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.

Dollywaggon Pike

The purist would say that climing Helvellyn from the west is boring and I'm sure some say it doesn't count.  Anyhow, needing to drive back that afternoon meant we didn't have time to walk from Glenridding, and actually our target was the peaks to the south.  So we parked at the south end of Thirlmere, striking lucky by both getting one of the last three spaces and finding the ticket machine out of order.  A total of just under 15km at 5h15 was slightly more than I had planned, but that's partly since we took advantage of the great weather to visit Helvellyn.

Difficulty: 6
Walkers: Tim, Caroline

10:22, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (198)

11:48, 4.1km 1h26 778m, Helvellyn (950)
12:09, 5.3km 1h46 821m, Nethermost Pike (891)
12:38, 6.9km 2h15 880m, Dollywaggon Pike (858)
13:50, 9.9km 3h27 1083m, Seat Sandal (737)
15:37, 14.8km 5h15 1153m, End (196)

So this was the walk up - not much to say, other than we generally were overtaking people!  We also met a couple of guys in the car park who didn't have a map but clearly were on a mission to climb Helvellyn - we met them a couple of times later on and they clearly met their objective and were having a great time.

The top of Helvellyn, with Swirral Edge to the left, Red Tarn center and Striding Edge to the right.  The great mystery has to be whether we'll ever do either of these routes...

Top of Nethermost Pike, really the most impressive thing here is the view of Striding Edge!  Apart from my wife in the foreground, naturally.

The path down at High Crag.

Dollywaggon Pike, looking back the way we had come.

Then the long descent down to Grisedale Tarn.  We could see much of the route we had taken the day before, it was great to get closer to some of the sites we could see then.  The path down was really quite long and tedious though...  Just matched by the short but quite exciting climb up Seat Sandal - seen opposite the Tarn to the right on this picture.  We took the direct route up the left hand edge, Caroline didn't much like it, but Evie would probably have loved it...

The view from the top - quite windy, with St Sunday Crag center opposite.

We retreated back down the valley, taking the direct route back to the road.  We then walked back up the path then forest road to the car park, and seeing two fly pasts by 2nd world war planes - a quad propeller bomber (?) then a fighter.    They were flying down the Thirlmere valley, a lot lower than the cliffs either side, very impressive, and too fast for me to get the camera out!

We never meant to go to Helvellyn

The plan for this walk to do the ridge north of Helvellyn. We parked at the car park at the north end of Thirlmere, after driving up from the Drunken Duck following a hearty breakfast.  I love breakfast at the Duck!

Difficulty: 9
Walkers: Tim, Caroline
10:03, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (172)
13:03, 10.6km 2h59 669m, Clough Head (726)
13:58, 13.6km 3h55 904m, Great Dodd (857)
14:21, 15.0km 4h17 908m, Watson's Dodd (789)
14:39, 16.1km 4h36 969m, Stybarrow Dodd (843)
15:15, 17.9km 5h11 1099m, Raise (883)
15:31, 18.9km 5h27 1138m, White Side (863)
16:09, 20.9km 6h05 1296m, Helvellyn (950)
18:50, 27.6km 8h46 1377m, End (173)

We started with a longish walk north, along the valley, a great way to get some miles down on the flat for a change.

 After around the head of the ridge, we found the fairly obvious path going up, which brought us up to Clough Head.  This photo is looking north, towards Kewsick with Derwent Water on the left and Bassenthwaite in the center.

My lovely wife at the top of Clough Head.

Moving south down the ridge it took less than an hour to make the 3km to Great Dodd, where we met a group of people obviously doing some kind of extended expedition or orienteering - still, they took a rare picture of both of us.

Following the path south we got to Watson's Dodd.

The next was Stybarrow Dodd.   Just beyond this was the first point (Sticks Pass) that we could sensibly turn back home, but the weather (after a very promising early morning) hadn't deteriorated that badly, so we were keen to complete the walk and turn back after getting to White Side.

Going further down the ridge, and quite a bit higher, is Raise.  This picture is looking east towards Ullswater,

This is another picture from Raise, but looking at the path up the ridge towards Lower Man, with Helvellyn to the center and Catstye Cam sticking up to the left - White Side is just out of shot to the right.

And finally we reached our destination, the top of White Side.  For a while I had been thinking that we could always carry on to Hellvelyn, after not having made it to the top on our honeymoon, and I suspect Caroline may have been thinking the same thing, since it seemed an obvious choice at this point!

And so begun the walk up to Lower Man.  After reaching this point you really start to dislike the drop down before going back up to Helvellyn!

The weather closed in at this point, but approaching Lower Man we got great views looking along Swirral Edge going up to Catstye Cam to the left of this picture, Ullswater in the distance.

So after hours of walking, much serious climbing, finding that the sheep just are up here all the time does make you feel a little envious for the sheep...

Occasionally the cloud cleared a little, giving glimpses of the Edges and the tarn below.

Caroline, on the other hand, was very glad to have made it this far!

And so the long trek down began.  We lost the path at a couple of spots, including once at the top of a steep slope going down to the valley floor, which wasn't great.  It was also raining quite a bit by this point, enough that we got completely soaking and waterproofs became less so.

Still, the odd view was worth capturing.  I think that descent, especially after the length of the walk, broke both of us a little - legs and knees were quite sore.  Caroline also got a huge blister from her old boots - I'm pretty sure this was the last chance and they were binned fairly quickly afterwards.