Spare Weekend

Skiddaw from High Side

Add comment April 8th, 2007

Walk Stats
Length: 13.6 km
Ascent: 900 m
Highest point: 930m
Time: 4:15 hrs
Condition: Bright sunshine
Maps: Explorer OL4 and Landranger 89 or 90
Difficulty: 3/5

Route download: GPX

Summary:

A pleasant walk which took us along the Allerdale Ramble to Ullock Pike, Long Side, and Carl Side combined with the clear day gave excellent views off into the distance. A reasonably steep ascent up Skiddaw to complete the climb for the day, and a nice decent across Bakestall and back to the car. Definitely worth doing on a clear day as the view was fantastic.

Description:

Starting from a lay-by on the Orthwaite road (off the A591 NY 23623096) north of Keswick & the A66 we headed along the clearly marked foot path ENE, which turned back on itself to head southwards to join the Allerdale Ramble. By accident we crossed the stream just before we joined the Allerdale Ramble, and for an unknown reason I thought I knew best and took a stupid route back to the main path. A steady climb took us up Ullock Pike & Long Side and offered the best views of the day by far (in my humble opinion), of Bassenthwaite Lake & Derwent Water and the surrounding hillside.

The climb up to the top of Skiddaw, was steep and steady up a scree like path. I wouldn’t like to descend this section as it would be quite harsh on the knees (but that’s just me), as far as a climb goes it was steep but perfectly manageable. There where several wind breaks at the top of Skiddaw which made a nice spot for lunch.

At the top we where slightly bemused by a strange sight of unicyclists riding down from the summit. Its not the first time we’ve seen anything like that, but it still amazes me none the less. (Check out this picture if you don’t believe me)

As you can see from the picture on the right, Nige was bored during lunch and wanted to show his stuff as a potential replacement for buff man, but ended up looking like a lost granny on her way to the shops.

The walk down the far side of the mountain was a little cooler, with a slight breeze, and didn’t have the same impressive views of the lakes. We took a slight detour, but the path came and went but looking at the maps it always followed the fence which was on our right hand side.

A couple of us, found the descent a little painful on the knees but for once i wasn’t one of the ones struggling. But following the descent we followed the road back to our cars.

All in all, a pleasant walk with some fantastic views.

Patterdale to Fairfield, Helvellyn & Swirral Edge

3 comments March 25th, 2007

Walk Stats
Length: 19.2 km
Ascent: 1500 m
Highest point: 952m
Time: 8:30 hrs
Condition: Bright sunshine, turning a bit windy in the late afternoon
Maps: Explorer OL5 and Landranger 90
Difficulty: 4/5

Route download: GPX

Summary:

‘I thought we where just going for a short bimble,’ 8:30hrs and 19km later we finally get back. Against all of that, it was a nice walk & the day started fantastic, bright and warm. Started in Patterdale, up the side of Birks and along the ridge to Fairfield for a snack. By this point i wanted to go home but was forced up Helvellyn & back down Swirral Edge… the swines!

Description:

We started off from a Pub carpark in Patterdale (NY 39751580) headed W from the back of the carpark and missed the first path up the near Oxford Crag, as we started to follow the fence by accident, and headed up to rejoin the path. As we wanted to get up Fairfield & Helvellyn we decided to miss out the short section to the top of Birks even though it looked like fun as the path was covered in Snow. The Cape was our first snack stop and provided some spectacular views of the surrounding area including the climbs to come.

From the Cape we headed up Fairfield and had a now traditional half way Haribo stop, a small breeze started to develop which kept us cool but as we stopped for the Haribo we felt the chill. But i really didn’t like the descent to Grizedale Tarn as it was a mix of damp mud and a fine scree….. a wee bit painful on the knees.

A steady plod up to Dollywag pike, left me pretty much knackered, however Martin felt the need to divert from the path and run full pelt along the edge of the Crag. The path then followed the ridge up to the top of Helvellyn where we had our last snack of the day, and put on coats etc as the wind started to pick up.

Due to the wind & because i was knackered we decided to take the slightly easier descent of Swirral Edge rather than Striding Edge, and followed the path around Red Tarn and over the ridge. From here we followed the paths back to the carpark & walked round the carpark 3 times just so we could get the GPS track from 19.7km to over the 20km. Trust me it seemed sensible at the time.

All in all its the first walk we’ve been on this year with such good weather and had plenty of scope for variation.