A wonderful day today climbing Helvellyn by Striding Edge.

We set off from Glenridding at 10am and climbed by Lanty's Tarn turning off the main path here and following the wal up the ridge climbing to the summit of Birkhouse Moor.

The views o the climb were magnificent today, and as we reached the summit of Birkhouse Moor we were rewarded with magnificent view of Striding Edge, Helvellyn and Swirral Edge.

We set off from Birkhouse Moor following the ridge past the 'Hole In The Wall' and climbed to High Spying How and onto Striding Edge. Although there were a few nerves we crossed Striding Edge without too many problems and climbed to the summit of Helvellyn for a well deserved lunch stop.

The views from the summit of Helvellyn were magnificent, although the distant views were a bit hazy we had good views across the Lake District.

We descended by Swirral Edge and followed the path down by Red Tarn and Greenside Mines back to Glenridding.

Another fantabulous day walking in the late summer sun!

I met Joan in Grasmere ready to tackle High Raise. We climbed out of Grasmere up onto Silver How and were quickly feeling the heat of the sun. As we got to the top we were greeted with stunning 360 degree views of the surrounding fells, as well as being able to see our entire route for the rest of the day. At this point Sergeant Man looked like it was miles away (technically it was, but it looked like a proper mission! haha) We made our way over the undulating ground up towards Swinescar Pike, followed by Blea Rigg. From here we had another short section of flat ground before we started the toughest ascent of the day up onto the summit of Sergeant Man. On the summit we gained fantastic views over the Langdale Fells, Coniston Fells and even the Scafell Massif. We were both ready for lunch, but I was keen for Joan to see the amazing views that High Raise had to offer, so we pressed on and after just a few minutes we were looking down over Borrowdale from the summit.

After our lunch stop we retraced our steps slightly and then headed down towards Tarn Crag. We reached Tarn Crag and started to descend the final sections of the day in the gorgeous afternoon heat. We were soon back on flat ground and on our way back into Grasmere.

A great day day today in wonderful weather as we climbed the Greenburn Round from Steel Fell to Helm Crag.

From Grasmere we followed the lane to Helmside and climbed the path above Green Burn following the southern ridge of Steel Fell climbing by Cotra Breast to the summit of Steel Fell.

The views north from Steel Fell were magnificent with Thirlmere stretching away from us towards Blencathra and Skiddaw.

From Steel Fell we followed the ridge west crossing the damp section on the ridge, which was particularly dry today, and climbing to the summit of Calf Crag.

We stopped for lunch on Calf Crag and admired the views down over the Far Easdale Valley stretching below us towards Easdale and Grasmere.

After lunch we continued south along the ridge, descending to the summit of Gibson Knott and then up to the summit of Helm Crag, yet again with wonderful views all around.

We descended from Helm Crag to Easdale and followed the lane back to Grasmere.

Three days until October and I am sitting here typing this with a sun tan! What a wicked day!

I met Marion (from Sundays Helvellyn Walk) and Anne (From yesterdays epic ridge walk) in Seathwaite. There was a stiff breeze but the sun was shining, we knew we were in for a real treat. We walked along to Stockley Bridge and then climbed over to Styhead Ghyll. At Styhead Tarn we got views of our route, and even the summit of Scafell Pike.

The corridor route provided us some shelter from the wind, and even some shade from the blazing sun. We were soon at Lingmell Col ready to take on the final ascent up the Pike. Half way up we got fantastic views over Wastwater, and after a few snaps we cracked on for the summit. We made the summit about 1.30 and all briskly got out our lunches.

We made our way across the tops and down along to the head of Grains Ghyll. The sun was still beaming and walking back to Seathwaite was incredibly enjoyable! Fantastic Day!

A wonderful day today climbing Blencathra & Sharp Edge from Threlkeld.

We set off from Threlkeld at 10am and climbed the Halls Fell Ridge, scrambling up the crest of the ridge, entering the cloud at about 750m and reaching the summit of Blencathra in good time.

After a short stop on the summit we descended east, quickly dropping below the cloud as we dropped down towards Scales Tarn, this gave us some great views across the tarn towards Sharp Edge, our next objective.

We dropped down to the tarn and then climbed the steep slope too the foot of the Sharp Edge ridge climbing up onto the crest of the ridge and crossing the ridge with few problems and climbed the steep rocky crags of Foule Crag back to the summit ridge.

After a short detour to the summit of Atkinson Pike we found a little shelter from the breeze and ate our sandwiches before climbing again to the summit of Blencathra, still in cloud.

We descended east, crossing the summit ridge to Blease Fell and descending below the cloud, with magnificent views over Derwent Water ans we followed the path back to Threlkeld.

