Blencathra via Sharp Edge

Another early morning start for the trip up to the lakes to visit one of my all time “to-do” hills –Blencathra.  Since seeing a picture of this beauty a while ago it’s been on my tick list and I always knew it would be a special hill.   I was excited about the prospect of Sharp Edge and just how sharp that edge would be so off we went in the hunt for thrills and hopefully not spills.

Car parked just on the main road below the hostel and pub we set off “eventually” on the path upwards.  Why is it that sometimes the most difficult part of the day is actually finding the start of the walk.  Too’ings and fro’ings along the road and then the decision was made to just head up, through the ferns on a semblance of a path that eventually lead us to the right path that guided us round the hillside to the right gently ascending and ascending until we reached a plateau area where we could see the beginnings of that delicious ascent.

More winding round the hillside gaining more height finally brought us to a small tarn where we took stock for a moment and stopped to take a few pics of the ridge that rose practically right in front of us.  Sharp edge looked very tasty indeed.  

 Being early in the morning (as with all our walks) there was no one else around.  A couple of wild campers on the other side of the Tarn but other than that, it was just us, exactly how we like it.

Tarn and reflection pictures taken we set off up the path that would take us ultimately to the summit but before then we had the delight of traversing up and over the rocks that made up the path to the top.  It’s my ultimate fav part of any walk.   Narrow ledges, slight exposure, hands and feet on rocks, the logistical task of working out how and where to go.  I love it all.  

If anything the rocky part of the ascent was over too quickly and before long we were up on a large wide plateau for the last part of the path up to the summit.  Visibility was good and there were now a few other people around who had come from other ways and some people in a shelter who seemed to be manning an event station.  

 Up onto the summit the views were beautiful.  We didn’t stick around long as we had to get back down and over to Mungrisdale Common as it was a wee Wainwright box to be ticked.  So down off Blencathra and over to the left towards the very insignificant summit.  On the way there, across the boggy bit we heard a bleating and in a small pool of water there was a sheep, stuck.  It couldn’t get out onto the bank and seemed quite weak.  It was stuck in the muddy dark pool and left any longer probably wouldn’t have survived.  Chris swung into “action”, leaned over and grabbed its horns and heaved it out of the mud.   It was quite a moment as the rescued sheep trotted away and we were left with a bit of smiley moment as we knew something quite good had happened.  Yay Chris, you saved a sheep!

 Back over the common and towards Blencathra again to descend down the Southern end of the hill we started coming across people who were obviously partaking in the event of the day.  Some sort of 12 peak fell running thing and there were all sorts, young, old, groups, couples, individuals…..all running over the hillside.

Back up on the summit we headed over for the descent which on the face of it looked rockier and trickier than the sharp edge we’d just come up.  Sure it wasn’t as exposed but it was most definitely a hands on descent.  

 About half way down we passed a family who had a very young baby on board in a pappoose sort of thing on dads back.  Keen family but with the weather looking a little bit dodgy they were brave.

It was a tough descent and hard on the knees but as with all walks, if you keep moving forward you’ll reach your destination.  We emerged out on the road a fair bit back from the car so the last trek along the road certainly whetted the appetite for a nice, long cold drink at the pub.

Blencathra was all it claimed to be and for me one of my favourite hills in the Lake District and one I would certainly do again, for sure.