. A young woman, who had also been staying at the youth hostel, caught up with me just as I reached the top and we passed through the deservedly named Windy Gap together and stumbled down Aaron Slack. With the rain now pouring down we made our way past St Head (for my fourth time in three days) and climbed the stony bridlepath that led us past Sprinkling Tarn and towards Esk Hause. I remember at this point reaching a junction of paths where a large group of people were crowded around a map trying to determine the correct route in the poor visibility.

I was able to confidently inform them that the left path heads to Angle Tarn while the right path goes to Esk Hause. I have always imagined that my female companion was deeply impressed by my amazing sense of direction, but in fact I had been at this junction just two days previously and remembered it distinctly. My companion followed me as far as the shelter at the top of the path and then headed north over Allen Crags towards Glaramara on her way to Buttermere. I have never seen her since and I don’t even remember her name. Once I reached Angle Tarn I took a second waterproof out of my rucksack and put it on over my now saturated cagoule. In weather that was worse than I had ever encountered before I was finding that my waterproofs were not up to the job of keeping me dry.

After passing Angle Tarn I left the bridlepath and took a rougher path that was often indistinct and not only very wet but it was very windy as I skirted around the side of Rossett Pike and descended to the broad and exposed Stake Pass. This was the toughest part of the day as I battled against the strong winds blowing through the pass and over the boggy ground. I think it was around here that I met a small group of people who were coming the other way and one of them quizzed me on where I was going. This must have been concern for a lone walker in terrible weather making his way across an exposed mountain pass. It is good that fellwalkers look out for each other like this and my answers must have convinced him that I was okay as he wished me well and left me to head up the grassy hill on the other side of the pass.

The most direct route to Grasmere from this point would have been to follow the path to the Langdale Pikes and then descend into Easedale from below Sergeant Man. Instead I climbed long grassy, occasionally boulder-strewn slopes up to the top of High Raise. I was following the route of a right-of-way that is marked on maps, but there was no path on the ground, so I had to somehow try to find my own way up the rough, never ending slopes to eventually reach the summit of High Raise. I have never been more thankful for the stone shelters that are built on many Lakeland summits than when I collapsed at the top of this fell. After a long rest I got up again to battle the strong winds and make my way down the other side of the hill to Greenup Edge where I turned right onto the path that leads into Far Easedale.

It would be a long time before I walked along this valley again, New Year’s Eve 2012, when the weather was once again very poor as on all the other occasions that I have walked from Greenup Edge to Grasmere (or vice versa) I have always taken the ridge route that is much more enjoyable in good weather between Calf Crag and Helm Crag. My abiding memory of Far Easedale on this occasion was of the valley being very wet underfoot and of my gloves being saturated. I seemed to find it immensely amusing that whenever I clenched my fist streams of water poured out of my gloves. I think this is a reflection of my light-hearted satisfaction with this walk. I had successfully crossed high, exposed land in weather worse than I had ever encountered on any other walk before this, and now that I knew I could cope with bad weather at the top of a mountain I would never be the same again. This is the walk that I look back on as signifying that my education in hillwalking had crossed a significant milestone. I may still have had a lot to learn, but now I would be able to advance confident in my abilities in bad weather, thanks to this walk.

Around the Mountain Passes

Wednesday 14th April 2004

I felt the weather for this walk was not conducive to being at the top of the fells where strong winds and rain were threatened, so I abandoned my planned walk over Pillar, Scoat Fell, Haycock and Red Pike in favour of a walk that explored the mountain passes in the area. With hindsight this was not as good an idea as I thought at the time. Winds tend to be funnelled up valleys so that the top of the valley, the mountain passes, are often the windiest place to be. I have sometimes felt little wind actually at the summit of a high mountain, but been buffeted by really strong winds at the top of the nearby pass, so in fact most of the windiest places that I have ever been are at or near the top of a pass. There are very good reasons for staying away from high mountain summits when it is very windy, but high mountain passes are not a reasonable alternative, as I have learnt several times over the years.

