Striding Edge

I organised this club walk and chose an old favourite and a Lakeland classic – Striding Edge is probably the most famous English ridge and scramble, offering a challenge for the novice and straightforward enjoyment for the experienced.

Place Fell from Little Cove

The steep path through Little Cove from Glenridding to Birkhouse Moor got a big chunk of the day’s ascent out of the way early on and after a refreshment stop we followed the path up to the Birkhouse Moor ridge.  I turned left to claim the north top and then followed the group over the highpoint and then over the south top and extreme south top.  Both of those were quite insignificant and I suspect their true summits lay on the south-east side of the wall, but I’m claiming them anyway.

Helvellyn from Birkhouse Moor North Top

Striding Edge from Birkhouse Moor

Helvellyn above Red Tarn

Catstycam

From the Hole-in-the-Wall I followed the ridge directly over Bleaberry Crag and met up with the group at the point where the main path joined the ridge, just below High Spying How.  I tackled the easy scramble to this Nuttall summit and wondered whether my previous logging of this top was valid – anyway, it’s definitely ticked now.

Striding Edge

the Dixon memorial

Striding Edge

We all started along Striding Edge ridge and stuck as closely to the ridge as we could, taking in the ups and downs until we reached the “Bad Step”.  A couple of the more experienced of us I guided a couple of the novices from hold to hold and we congratulated ourselves at the bottom as that marked the end of the difficulties.

looking back along Striding Edge

back to Striding Edge

looking back along all of the Edge

the Gough memorial

The easy scramble and walk to the summit plateau was a pleasant end to the day’s ascent and we gathered at the cross-shaped shelter for a rest before taking summit photos.  We carried on past the trig pillar to the top of Swirral Edge and as we descended it the cloud came in and a few spots of rain teased us with a threat of a bigger downpour.  We strolled alongside Red Tarn Beck and it was just as we neared the Glenridding mine that the rain fully graced us with its presence.

Helvellyn trig point

looking up Swirral Edge

Although the walk ended in the wet, we took solace in the White Lion in Patterdale where we took advantage of the hearty menu – the fish and chips or Cumberland sausage Yorkshire puddings are recommended, as is the Thwaites Wainwright ale.

The Red Bridge

The media was abuzz with articles about the Paper Bridge, an outdoor “installation” that had been erected in Grisedale from 4 tons of red paper.  It was the brainchild of the artist Steve Messam and had gathered some vociferous comment, both positive and negative.  I’m clear about outdoor art, I quite like it and am a fan of Andy Goldsworthy and I saw this piece as a kindred idea.

Grisedale

There was plenty of space in the Patterdale Hotel car park and I set off up the Grisedale valley with the brightly coloured bridge soon coming into view.  There were a few people around when I reached the arch – a packhorse-style bridge made from numerous sheets of red paper and I set up my camera on its self-timer to make sure I was on the top of the bridge before the shutter fired.  There were a few people at the bridge and I’m sure that its position just off the Coast-to-Coast route brought it a few more visitors.  It had been quite a few years since I had walked in Grisedale and it really is a beautiful valley.

"PaperBridge"

As I left, many more visitors were arriving, some of the thousand or more that visited on the day!  I headed up the valley past Ruthwaite Lodge towards a peaceful Grisedale Tarn where I set off for Deepdale Hause before the walk to the day’s highpoint.  St Sunday Crag was quickly ticked and I headed to Gavel Pike which, as an unclimbed Simpson summit, was the target for the day.  The Nuttall and Wainwright summits of Birks soon came and went and a steep descent towards Arnison Crag was followed by some undulating ground with a short steep rise to gain the last summit of the day.

Fairfield, Seat Sandal and Dollywagon Pike overlooking Grisedale Tarn

The car park was a lot busier than at the start of the day and I read some reports on Twitter that visitors who wanted to walk to the bridge couldn’t find a parking space in Patterdale and had to forgo the pleasant walk to, at least in my opinion, a really interesting outdoor artwork.

Thanks Steve, for getting me out of the house!