A wonderful day in the fells.

Wow what an amazing day! 12 miles and 12 summits!

Today I met Gavin and Anne in Threlkeld, but instead of hitting the fells we jumped into John’s car and he gave us a lift down
alongside Thirlmere to Dunmail Raise. From Dunmail Raise we made our way to Raise Beck and started to make our way up the valley. We climbed high into the mist and soon we were at the zig-zagging path that would take us high onto
Dollywagon Pike. Although this steep ascent was early in the day, we knew it was the hardest bit of the day, as once we gain the height we maintain most of it for the remainder of the day.

As we got towards the summit of Dollywagon we were completely engulfed in the mist, and we were starting to feel the full force of the wind we were likely to be experiencing for the rest of the day. We summited Dollywagon Pike, and soon moved on and summited High Crag. We were now in full flow and reached the flat summit of Nethermost Pike. Next on the cards was
Helvellyn, our highest of the day, and also our lunch spot. We made it to the summit shelter shortly after midday and we were all ready for a bite to eat.

We didn’t stop for long and headed towards Lower Man, and then followed the ridge line down to Whiteside Bank. The following peaks contained lots of short ascents and descents. We made our way over Raise, Stybarrow Dodd, Watson’s Dodd and then Great Dodd. After a short stop in the summit shelter we descended to Calfhow Pike. From here we started to get some great views out over towards Keswick and Thirlmere, but they were shortlived as we started our ascent on our final summit of the day, Clough Head. We had reached our final summit and were all feeling sufficiently knackered. We dropped out of the mist and were greeted with fantastic views across to Blencathra, and our final destination, Threlkeld. We stopped and admired the view for a few minutes, but with the great risk of seizing up and not going again we started the final leg of the day.

We made our way off Clough Head to the Old Coach Road. We then descended the last 300m across the fields towards the Cricket club, and before we knew it we were back in Threlkeld.

A few weeks ago I stated the Fairfield Horseshoe is a must-do walk for any keen hillwalker, and this epic walk easily falls into the same category. A fantastic day on a route that everyone must do! AMAZING!
Written by Matt.

A great Scrambling Weekend, although a little damp at times we had good fun climbing several routes above Langdale and Coniston.

On Saturday we set oout from the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel and climbed to the foot of Tarn Crag Gill, scrambling up much of the waterfall, although a few of the waterfalls were too wet. From the top of the gill we crossed to the foot of Tarn Crag, andscrambled up three routes on Tarn Crag, two at grade 2 and one slightly over-graded grade 3. A good day on good rock that dried during the afternoon.

On Sunday we headed down to Coniston with the intention of Scrambling up Low Water Beck, after a short section of climbing we decided to bail out, there was a lot of water coming down the waterfalls and the spray was making the rock particularly treacherous. Instead we decided to drop down a little as the lower crags were by now in the sun. So we opted for The Bell, near the Walna Scar Road, climbing this lovely route easily on good dry rock.

After a short lunch stop we descended back to Coppermines Valley and scrambled up Long Crag, a wonderful long grade 1 scramble just above the village of Coniston on great rock. We scrambled a few sections of grade 2 rock to either side of this route as well before descending back down to Coniston just before the rain arrived.

This morning I met Carl, Sally and Marion in the car park at Glenridding. The group told me that they had done limited walking in the Lakes and were feeling anxious about taking on Striding Edge and Helvellyn. We got cracking about 10.20 and started to climb towards Birkhouse Moor. We summited Birkhouse Moor and the group took in their first views of the challenge ahead. We made our way to High Spying How and started to feel the full force of the wind. Yeah it was windy, but not enough to stop this group from taking on this Lake District Classic! We hit the ridge and the group started cautiously. Everyone in the group had said that they were not great with heights, so it was interesting to see how they would react when they were in the thick of it on the ridge. The whole group perfromed extremely well and we were on the summit before we knew it. After a quick lunch stop of a wind blown summit we took on Swirral Edge and then headed back to Red Tarn. The group descended back to the car park at a great pace and were back at the cars in just over 6 hours. Written by Matt

