A great day today climbing Helvellyn by Striding Edge and descending over White Side. Despite some cloud on the tops it was a remarkably calm day today.
We set off from Glenridding at 10am to climb Helvellyn by Striding Edge, the weather looked promising as we followed the track up towards Westside, the top of Birkhouse Moor was in sunshine s were most of the Far Eastern Fells.
We followed the path up towards Lanty's Tarn, finding that the area around the tarn was very muddy today. There were plenty of people out this morning, some heading towards Helvellyn by Striding Edge and others taking a shorter walk by the tarn, as soon as we turned off the main path things got a little quieter though.
We followed the ridge up from Lanty's Tarn, following grassy path by the wall until we were up onto the Mires Beck path and climbing the track towards the summit of Birkhouse Moor, our first summit of the day.
Just before we reached the summit of Birkhouse Moor the cloud came down, blocking our views, the cloud stayed down for much of the day. Despite the low cloud it was incredibly still on the fells today, the forecast had predicted a little wind today but there was next to none.
From Birkhouse Moor we followed the ridge west, along the line of the wall towards the 'Hole in the Wall' and then up along the ridge towards High Spying How and the start of Striding Edge.
We stopped for a short break just below High Spying How before climbing up onto the start of Striding Edge. There had been a little moisture in the air this morning so we took our time along the first section of Striding Edge, scrambling over the rocks before descending to meet the path again below.
We were soon along the edge and scrambling up the groove on the final rocky section of the ridge, from here a short but steep path climbs towards the summit plateau of Helvellyn, with a few short stops we were soon up onto the summit and stopping in the wind shelter to eat our sandwiches.
After lunch we took a few pictures by the summit cairn and followed the ridge to the north, passing the trig point before crossing the summit of Helvellyn Little Man and descending the northern ridge above Brown Cove.
There had been quite a few descending this way when we set off from the summit of Helvellyn but we were soon alone in the cloud as we climbed the final slope of the day up onto the summit of White Side.
From White Side we took the path down to the east, across the top of Keppel Cove and then descending the zig-zags above the dam. We were soon dropping down below the cloud and following the track down towards Green Side Mines.
As the walk down progressed the skies cleared and we were rewarded with some great views, firstly back towards Catstycam and then ahead over Place Fell and towards the high fells around High Street.
From Greenside Mine we followed the track back to Glenridding in bright sunshine, a great day with great company.
