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Helvellyn, Pikes and Dodds
Helvellyn, Pikes and Dodds
by andy63 » Mon Jul 27, 2015 2:26 pm
Wainwrights included on this walk: Clough Head, Dollywaggon Pike, Great Dodd, Helvellyn, Nethermost Pike, Raise, Stybarrow Dodd, Watson's Dodd, White Side
Hewitts included on this walk: Clough Head, Dollywaggon Pike, Great Dodd, Helvellyn, Raise, Stybarrow Dodd, White Side
Date walked: 09/06/2015
Time taken: 6.6
Distance: 19.7 km
Ascent: 1358m
2 people think this report is great. Register or Login free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).This was a traverse of the long ridge of the Helvellyn range, using public transport to get back to the car. I started from the top of Dunmail Raise pass on the A591, where there's a short section of dual carriageway. Parking on the verge at the side of the road, I crossed the road and went over a stile to join the path which runs up the side of Raise Beck towards Grisedale Tarn.
A path around the side of the tarn leads on to the stone staircase which climbs up Dollywagon Pike.
The main path heads straight to the top of Helvellyn. To visit the lesser summits you take a detour to the right.There are good views of the craggy side of the range.
After Helvellyn summit and its slightly smaller neighbor Lower Man, the hills get rounder and grassier as you head along the ridge towards Clough Head.
From the top of Clough Head, I followed the ridge down to the east.There's a narrow path leading down past White Pike and on to an old coach road.According to the OS map, there ought to be a path from the coach road down towards Threlkeld, but I didn't see any sign of it, so it was a pathless descent down the hillside This was dry and heathery at first, and got wetter lower down. I eventually got to the house at Newlands, from which a tarmac road leads into the village., where I got a bus into Keswick and then another bus back to the car.
Re: Helvellyn, Pikes and Dodds
by dav2930 » Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:23 am
Nice report on a grand high level traverse. Good idea using public transport to facilitate a linear walk. Apparently Wordsworth and Coleridge used to walk from Grasmere to Keswick via Helvellyn quite regularly to post letters. By 'eck they must have been tough in those days!
Re the path from the coach road towards Threlkeld; I've never been able to find it either. OS is notorious for showing paths that don't exist and not showing ones that do!
Re the path from the coach road towards Threlkeld; I've never been able to find it either. OS is notorious for showing paths that don't exist and not showing ones that do!

Re: Helvellyn, Pikes and Dodds
by ChrisW » Sun Aug 09, 2015 9:47 pm
Lovely stuff Andy, covered some ground there...as an aside I once spent a good 30 mins trying to locate a bridge on an OS map...I'm pretty sure they add the odd thing just to test us 

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