Fingers were well and truly crossed for the weather as the
reports were mixed but not having walked for the past 2 weekends we were
desperate for a bit of outdoor fun and fun in the snow if possible.....keen for a bit of practice in before winter truly set in upon us.
So it was up and out for 6am and pointing the car in a Northerly direction we headed for the lakes.
Helvellyn was our target with a few others to bag on the way there and
back.
We stopped at services for some tissues and I picked up a
hollow choc Santa who was going to accompany us on our travels today and also
provide us with that much needed sugar rush at some point during the day.
So we arrived at Glenridding just after 8. It was still dark and we parked up and
changed into our boots. I was trialling
my new winter boots today and hoped that they’d not cause me any grief. Crampons were packed and ice axes affixed to
rucksacks and Santa stashed in my hood where he would stay until any suitable
picture moment presented itself or we needed a sugar rush, whichever came soonest.
We started up the path which hit us with sudden
steepness. There is no “walk in” to this
walk, it hits you with full frontal mountain path taking you quite high in a
very short time. Having not walked for a
few weeks and wearing new, inflexible, boots meant I definitely wasn’t going as
fast as I would normally have been but before long we reached a sort of
plateau where, under normal circumstances, we’d have seen Catstyecam in front
of us with Red Tarn and Helvellyn behind but as the cloud was coming thick and fast now we couldn’t see about 20ft in front of us 360 degrees of whiteness, lovely! We were following a recognized path and we
had maps, compass, gps so there was nothing to worry about but I was quite disappointed
that the views on offer were not to be seen. Typical!
Soon after came across the first patch of snow, there was more and more
dotted areas of snow and ice and we knew before long we’d have to
resort to crampons
to keep us safe and moving forward. It
was still pretty much a white out and we still couldn’t see very much on any
side of us.
Crampons attached, first
lunch consumed (oh dear, guess who brought the wrong fruit....not the nice new fruit I'd bought but the 3 bananas, apple and tangerine that had been in my bag since our aborted effort last weekend yuk!!!!) and we were on
our way up to the top of Catstyecam. At the
top everyone had their picture taken, including Santa…..well there were no
views to take, just whiteness all around.
We didn’t stick around long at the top and were keen to get
off back down towards the start of Swirrel Edge (or as I like to call it, Squirrel) which
would lead us up to Helvellyn. Swirrel
Edge is a nice ridge walk apparently on any day but today with the ice and snow
it was particularly tasty. As we stepped
along the ridge we came upon a group of 3 men from Selby, Yorkshire who were
heading in the same direction. They too
were all aware of the conditions and gingerly made their way along and up the
ridge.
For the most part the hardest bit was just not being able to
see what was in front of you or what was to each side. The side guessing was easy as we knew it was
mostly a sheer drop down but not knowing what was in front was frustrating as
you never knew how far you were from the top or what tricky bits you still have
to overcome. This all changed in an instant when the cloud suddenly started to
clear and we could see the vague shape of the mountain ahead of us and the
sheer drops to the side becoming visible.
Behind us there were glimpses of blue sky and the ridge we’d just come
across was now clear to see and finally we reached the summit and the sun was
aching to come out and brighten up our day.
We decided to descend via striding edge as some guys had
just come up it and said it wasn’t too bad at all. We had all the gear, the experience (Chris
has been on striding edge before), and the will to be safe so we said, lets go
for it. Unfortunately because of the
lack of visibility we couldn’t actually find the path that would lead us
there. Yes we found the memorial which
signifies the start of the path but there was nothing in the gloom that
suggested there was a path, no footsteps of previous walkers, no rocks, nothing
and as we knew the only alternative to a path would have been a sheer drop we
decided to retrace our steps and head back to Swirrel Edge where we’d just been
which would get us down at least on a familiar route, safety first at all times.
Cameras away this journey down was easier said than done.
Coming up through ice and rock on quite a narrow ridge was tricky enough,
going down was near suicidal. I have
never had to take so much care in my life, in any situation before as I was
taking coming down that ridge. Chris
went first and carefully made his way, backwards in some cases, though the
rock. I followed and tried as much as I could
to follow his footsteps. My gloves were
now soaking and it was getting cold and I could feel myself shivering with the
now chill in the air or was it because I was just a tad scared…..not sure but
this was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done in my life. 1 false move and you were away down off the
edge. I did slip. I’m not sure how or what cause it but I
skidded down the path and luckily stopped right in front of Chris who was saying “use
your ice axe” over and over again, mainly because I’d landed on his head and he
was afraid he’d go as well and if that had happened then it would have most
likely been the end of the world for both of us regardless of the Mayan
predictions. Luckily I struck my ice axe
in, got a bit of leverage and found some footfalls that held and we were able
to continued the slow and steady journey down albeit with even more
caution.
A little bit further down as I was reaching forward to grab
a bit of rock that would help me keep my balance down the next section, Santa
who was stashed in my hood, broke free and slid down the path, down the side of
Chris and kept traveling, picking up speed as he went. Down and down the ridge until he was out of
sight. Poor Santa, there was no rescuing
him as he was long gone so we just continued on without him. Santa bagged 2 wainwrights today but alas
that’s all he’d be bagging. We enjoyed
having him with us and the only regret about losing him was that we didn’t get
to eat him…….
Back to our descent, every footstep was taken with the
utmost of care and not only were we keen to get down through the snow and ice
safely we were conscious of the time and knew that as soon as 4pm came around
it would be dark and walking in the dark after an exhausting day with tired
legs and minds was not a pleasing thought.
So we tried to quicken our pace as much as we could and as soon as we
were back at the base end of Swirrel Edge and the base of Catstyecam we removed
our crampons, packed away the ice axes and tried as much as we could to quicken
the pace downwards.
The moon was already up and the rocky path was slippy. Knees were tired, ankles and feet sore, head
mashed because of all the concentrating earlier we just kept going as fast as
we could propel ourselves forward and downwards with constant reminders of the
time and the fact that darkness was just around the corner.
Before long we could see the pub in the village below with its lights twinkling however the moon was now shining brightly above us and darkness was setting in.
Luckily Chris had his headtorch with him (I’d forgotten mine!!!!!) and
it helped us the last 30 mins or so to see where we were putting our feet and
it was a very welcome moment when we reached the road and found our way round
to the pub.
An amazing day filled with fun, fear, frolics in the snow
and a good practice session in winter conditions. Helvellyn will be visited again because I’d
love to see it without the snow and ice but oh my goodness what a wonderful day
to see it for the first time. Helvellyn
you may well become my fav mountain in the Lakes, overtaking the beautiful
Bowfell………we’ll see ;-) ......Poor Santa!
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