Due to the poor weather I was not in a hurry to leave Black Sail Hut, but when I eventually left I headed up and over the Black Sail Pass. There is a good path up from Ennerdale with some fun, though brief moments on rock before reaching the top of the pass where a rusting gate sits in the middle, but with no fence either side of it, and as Wainwright said: “Only a fanatical purist would think of using it.” I had never been on the path on the other side of the pass before and I was surprised to find it badly eroded in places with deep channels, while other paths in the Lake District are well-constructed. I have never been back to this path since to see whether these channels have been filled in and a more hard-wearing path with better drainage constructed. I would imagine that this is exactly the sort of thing that the interested parties should be trying to fix.

The dale I was descending into was Mosedale, one of several dales with that name in the Lake District, but this is the most famous and I found it to be a quiet and nondescript valley, and in the low cloud it had a secluded feeling as if it was far from the hustle and bustle that was actually just around the corner at Wasdale Head. Before me was the Dorehead Screes, an infamous scree run that, from where I was descending, looked to be a vertical drop. Although I have walked past the top of the screes several times, I have still never climbed or descended the Dorehead Screes so I have no idea how anyone can walk either up or down them. In fact, this walk is the only time that I have ever been in Mosedale and that must surely be reason enough to make a return visit in order to explore this delightful little valley.

Mosedale leads into Wasdale Head, a familiar starting point for many walkers, particularly those preparing to climb Scafell Pike, but at this time it was a place that I had never been to before due to the absence of a Youth Hostel at this northern end of Wasdale. From Wasdale Head I proceeded along the bridlepath to what is undoubtedly the most frequently visited mountain pass in the Lake District: Sty Head. There are three paths up to Sty Head Pass marked on the Ordnance Survey map, but on the ground there is only two, an easy, direct route across the slopes of Great Gable and a valley route. I was expecting well-constructed paths up to Sty Head, but after missing the turning onto the easier route the path I was on seemed to deteriorate to become barely perceptible along the valley bottom over and beside many streams.

Wainwright was very complementary of this little path that follows a leisurely course snaking up the valley as it follows Lingmell Beck and Spouthead Gill up the valley before finally zigzagging steeply to the top of the pass. When I descended on this route in 2011 I loved it, but in 2004 I thought it was very difficult and wished that I had taken the easier route, however when I did take that path the year after I found it too easy and wished that I had taken the valley route again. I passed through Sty Head twice on the day before this walk and it was fun now walking past the same places, but in much poorer weather because now there wasn’t a single person around. When I had been descending to Sty Head from Great Gable the day before there had been loads of people milling around the top of the pass, but now it was deserted. From Sty Head I took the well-used bridlepath that follows the stream past Taylorgill Force to Seathwaite.

With the weather worsening and time advancing I rushed along the road between Seathwaite and Seatoller and then hurried up the old toll road to Honister Hause. Since a road goes over this pass it holds less interest for me and besides, I was still climbing. From Honister I followed a disused tramway to an old Drum House where I turned left to continue to climb until just before reaching the two thousand feet mark, and the highest point on the walk, where I branched right onto the path that took me down to the top of Loft Beck. Having successfully braved the poor weather on the northern slopes of Grey Knotts and Brandreth I descended steeply into Ennerdale beside Loft Beck and proceeded along the valley the short distance back to Black Sail Youth Hostel. Despite the poor weather this had been an interesting walk on routes that I had not taken before, and in places not taken since. The passes were not as windy as they could have been and instead I was able to build up my experience and consequently my confidence in my ability to walk over the fells in bad weather.

Great Gable and Scafell Pike

Tuesday 13th April 2004

The weather forecast for this walk was for rain in the afternoon, however this fortunately didn’t start until after I had arrived at my destination so it was dry throughout the day, but very cold with patchy low cloud that left me with only got occasional views from the tops. I left Honister after breakfast and headed straight up the fell-side on a steep rough path that eventually led me onto Grey Knotts, but never I met a soul, which inevitably was to be the exception on this walk rather than the rule. This route up Grey Knotts starts from the car park directly outside the door of the hostel and follows a fence straight onto the fell all the way up to the top. The usual route is to follow an old tramway to the foundations of a drum house at the top of the path and then turn sharp left across the open hillside. This is also the usual route to Great Gable from Honister and was the route that I took two years previously when I first climbed to the top of Great Gable, so now I wanted to take this more challenging, and to my mind, more interesting route.

