A blustery day today climbing Helvellyn and Striding Edge, taking in the tops of Birkhouse Moor and Catstycam along the way.
From Glenridding we took the path up towards Lanty's Tarn, the path here was a lot drier than it was last week, much of the mud has either washed away or has been cleared. We turned to the right behind the trees and followed the wall up along the ridge line heading for Helvellyn and Striding Edge.
We made good time following the grassy path up the ridge and were soon joining the Mires Beck path and following the track up towards Birkhouse Moor.
As we climbed higher the winds got stronger, nothing too bad at first but once we were up onto Birkhouse Moor it was getting really strong.
Once we had walked over to the summit cairn and back and put on extra layers we pressed on, following the wall west to the 'Hole in the Wall' and then following the ridge up into the cloud.
We were soon huddled below High Spying How, the start of Striding Edge, it was still quite windy here but not nearly as strong as on Birkhouse Moor so we pressed on, taking a route to the right of the crest to start with before climbing up onto the ridge.
The group was soon along Striding Edge, scrambling down the final step and then up the steep final slope to the summit of Helvellyn, we stopped just below the summit plateau to regroup before we went into the strong winds and cross to the summit shelter to eat our well deserved lunches.
After lunch we realised that the wind had got even stronger but we were soon descending onto the Swirral Edge ridge and getting out of the worst of the wind, scrambling down the rocky ridge didn't take too long and we were soon regrouping at the junction of the path, here we decided to spit into two groups with James taking the braver souls back up into the wind to the summit of Catstycam.
Those who preferred to stay out of the wind came with me down the path towards Red Tarn, taking the path below Catstycam towards Greenside Mines.
We regrouped by the old turbine platform above Glenridding Beck and followed the track down towards Greenside Mines together, crossing the bridge and following the track down through the mine buildings back towards Glenridding.