Today I met Louise, Sarah, Tony, Mick, Claire, Claire and Jacqui at Seathwaite farm. Guess what!? It was raining, no suprises for Seathwaite there! However everyone was optimistic that the weather was going to improve throughout the day. We set off up towards Stockley Bridge and then climbed over to Styhead Ghyll. We reached Styhead Tarn, but unfortunatly the mist was down and the views were very restricted. We got onto the Corridor route, and by now the rain had eased, it looked like the forecast was right, woop! A Lady came running up from behind us asking if we had lost a phone, it wasn't ours but I took the phone (Iphone 4, very posh!) and said I would ask everyone on the way if they had lost it. We worked our way onto the side of Scafell Pike and the group were ready to make their way up the final ascent and bag the summit. On our way to the summit we were passed by a fell runner, we thought he was either really far ahead of the rest, or really far behind! As we reached the summit it was evident he was far ahead as dozens of other fell runners appeared. After a few summit snaps we went to our usual TLDW shelter and cracked out our lunch. A few minutes later a golf ball bounced off the shelter wall. It turned out some yobbos were smashing golf balls off the summit, and didnt think that other people were around......idiots. I got the phone out of my bag and all of a sudden it rang, it was the owner asking for their phone back, so luckily for them they will be getting it back soon.

We left Scafell Pike, mostly in fear of getting a golf ball to the face, and headed over Broad Crag, Ill Crag and round Great End. Just as we were descending towards Grains Ghyll a Sea King Helicopter was loweing itself between Sprinling Tarn and Styhead Tarn. Mick got very excited and I said he could run ahead and try get a picture of it from above. Unfortunately Mick was a little too late, however he came back to Grains Ghyll just ahead of us and started to descend. We saw Mick moving ahead of us and were waiting for him to stop, but he didnt, and that was the last we saw of Mick! We think he was going to check if he left his car lights on. We were now being blessed by Blue sky and even a little bit of sunshine, it had become a lovely afternoon. We got back to Seathwaite Farm in 6 hours 45 mins and a great day had been had by all.

A great day climbing Scafell Pike and Scafell from Wasdale Head today, we set off from Wasdale Head at 10am and climbed the long grassy slopes of Lingmell, steep at first but easing towards the summit. We had some wonderful views from Lingmell across the valley to Great Gable and north through Borrowdale as well as west over the coast.

From the summit of Lingmell we crossed Lingmell Col and climbed to the summit of Scafell Pike. There was a little cloud blowing around on the summit of Scafell Pike so we didn't have the best of views from the summit, but we sat behind the summit platform and ate our sandwiches with occasional glimpses of views.

As we descended towards Mickledore we dropped below the cloud base and were rewarded with some magnificent views of Scafell Crag and down into Upper Eskdale, we dropped down the Eskdale side of the ridge a little way to pick up the Foxes Tarn path, climbing the damp rock by the waterfall easily to the tarn and then up the scree slope onto the summit plateau of Scafell.

After a short detour to see the tops of Scafell Crag and Scafell Pinnacle we climbed the short distance to the summit cairn. The views from here were magnificent and after a short rest we descended towards Wasdale in the sun, a great day.

What an exciting day we had today! Starting from our usual spot in Glenridding, myself, Rachael, Ruth, Felicia, Helen, Darren and Carole all set off to tackle Helvellyn.

The sky looked overcast and the trees were being blown frantically so we already knew we were in for an interesting one, nonetheless we were ready to give it a good go. We made our way past Lanty's Tarn and unfortunately shortly after Rachael and Ruth decided today was not their day for Helvellyn and opted to turn back. We pressed on and were soon up to Birkhouse Moor. From here we could see Helvellyn was sitting under a blanket of cloud, and we were also feeling a greater effect of the gusts. I took the decision (encouraged by John's movements in the distance with another client) to opt out of Striding Edge today, so we followed the track towards Red Tarn. From here we could see John and his client start to tackle Swirral Edge, so we thought we would do that to!

We made our way up Swirral Edge, getting hit by multiple gusts. From this I could tell that the summit plateu, notorious for wind even on a summers day, was going to be wild! Just before we broke out onto the plateau to grab the summit and return, I briefed the group on what to expect and what the plan was. The plateau was deffinitely different, but an exciting kind of different of course! The wind was easily up to about 80mph, making the rain feel like flying needles. I turned to check on the group and at one point thought Felicia was going to be taken with the winds, fortunately Carole linked arms with her and made sure she stayed firmly planted to the ground, phew! We didn't linger at the summit and quickly retraced our steps back to the top of Swirral Edge.

We descended the edge and followed the path back to Red Tarn. We leisurly strolled along the path back to Greenside Mine and back along to the car park. Bearing in mind for the entire 6 hours of the walk there had not been more than 30seconds where it had not been raining, pretty much as soon as we entered to the car park the clouds parted, and out come the sun and blue sky, typical!

A great day above Wasdale today climbing Pillar from the Wasdale Head Inn.

We set off from the Wasdale Head Inn and climbed into the Mosedale Valley, following the path climbing to Black Sail Pass. From Black Sail Pass we followed the ridge climbing to the summit of Pillar.