Once I reached the top of Grey Knotts I headed along the broad ridge to Brandreth on an easy path that follows the fence and boundary posts before heading up to Green Gable. On my early visits to the Lake District I always seemed to have poor visibility when crossing Gillercomb Head and even now whenever I’m there it feels strange for me to have a view. On this occasion, Green Gable was in the clouds, but the Windy Gap just beyond was clear and rewarded me with the mesmerising sight of clouds blowing up from the valley and through the gap. After a rough climb up to the top of Great Gable I was astonished to find the summit almost clear, though not of clouds, but of people. There were just three people there sitting at the popular summit, but as there was no view to be seen, after a brief pause in front of the War Memorial, I descended the hill all the way down to Sty Head.

On this holiday I walked along a lot of differently constructed paths of varying degrees of quality. The path going down from Great Gable to Sty Head was very well constructed, but the path from Sty Head to Esk Hause seemed to me very poor. It’s a gravely path that’s like walking on scree, or a pebbly beach, with all the inherent difficulties and so on several occasions while on this path I bemoaned the path makers. In my most recent visit to this area, in September 2013, I found a path that is considerably easier to walk upon than is described here. Either steps have been taken to improve the path or the stones have naturally embedded to create an easier surface for walking. From Esk Hause, with clearer skies all around (even Great Gable was uncovered), I walked past Great End and over Ill Crag and Broad Crag, before arriving at the top of the grossly over-crowded Scafell Pike. It never fails to amaze me how people will go to just one peak in the Lake District simply because of a numerical coincidence that makes it the highest. On Scafell Pike you are surrounded by hundreds of hills many of which are far superior and yet it remains the one hill in the Lake District that everyone wants to go up.

The path up to Scafell Pike from Lingmell Col is part of the heavily used tourist route from Wasdale Head over Brown Tongue and is consequently a fully-constructed (I could even say over-constructed) and well-defined path, but the path on the other side of the pass to Lingmell was almost non-existent and so it was much more enjoyable, as were the views through the gaps in the clouds. After visiting Lingmell I returned to the col and took the fabulous Corridor Route back to Sty Head. This is a really enjoyable path that has retained its rough charm even though it has been heavily constructed in places. When I returned to the path in 2013 I thought there had been some additional construction, but given my comment above, taken from my notes made back in 2004 (and my notoriously fickle memory), it is possible that it hasn’t seen much more construction in the last ten years. Either way it remains an enjoyable route.

The Corridor Route hugs the steep sides of the fell below Broad Crag and Great End while traversing the tops of several deep ravines before descending to Sty Head Pass where I took a seldom used climber’s path that crosses the face of Great Gable. This is a thrilling route that clings precipitously to the side of the fell as it crosses the boulder fields and sheer scree slopes below Great Gable; my heart was in my mouth on several occasions as I negotiated around fallen boulders while just inches away from my feet was a sheer drop. I returned to this path in 2013 in fabulous weather, much better than on this occasion, and once again enjoyed this most thrilling path. I had stunning views down Wasdale and along the length of Wastwater that prompted me on many occasions to stop and just absorb the scenery while clinging onto the steep slope for sheer life.

Eventually I reached Beck Head where the clouds had now descended which required that I get my compass out in order to find the path on the other side of the pass around the side of Kirk Fell to Black Sail Pass. I had taken this path the year before on my way to Black Sail Hut and I took it again the day after and several occasions since. In fact, I think I may have walked along this path more times than I have walked over the top of the fell that this path circumnavigates, Kirk Fell, which is even more surprising given how indistinct the path is, not only at the start near Beck Head, but for much of the route. The only place where the path is clear is where Sail Beck is crossed in a steep ravine and after that point on this occasion I left the path and descended to the bridlepath which took me all the way down to the Black Sail Youth Hostel. This was a truly great walk over some great fells, but most significantly on some truly astonishing paths.

