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Glenridding - Hart Side
Everything about today was Ying & Yang ??
What am I talking about you ask ? Well, I had this walk about as prepared as I've ever been with the packed lunch ready by 8 the previous night. The route was planned backwards going upto the YMCA above Glenridding then up right onto Hart Side before turning round and coming back over Sheffield Pike and Glenridding Dodd. I'd planned it this way so that the climbing was early in the walk and then using the other peaks as stepping stones back to the village.
As John, Damson & I set off we we got through the entire Lake District from Barrow to Glenridding seeing only 2 other cars and got to the car park before 9:00. All good so far !
The trek upto the YMCA and up the zig zags (Stang End) towards Stick Pass was easy going and we flew past 4 other teams of yompers, skiers and snowboarders heading upto the lifts on the side of Raise. All good !
- View back down Glenridding Valley from top of zig zigs - Stang End
- Damson climbs Stang End
We hit the snow at the top of the zig zags and on arriving at the footbridge there we were in a constant 10-15" of snow with only footsteps to give any sense of path. This was pure energy sapping climbing up to the right of the quarry falls and even more so on the fresh snow crossing the mile or so to Hart Side.
- Heading up to Hart Side - right of quarry falls
- Looking down on Ullswater from Nick Head
- View across to Catstycam and Helvellyn range
- Ski Lifts on side of Raise were fully operational today
You can guess where this is going now !!
On reaching a cold, windswept, deep snow drift laden summit John said he would prefer finding another way down instead of going back the way we came and in my eagerness to get going again and stay warm, I glanced at the map and found that carrying on from where we'd come followed a path down with the added advantage of footsteps going that way.
- John takes well earned breather
- Damson's 121st Wainwright - Hart Side summit
- Pooley Bridge end of Ullswater from Hart Side
- Patterdale Head of Ullswater from Hart Side
After all that planning, I forgot the most basic of yomping rules that states "ensure the path leading down from your fell takes you in the right direction and at the very least not into a valley 3 over from the one you actually want". I realised this after we'd dropped a considerable distance and then made another terrible decision. I planned on getting back across to Glencoyne and decending from there without actually checking the map to see if there was a route down. Needless to say we were up there for at least 2 hours longer than expected, and nearly every step of the way was harder than the snow on the top we had tried to avoid.
To top it all one foot went about 40" into the snow as a deep snow drift shifted under my weight and I ended up doing the splits, completely wrecking my walking trousers in the process ... lucky I had my Ron Hills on underneath or it would have been extremely nippy and rather unpleasant for anybody we passed.
On reaching the northern bank of the Glencoyne Valley we then realised that we either had to re-climb back up to the col below Sheffield Pike on a treacherous path (in those conditions) round the valley walls or head down a path leading away from the car to Aira Force.
As you can see the Aira Force path was taken leading to a 2.5 mile trek back down the road to Glenridding.
Needless to say, lessons were learnt today by both myself and John, but not so much by Damson who seemed to love every minute of it especially being out for that much longer in snow piles about twice as big as she. She looked like a rabbit for most of the day hopping from one footstep to another. She didn't complain about the cold much either and was determined to have a dip in Ullswater on the last leg.