from L-R Catstycam, Helvellyn, Helvellyn Lower Man and Whiteside
Driving past Staveley and Windermere there was loads of snow about, kids everywhere had the sledges out. Which reminds me that when I had texted Sarah about the walk, not easy for me as I have big thumbs and a phone that tries to predict what I want to say 10 different ways, as I don’t know what I want to say half the time it is not a good combination! Any way I managed to text Sarah “Saturday sun and snow” she replied “and Sledges” which translated into English means “ do you want to go for a walk on Saturday, the weather is going to be great and there will be snow on the ground” Sarah’s reply translates to “ Well I would love to come but only if we can take the micro sledges and forget about a big walk and have some fun sledging”
Anyway the further north we got the less snow there was, even at Kirkstone Pass there was only a slight scattering and I mentioned that once past Kirkstone it would be different. How right I was, nothing! This was strange, how come snow was in one area and not others? I was still confident that we would find snow high up on the Eastern Fells but I was getting slightly worried, only the occasional glimpse of the tops of Fairfield and St Sunday Crag with a covering of snow helped ease my worries. Sam was feeling it too, or was he just bored with the journey now as he started barking loudly much to John’s dislike! The barking continued in the car park at Glenridding as Sam spotted some other dogs running around, he was not impressed at being tied to the car as we got ready. Soon John had enough and started walking leaving myself Sarah and a very loud Sam to finish our preparations.
This miffed me off slightly so once we were ready I walked straight past John who was waiting around the corner and headed for Greenside Mine without a word said. Once past the last houses Sam was let off the lead and that was that for the next half hour until we reached Greenside Mine. Greenside Mine, I bet everyone who walks this way from Glenridding asks themselves why they didn’t park up here and save themselves half an hours walk at the start and finish of the day and a small fortune in car parking fees! Well there was not a space to be had today, most cars had little notes on the windscreens, probably saying “member of raise ski club” or something. Anyway it was time for a breather and John and Sarah caught me up (that makes a change, it’s usually the other way around!) A quick check of the map and ignoring the signposts we headed off again. At the point where the path to Red Tarn crosses a bridge the way ahead that we wanted was blocked off to prevent erosion, oh well! Instead of turning back to Greenside Mine and taking the correct path we decided to carry on and cross over Glenridding Beck higher up. A slight breeze here meant that we started to feel rather chilly, a sign of things to come. In front of us Catstycam dominated the sky line, it looked so impressive with its covering of snow.
Somewhere opposite Rowten Beck we decided to cross the river and join the path that led towards Kepple Cove, that was a fun filled few minutes as all of the stones in the river were covered in ice. Once we reached the path where it crossed the beck we settled down for a drink and something to eat. Out of the wind it felt quiet warm in the sunshine. Once refreshments were over we set off along the path at a steady pace. The angle of the path meant it was just slightly too steep to really stride out so it was a steady trudge upwards. In the distance we could see the path crest the skyline, a promise of an ease in the gradient I kept telling myself! Unfortunately for me the point where the path eased in gradient also coincided with the start of the zig zag path up to Raise and Whiteside, and that meant the first real steep section. Needless to say as soon as we started to walk up the path my legs began to go on strike! Very quickly I was a long way behind, but even though I kept stopping to take photos the distance between us never really increased too much, perhaps John and Sarah were feeling it too!
A zig here, a zag there and then here it was, the longed for snow on the ground! It must have been at about 2200’ and the snow just appeared as if by magic, fantastic! John and Sarah waited for me and once I joined them we started to walk slowly upwards. The snow underfoot was not fresh snow but old frozen stuff that crunched as we walked up, it was just the right consistency to feel very comfortable and safe, well I thought so. Sarah seemed to struggle, perhaps her boots did not have the best grip available? Each step took us higher and it started to get much, much colder. Sarah decided that it was time to put on her over trousers. For some reason that I still can’t fathom she decided that the best way to put on the over trousers would be whilst sat down, she did not want to get a damp and cold backside by sitting in the snow so she decided to sit on one of the micro sledges that she was carrying. Sitting on a micro sledge on a snow covered fell side coupled with that gravity thing means only one thing as far as I can see,,,,,,,down! After a few minutes of laughter at her predicament, and seeing that this was going to take a long time I thought that I would set of on my own upwards and let them catch me up, I was going to be walking slowly anyway. I took my time and took loads and loads of photos. A party of snowboarders played about at the last zig zag, SARDA were having some sort of exercise on the fell side with a base by the old dam, ice axe wielding, crampon wearing people game down the path, every single one of them had huge smiles on their faces, it was just one of those days that everyone was out enjoying every last thing about it. Along the section above the last zig zag conditions began to change, the wind picked up now that we were coming out of the shelter of Raise above us and this picked up spindrift that blew in little whirlwinds down the slopes, the crunchiness under foot turned much more crunchy as the snow turned to ice, and it just got colder and colder.
