Spare Weekend

Helvellyn, Striding Edge & Whiteside Bank from Glenridding

April 8th, 2007

Walk Stats
Length: 16.5 km
Ascent: 1034 m
Highest point: 952m
Time: 6:10 hrs
Condition: Bright sunshine, light breeze in the afternoon
Maps: Explorer OL5 and Landranger 90
Difficulty: 3/5

Route download: GPX

Summary:

‘We didn’t end up doing our planned route due to some confusion at the beginning of the walk however it was still a very enjoyable walk, weather was the nicest so far this year I think, will have to be thinking about sun cream from now on! Met up with some friends at Red Tarn and then on to Striding Edge after that and to the top which was fun as usual. Bit knacked by the end especially after doing Skiddaw the day before but all good ’

Description:

We started off from Glenridding car park we went up the road round the back of the car park and took the path up to the left towards Little Cove following Mires Beck. The gradual climb up was quite hard especially as I’d not done much walking for a while.

Eventually the climb flattened out and we started to head towards the Hole in the Wall seemed like an eternity but once we got there we knew that it wasn’t much further to Red Tarn so kept plodding on as we were due to meet some friends there for lunch. At Hole in the Wall we took the path West down to the tarn and stopped for a well deserved lunch (tasty it was too!)

Our friends decided to take the path up towards Swirral Edge but as usual we fancied a bit more of a challange so headed back up the path we came down to go up Striding Edge and onto Helvellyn. We blitzed Striding getting up to the top just as they got up from Swirral, we would have been up even faster if it wasn’t so busy and Tim wasn’t being such a wuss as usual.

At the top we didn’t hang around long and decided to go back over Lower Man, Whiteside Bank and round the back of Red Screes following the main path down between Glenridding Common and Birkhouse Moor (north side of river) crossing at the Weir passing the Youth Hostal on our left and then back down into Glenridding joining the same path we started on.

Quite a nice walk and weather was superb… bring on the summer!

Entry Filed under: General, Routes, Walks