We had been out of the cloud for much of the climb, only entering it as we climbed onto the summit plateau, but the cloud was pretty thin, giving us good views as the cloud broke.

After we had eaten our lunches we continued, dropping out of the cloud quickly as we descended crossing Wind Gap before climbing over Black Crag to the summit of Scoat Fell. From Scoat Fell we descended the narrow ridge to the summit of Steeple, the views here were great, although there was quite a strong breeze.

We returned over the summit of Scoat Fell before following the ridge to the summit of Red Pike, descending by Dore Head and then down the western slopes of Yewbarrow, following the road back to the Wasdale Head Inn.

Another great day climbing Scafell Pike from Seathwaite.

We set off at 10am and climbed by Sty Head and onto the Corridor Route. The cloud was well broken as we climbed towards the summit of Scafell Pike from Lingmell Col and although we were often in the cloud we also had some good views as the cloud blew over.

We stopped in the shelter of some rocks near the summit cairn and ate our sandwiches before continuing north along the ridge over Broad Crag and Ill Crag before descending by Esk Hause to meet the Grains Gill path below Great End following it back to Seathwaite.

Hello, as promised here is my account of my trip to Mont Blanc. As some of you may be aware, it didn't go very well for me, and it ended in returning home early with 4 stiches in my finger.

Day 1: "The Long Drive"

We (myself and Tom) set off from Birmingham at about 6.30am, picked Chris up, and headed straight for Dover. The car was buzzing and we were all soo excited to get cracking with some Alpinism. We got to Dover for a little before 10.30, and burnt some time with a hyper expensive buger king. The ferry trip was smooth, and now all that was between us and Chamonix was a 10 hour drive. There is one simple thing to say about this journey, France is dull! It seemed the view out of my window did not change for about 9 1/2 hours. We arrived at our hotel at 11.30pm only to find it shut. All being very tired from the journey we were just keen to get our heads down, so we opted for the nearest campsite, pitched up and went to sleep.

Day 2: "A night at Altitude"

I have never camped in France before, and did not realise that there are many more rules (not guidelines) surrounding campsites. Tom had woken early that morning worried that we would soon have the Police knocking on our flysheet and escorting us to the local cells. For those who are also unaware, you must declare yourself to the Campsite owner, and they must take copies of your passport, we had obviously not had the chance to do this. It turned out the lady who owned the campsite was lovely, didn't mind at all, and even chuckled at Tom's French. We spent the morning packing our mountaineering gear into our sacks, sorting food and making sure we were all ready for 2 nights on the mountain.

We burnt a couple of hours in town, and then at 2pm we rode the chair lift and Gondola up to Le Tour. From here we had a short 2 hour walk along a well worn trail to the Albert Premiere Hut (2702m) We got to the hut, and as we had decided to save ourselves some cash, we camped nearby. From here we got our first view of the dry Glacier, of which we were going to cross the following morning. With the camp set up we got some of our gear together and headed down to the Glacier, where Tom ran us through some vital skills such as Crevasse Rescue, movement in Crampons, roping up, and moving as a roped team. By this point we were all raring to go and couldnt wait for the next day. Back at the tent we cooked up some dinner and watched the sun go down. We were in our bags by 9pm as we were getting up at 3am to leave for 4am.

Day 3: "End Game"

Our intention for this day was to cross the Dry Glacier up to Col Blanc, past the Petite Fourche, over the Triente Glacier and to camp next to the Cabane du Trient (Hut). The third day of the acclimitisation would see us retrace the roue taken in both the first and second day.

