Walkhighlands

After the glorious past day in Greenburn, I wanted to get my friend up Hellvelyn as its a memorable summit and a real achievement for her.

We got up later than we wanted to and after a large breakfast we headed to Glenridding and parked up in another car park with the new number plate recognition system.
It was another wonderful day. Clear skies and warm, but not too hot. So we geared up and wandered off to the path up Birkhouse Moors South side. On the way we saw a Heron in the river, but it was damn hard to get a good shot if it.


Spot the Heron...

We got to the bottom and started the slow relentless slog up to the ridge of Birkhouse Moor. I was expecting this to be a test of my friends patience and legs after yesterday, but despite getting hot, she was still enjoying it. Excellent!
Near the top we met a few people who had told us that Striding Edge was iced up and someone had fallen off and died the day before. This seemed incongruous considering the lovely weather, but the higher got the more snow we saw on Hellvelyn.


The long stairway

In fact we heard other reports that a number of people had died on the ridge over the past few days. So my plan of taking her on the ridge as a real bit of adventure was out of the window.
We sat just past the summit of Birkhouse Moor and had a good look at Hellvelyn and Red Tarn. What a sight with the snow on the upper slopes. Did worry about cornices at the top though.


Hellvelyn and Red Tarn

I had climbed Hellvelyn plenty of times and seeing as Swirral Edge was apparently iced up too, we had a little sit in the sunshine and a think. I put my map over my eyes and almost fell asleep. After a while I sat up and looked at the scenery and had a great view of pyrimidal peak of Catstycam as well. Suddenly I remembered I hadn't climbed that one....


Catstycam

We had a wander down to Red Tarn and then I convinced her to climb up to Catstycam with me. We got to the top without any bother and had some water, whilst she took some videos and admired the view.


Swirral Edge from Catstycam summit

We headed down the East ridge and hit the path that took us all the way back to Glenridding. Another great day in the hills and another new summit ticked off for me. 6 in total for my friend!

That is an awful title!
But a nice pair of hills - perfectly worth doing without Helvellyn.

I quite like the title These are the last two Eastern fells left for us and I'm hoping to entice Nicola around the edges for the classic round. Shame about the ice but Catstycam still looks a great top.

Yeah the title.......think I was a bit tired when I wrote that. Was trying to think of a decent pun. I failed!

Good little walk and we saw an enormous bird circling around the summit of Catstycam when we were on the way down. Could have been a buzzard. Or possibly a rare sighting of the Golden Eagle. But I doubt it.

There's a lay by about half a mile north from Glenridding that you can park in for free. That's what I do in the area anyway.

But I'm cheap