Sunday, 27 October 2024

Another go at the Helvellyn ridge

 Our first big target for the week was the section of the Helvellyn ridge that Poppy hadn't got to.  Caroline and I had done a similar walk, although we'd started off at the end with Clough Head and walked all the way down.  This was a bit too ambitious, and Poppy had already done some of this north end, so we just targeted the middle section.

Difficulty: 6.9
Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Poppy (14), Piper (5)
9:04, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (185)
10:37, 4.0km 1h33 743m, Raise (883, Wainwright, Hewitt)
10:55, 5.0km 1h51 790m, White Side (863, Wainwright, Hewitt)
11:32, 6.9km 2h28 990m, Helvellyn (950, Wainwright, Hewitt)
11:59, 7.9km 2h55 1031m, Nethermost Pike (891, Wainwright)
12:23, 9.4km 3h19 1098m, Dollywaggon Pike (858, Wainwright, Hewitt)
15:43, 17.8km 6h39 1330m, End (193)

We parked at the layby at the top end of Thirlmere, and set off up the path to Sticks Pass.  The weather forecast was quite good but windy.


First up was Raise.  This photo looks ahead towards Helvellyn, with the ridge to come on the right.

Next, White Side. I think Piper thinks she's spotted a sheep.

Then to Helvellyn - it certainly was very windy at the top.  Poppy was looking towards Swirral Edge and Catstye Cam, where we had been the year before.  We got a bit of partial shelter from the cross shaped cairn just below the summit so ate some lunch.

We then walked further south, to Nethermost Pike.  This is Piper looking back up towards Helvellyn.

It started clouding over a little more as we walked further south, but the sun still gave us some fantastic views.  This is from Dollywaggon Pike.

With all our targets for the day complete, the small matter was the walk back to the car: the last peak was only half way through the walk!  This photo was looking south west, at the stream going between Steel Fell and Ullscaft towards Wythburn, at the south end of Thirlmere.

Poppy, contemplating the descent to Thirlmere and back to the car at the north end.



















Tuesday, 23 July 2024

The easiest Munro on Skye

This was the best day of glorious weather all week, and our best chance to get up into the Cuillin hills.  Given the conditions the walk wasn't that much harder than any of the Lake District walks, but you can see this wasn't much of a fun place to be in bad weather, or if we'd tried to go any further along the ridge.

Difficulty: 5.6
Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (22), Evie (16), Poppy (13), Piper (4 1/2)
9:55, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (43)
13:36, 7.6km 3h40 915m, Bruach na Frithe (958, Munro)
17:16, 15.6km 7h20 993m, End (25)


We parked in the layby on the main road from Dunvegan where we were staying.  I was slightly paranoid that there wouldn't be space, given the ideal walking weather, but there was plenty and we only saw a very small number of people on our walk.  


The view to the Cuillin ridge, not long after setting off.

A little over 2h into the walk, time for a lunch stop in Fionn Choire, before we starting hitting the scree climb to the top of the ridge.


Looking back to the north west.


Finally at the top of the ridge, Bealach nan lice.

And another 30min of walking up, we were finally at Bruach na Frithe.  It was still t-shirt weather, after reading all the dire stories I knew that were really quite luck to have such good weather.  This picture is looking north east.

Another view, looking south, following the ridge all the way to Sgùrr Alasdair in the distance.  You can see why people get seducted by the idea of walking from one end to the other.  


I was keen to take Piper up Sgurr na Fionn Choire, so we found the way up, after a scrambling up a big rock to find it was a dead end.  I'm not Piper forgave me for helping her up that one for a few days.

Looking at Bruach na Frithe from Sgurr na Fionn Choire.  I got back down to meet the others, and we had a great bit of fun getting down the scree slope.  Caroline and Evie were determined not to listen to any advice and ended up taking a route that 'looked easier' but still took a very long time.

Finally back to safer ground.  Piper sought out some cooling water - the rocks had not treated her paws too kindly, so she got a few well deserved easy days after this one!