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.