Lake District
GRADE 1 RIDGE SCRAMBLE
1
NY386169 Leave the main car park in Glenridding and walk up a small street between houses that runs west towards the mountains, away from Ullswater, past the Travellers Rest pub. Turn right at the end and take the bridleway forking left along Greenside Road, up the wide track to the YHA and bunkhouse. Walk through the buildings, keeping the river on your left until you see a footbridge. Cross this to arrive at open mountainside.
2
NY362173 Continue up the mountainside on a very clear, rocky, gritty path with the river now on your right. After some sheepfolds and a footbridge, the path will clearly turn south to climb more steeply to the right of Red Tarn Beck, all the way to Red Tarn itself. Here cross the outflow and turn left to contour across to the multiple path junctions at Hole-in-the-Wall.
3
NY359155 Turn right at Hole-in-the-Wall to walk south-west along craggier and craggier ground. There is a path to the right (north) of the rocky scrambling at first, but clambering over the boot-smoothed crest is much more fun. Soon you will get to the point where you must scramble with no alternative path, and here you will climb steeply along a fantastic knife-edge. Just before the final ascent is a downclimb of a couple of metres. Turn round to face the rock and climb down the various easy-to-find footholds like a ladder. Then make your way up the final scree zigzags to the summit plateau.
4
NY344149 Just before you pop up onto the summit plateau you will pass a memorial to Charles Gough who sadly perished on the mountain in 1805, which is an interesting read. The path will ease you to the right to walk in a north-westerly direction towards the crossshaped summit shelter (a very nice spot for a sandwich), then the cairn itself. The summit of Helvellyn is very wide and flat, so if the mist is down you may need to walk on a bearing from where you popped out at the top.
5
NY341151 From Helvellyn’s trig point it’s only a short walk of some 100m along the cliff edge until you turn right down Swirral Edge. Be very careful to pace out this distance in the mist as there are various right turns leading towards the cliff edge where people have got it wrong in the past.
In good weather, however, the descent route is very clear, with a steep, gravelly and loose scree path through the rocks that may require three points of contact at times, and a careful assessment of the best line. Once down the initial steep descent, there’s a nice short crest to scramble over, and then a short ascent to Catstye Cam (890m), the second Wainwright of the day and a nice peak to bag while you’re in the area.
6
NY348158 From the summit of Catstye Cam is a spectacular view back to the summit of Helvellyn, down the valley to Glenridding and across to Striding Edge too. To descend, there is a
steep, clear, grassy path leading down the nose, running east, with crags on your left (north). This meets with the path alongside Red Tarn Beck that you trekked up on. Turn left to descend the way you came, dipping in the river if it’s a hot day! This time don’t turn left to cross the footbridge above the YHA. Instead, continue straight on with Glenridding Beck still on your left, to meet a walled forest.
7
NY365173 Continue on this path with the forest and wall to your left. It contours nicely and seems to be an old mining track. As the path bends right around the north-eastern spur of Nab
Crag, take the left fork to follow a path to the road. Here turn right to Glenridding Beck, don’t cross the river but turn right immediately again, keeping it on your left down into town and the main road. Turn left and cross the river on the main road bridge, and turn left again to enter the car park.