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We had planned this for a day in August, we had a room booked for a two night stay at the Premier Inn near Cockermouth all we needed was good weather. as is usually the case the weather was great during the week before our intended, as it got closer to the weekend the weather started to change from good to not so good, on this occasion it was the very strong winds forecast instead of heavy rain that kept us away, we cancelled the trip, we wanted a nice day for our last Wainwright.
We decided to cut a holiday in Scotland short and come home via the Lake District for a two night stay, our new date for our Wainwright completion was set for Friday 13th September, was that wise?, could that be a bad omen
no, not a bit of it, this is how we got on
Our drive down from Scotland on Thursday 12th was in increasingly heavy rain, the further south we got the more grim it became, as we were driving down the A66 we couldn't see the mountains, Blencathra and Skiddaw were not there, they'd vanished, we could just make out half of Clough Head, the lower half
further down Grisedale Pike, Newlands etc etc were hiding behind a veil of cloud, oh eck! had we done the right thing?
The forecast was for much improvement during the afternoon into early evening, as it turned out, that's just what happened, by the time we were having something to eat at t.time it had stopped raining and the clouds were breaking
up
Friday morning was as forecast, we woke to clear blue and a slight breeze, it was going to be a good 'un
After breakfast we set off for Glenridding, it was 07:35, we arrived in Glenridding at 08:15, it was quiet but even at this early hour the carpark was filling up.
Our planned route was Birkhouse Moor, Striding Edge, Helvellyn, Swirral Edge leading to our final Wainwright
Catstycam
We set off from the carpark went over the bridge and walked up the lane beside Glenridding Beck heading in the direction of the campsite and the main path up into Little Cove alongside Mires Beck.
This is a good path, pitched all the way until the wall is reached at around NY371160
Then it turns into a steep fairly loose trod up alongside the wall, levelling off just before the summit of Birkhouse Moor.
We were taking our time, happy that we had managed to get to this stage of our Wainwright journey on such a nice day, at the summit we could see our route all the way round, I took a few photo's, there was a bit of cloud bubbling up but there was no doubt we'd get round without getting wet.
When we reached the start of Striding Edge we decided to give the crest a go even though a keen breeze had picked up,
Red Tarn looked inviting, I bet it's nice to camp nearby
when we arrived at the memorial near High Spying How we put our gloves on, that breeze was quite cold. We dropped down to the bypass path to get out of the wind and stayed on it until we reached the bad step.
We've done Striding edge a few times but can never remember much about the bad step, from above it looks interesting, when you're coming down it there's no problem at all, the holds are good, in fact, its like a stone stair case if you get the right line, if not you can make it up as you go along and still not put yourself at risk, it's good fun in the dry, it might be a different tale in the wet tho', the rock is well polished so care would be needed.
From the bottom of the bad step the climb on to Helvellyn is fairly steep over rock and scree, once above this it's an easy yomp to the summit with spectacular views of Striding Edge behind you, from this angle it does look very entertaining
There were a few people on the summit, not as many as I thought there would be but it was still reasonably early so I guess it would get busier a little later on.
Our last one from the summit of Helvellyn
The views were a bit muted by the cloud layer, a few of the distant fells were cloud capped, the Scafells and Buttermere fells were which was a pity, but, at least, we were below any cloud
We walked round to the trig point and then headed for the top of Swirral Edge.
From the top, Swirral Edge looks interesting.
It's not to be taken lightly, it may not be as long and exposed as Striding Edge but it is steep and loose so it has its own character, one misplaced foot or a trip could be nasty, we descended carefully, giving it the respect it deserves.
Once off Swirral Edge the path levels off, Catstycam is straight ahead,
We hoped there would be someone up there to take our photo, we could see a couple going up so we increased our pace and hoped they were still there when we arrived at the summit
.
We had planned to reach the summit together, all through this campaign with all the "catch ups" and the mutual new ones I've wanted us to finish the Wainwrights together on the same day on the same hill at the same time, hand in hand, that's exactly what we did, that in itself justified all the planning, the getting wet and being "misplaced" on occasion, all the huffing and puffing, the good weather days and the excellent views, (when we got them
) the mileage put on the cars we've had to take us to our start points, it's a good feeling when it all comes together, we got to the summit as we wanted and the couple were still there so, icing on the cake and all that, we even managed to get one of those rare photo's of us together on a summit
eee, bloomin' 'ummers, who said Friday the 13th was unlucky
We spent time talking to the couple, they were users of walkhighlands and recognised us from our walk reports, they congratulated us which was nice, I should have got their names but, if you're reading this, thanks again and good luck in your Wainwright collecting.
We were joined by another couple who were interested in our day, we swopped photo taking duties, I took a couple of them with their camera and they returned the favour for us with mine so, two sets of piccies of M&D on our final Wainwright.
We had to set off down though so off we went, down the front of Catstycam to join the path along side Red Tarn Beck.
Lower down we stopped to have lunch beside the beck, reflecting on our day.
Lunch spot view of our last Wainwright.
Then the question arose, "what are we going to do now"?, we decided not to pressure ourselves and do another round, I think we're going to visit the Howgills, we've driven past them loads of times heading north on the M6, they look interesting so I think we'll concentrate on them for a while, now we can choose any mountain in the Lakes and not think we should be doing the ones we haven't, there's the outlying Wainwrights they'll take us to the less frequented parts of the Lakes and then there's the Dales, we've done a lot around the Dales but there's still enough to do to keep us amused, even a lot of the Donalds are within reach, it looks like the car isn't going to get any rest
After lunch we set off back to the car,
Descent views.
Arriving at the carpark 5 and a half hours after setting out, we now belong to the "214 brigade" as I call the Wainwright completers and we're very happy to belong to that.
No more Lakeland red ballons, excellent