Causey Pike and Crag Hill

Monday 12th April 2004

When planning this walk I took on a challenge that I thought would be difficult for me to accomplish, but in the end I succeeded with time to spare, all thanks to tremendous weather. I was booked to stay at the Honister Youth Hostel, and from Keswick the most obvious route to take is to head up over Maiden Moor and High Spy, however I took that route the year before and I knew it wouldn’t take me all day. One of the challenges when planning walks is to make the length long enough to ensure that I reach my destination between five and six; not so early that I’m standing around wondering what to do next and not so long that I have to rush so I can get there before it gets dark. My solution for this walk was motivated by a desire to climb Crag Hill, even though this would involve a route that would take me via Buttermere, before going to Honister. That could not be helped, but with the weather as good as it was I thought it would be possible.

Knowing that I had a long walk ahead of me I set off from Keswick at a brisk pace along the route of the Cumbria Way through Portinscale and Fawe Park to the foot of Cat Bells. So far I had been following the same route as the much shorter way to Honister via High Spy, but at this point I came off the direct route and made my way across the Newlands Valley from Skelgill to Rowling End Farm. I was now at the foot of the ridge that comes down from Crag Hill over Causey Pike and has its terminus on Rowling End, but on this occasion I didn’t climb Rowling End and instead I took a slanting path across the hillside which finally reaches the top of the ridge at the col, Sleet Hause, with Causey Pike. This is the more popular route up, and when I returned to Causey Pike, in 2009, I took the alternative route over Rowling End.

After a fun, little scramble I reached the top of Causey Pike, though I had no time to pause as I headed along the gently undulating ridge and up and over Sail. I remember finding this climb rather tiring, on a wide track that heads straight up the fell of which Wainwright said ‘the final pull from Sail Pass to the summit is on a very wide path becoming eroded into a trench’. I don’t remember thinking the path was eroded, but someone else did, and when I returned to this area in 2011 I found that an unsightly raised zigzagging path had been constructed. I know there is an idea to ‘fix the fells’, but surely there is a better way to preserve the fells for future generations than disfiguring the fells with ugly paths such as can now to be seen either side of Sail Pass. Fortunately I saw the fell in its original state before it was disfigured by the very people who were supposed to be fixing it.

I didn’t stop at the top of Sail to visit the small summit cairn a short distance away from the path, but kept going along the narrowing and exhilarating ridge all the way up to the top of Crag Hill. However, I didn’t even stop at the top of Crag Hill as I was ever mindful of still having a long way to go on this epic walk, so without stopping I headed down the hillside and along the fabulous ridge to Whiteless Pike. From there a steep descent took me all the way down into the tourist-filled village of Buttermere. When I had been thinking about this walk the evening before I had anticipated arriving in Buttermere between two and three in the afternoon, which I thought would be sufficient to ensure that I reached Honister in reasonable time. However, due to my headlong rush over Causey Pike and Crag Hill I reached Buttermere at 1.30, so I was finally able to stop and have my lunch before heading back over the hills.

On my first visit to the Lake District I climbed out of Buttermere in appalling weather only to find a vast boggy quagmire in Buttermere Moss, an area where, according to Wainwright, water cannot escape except by being carried away in the boots of pedestrians. On this occasion, despite the drier weather, I found it just as spongy as it was when I had last been there. After a final steep pull I reached the summit of Robinson where I made my way onto the ridge that connects Robinson with its neighbour, Hindscarth, but still thinking that I was short of time I bypassed the top, which lies some distance away from the ridge, and continued along Hindscarth Edge to Dale Head. This is a hill that I had planned to visit on both my two previous visits to the Lake District and failed to reach the summit both times due to bad weather.

On both occasions I had been heading towards Keswick and turned north before reaching Dale Head. By walking from Keswick and leaving Dale Head till the end of the walk I was finally able to reach the outstanding cairn that stands at the summit. A simple walk took me down the grassy slopes from the top of Dale Head and it wasn’t long before I reached Honister Hause much earlier than I had anticipated. I had assumed that the only way I was going to be able to reach Honister in time using this route was if I kept up a brisk pace, but with hindsight that doesn’t appear to have been the case. I should have slowed down and enjoyed the walk more, but despite my fast pace I really enjoyed the walk. I had tremendous fun quickly traversing the fabulous ridges of the North Western Fells in great weather. I couldn’t see how I could have enjoyed the walk more!