We started early as intended and were soon in our crampons, roped up and negotiating the glacier. This was a great experience. Crevasses are extremely intimidating, with some being only 1ft wide and others being 6ft wide, but most leading into darkness, deffinitely not a place you want to fall in to. We were the first on the glacier, but the full moon acted as a great aid to lighting up a good route. As we looked behind us about 6am we could see the streams of head torches leaving the Albert Premiere Hut. We made our way off the glacier just as the sun was rising and headed for a col. We continued to where we were intending to drop down onto the Trient glacier but realised this descent was guarded by a vertical wall of rock. We retraced our steps and made our way around to the next col. Here we met many other people who had travelled from the Albert Premiere Hut, but it seemed many were on day trips and not heading over to the Trient Hut. The next step for us was to negotiate some tricky scrambling which would eventually lead us onto the glacier. We scrambled for ages on very loose rock, and at some point entire ledges caved away underneath us, fortunatly we always made it to safe ground. We could not see an easy way onto the Trient Glacier as a giant Bergschund (a void between glacier and rock) was blocking our travel. We re-evaluated our movements and decided it was best to head back to the Albert Premiere hut for that night, especially as it would not make a massive difference to our acclimitisation. We started head down off the loose scramble only to find our path back onto the glacier was blocked by another large bergschund. I belayed Chris off a huge boulder to investigate and we realised we had to go for yet another option. We contoured around the rock to find a shallow lul where we could walk around, down and avoid the bergshund, however having to be very careful of not disturbing a nearby snow bridge. The time was now almost midday, and were really needing to get off the Glacier quickly as the heat of the sun would soon start causing lots of issues with the glacier travel. We opted for a route that skirted the right of a large section of Crevasses' but this pushed us onto another section of boulders. This section was only about 100m long, and we could see the point where we could get back onto the glacier after having avoided the crevasses'. The boulders were very loose, and many slipped away from underneath our feet. We continued moving carefully, but this was very short lived. about 25m from the end of the boulder field I managed to disturb a rock, which was subsequently supporting more boulders about shoulder height. They started to slide, but the biggest (about 3ft wide) was coming straight towards my torso. In a natural reflex reaction i dropped my axe and pole, and put my hands forwards to push the boulder away from me, but the boulder caught my finger against another rock on its way through. I felt a sharp pain in my finger, as though it would if someone had stamped on your finger, I quickly removed my glove only to see it damaged and bleeding (lots!). In a panicked voice I said instantly "Tom! My fingers ******!!!) Chris and Tom were great, and they applied the pressure and got a bandage on in superb time, all the while I was keeping myself focused on not passing out! Now we were up a certain creek without a paddle.

Do we call a helicopter? Can we walk out? How bad is it? Is this the end of my trip? What is Naomi going to say? So much was going through my head, but at that point in time only one thing needed to happen, we had to make a decision, and it was to get off the boulder field (very nervously) and get off the Glacier as quickly as possible. On our way back towards the hut I still couldn't believe what had happened, and had the usual thoughts running through my head 'why didnt I move my hand? Why did we go that way? etc etc' None of that really mattered, we just needed to get down. We made it back to the Hut at about 2pm, and after a very short stop we made our way back to the lifts that we had got up the day before. We had not bought a return ticket, as we had previously intended to walk back intol the valley, but being an emergency we needed to get this lift down. We just jumped onto the first lift, and when we arrived at the mid way station to get the Gondola Tom and Chris played out a very convincing 'We were sure we bought returns' to the guard. The guard was won over in true Jedi style and were again on our way.

Chamonix hospital was shut so Tom drove me 30km to Sallanches where I was dealt with extremely efficiently. 1 hour, 1 xray, 4 stitches and 30 Euros later and I was fixed, kind of!

Day 4: "Decision Time"

This day was a rest day, in which we just mooched around Chamonix, but all the while I was having to debate what I was going to do. We found out the weather window for Mont Blanc was perfect, but realistically could I still climb with my finger, and essentially hand out of action. That evening we took the dressing off my finger to reveal my wound, it was very tender, and was not in any way in good form for mountaineering. I knew I could walk, and could physically do it, but was not so convinced I would be of any use on the mountain should I need to arrest a fall into a crevasse, and if I did what potential damage would this do to my finger, we may find ourselves back on the mountain again, with more blood loss, and a man down a crevasse, less than ideal! After a few phonecalls home asking for my parents wisdom, and trying to realistically weigh up the situation I decided it would be best for me to return back to the UK.

Day 5: "Back to the UK"

By 11am I was on my transfer bus to Geneva Airport (The world's most expensive place) and I was due to fly SleazyJet at about 4pm. All day I was unsure I had made the right decision, I was really hoping so. I flew to Gatwick, and met my Dad who took me back to my parents house near Brighton where I spent a few days recovering.

Chris and Tom successfully summited Mont Blanc on the Tuesday, and I was so happy that they got it!

My finger is well on its way to recovering, and the stitches are coming out in 2 days. It is a shame the trip ended this way, but in heindsight I feel I made the right set of decisions. In the future i will hopefully get the chance to bag Mont Blanc, but this was clearly just not the right time.

Cheers for reading, I hope you enjoyed.

Matt

A good day climbing Scafell Pike from Seathwaite today.

We set f from Seathwaite just after 10am and climbed by Sty Head and the Corridor Route to Lingmell Col and the summit of Scafell Pike. On the way up the cloud was high and we had some wonderful views, but as we climbed towards the summit from Lingmell Col the cloud dropped.

There was very little to see from the summit, we stopped in one of the wind shelters to eat our lunches before following the ridge north crossing Broad Crag and Ill Crag before descending by Calf Cove and Esk Hause to meet the Grains Gill pat back to Seathwaite.