I stopped and just stood there drinking in the views, it was just fantastic. I was on a steep white slope with a path of footprints ahead of me, blue sky above and surrounded with unbelievable views of Catstycam, Helvellyn, Helvellyn Lower Man and a rather insignificant looking Whiteside not far away now. Little objects on the ridge line moving like ants made their way down Lower Man towards Whiteside, it was just absolutely fantastic. Forgotten are all the days with no views, the wind and rain and mist, the boggy ground and drips of water down your neck, the sore feet and aching legs, this was what it was all about, high up in winter conditions, with snow all around, blue sky above and views that just took your breath away, to say I was in hill walking heaven was an understatement!
John and Sarah joined me and we decided to have a break. All three of us helped ourselves to a flask of soup, just what was needed. To be honest the actual act of doing this nearly gave my fingers frostbite! It was bitterly cold and I decided that the windproof, waterproof expensive gloves I had on just weren’t up to it so I changed them for a very old pair of woollen mittens, the sort that has only half the fingers covered but a mitten bit that covers the whole hand, much better and much easier to operate the camera with, which I was doing a lot of!
The final section towards Whiteside lay ahead, Sarah was finding it hard work with the grip and noticed a group of walkers coming down all wearing crampons, “that’s what I need” she announced, one member of the group descending replied ”You will if you’re going up there!” ooops! Because of the number of people who had passed this way before there was a definite path along here, it was quite wide but all of a sudden it narrowed, I suspect that this is where the “Path Fairy’s” stopped work as even under the snow I detected their work at path repairs underfoot.
I stopped and thought a while here, I was in a bit of a dilemma. Sam had so far enjoyed himself immensely running about here and there , up and down, chasing after snowballs, spindrift and anything dislodged by a careless foot. Ahead lay a very narrow section of path through the snow that had sheet ice on either side. Below lay Red Screes and Kepple Cove. When I say below I mean that it was straight down there! It looked like an angle over 45 degrees and if Sam decided to venture off the path I had no doubt in my mind that he would record the fastest descent ever! I had to prevent Sam from adventuring off the path which meant putting him on the lead, the only downside to this was his ability to pull me off my feet if he so desired, so sending us both downhill rather faster than anyone intended. After weighing up the pros and cons I decided that putting Sam on the lead and trying to control his head long dash forwards was the best option, if the worst happened at least we would both die together! John could sense my dilemma and walked straight past us and began to shout for Sam to follow him, what a godsend ! Sam was able to hop forwards towards John while staying on the lead and the easy path and not pull me too much that I felt in danger. John to the rescue yet again! Once past this section we all headed to the right and away from the steep drop. That was one of the scariest places I have ever been!
We found ourselves in the depression between Whiteside and Raise. The snow was frozen solid, just like an ice rink. Even with my weight my feet could make no impression on the ground so I headed well away from the drop on the left until I thought that if I slipped up I was not going to slide anywhere else as well.
The summit of Whiteside was just ahead. The only problem was the last bit was very much upwards and very much frozen solid, an uphill ice rink! John went straight up. I took my time and made good progress. Sarah started laughing! When Sarah starts laughing it usually means that she is in imminent danger of death! She was taking one step upwards, feeling unsafe, leaning forwards to touch the ground and then sliding a few feet backwards! After a few minutes of this she was actually further away than when she started. Two other walkers took pity on her, one of them showed her how to kick her feet sideways into the ice instead of placing them in front of her, I am sure I have talked about kicking steps with her before ! John was out of sight at the summit, I was a bit above her and god alone knows what these two blokes thought about us leaving a damsel in distress! Anyway they succeeded in helping Sarah up to the top.
The summit of Whiteside, probably the most aptly named fell top anywhere today, I mean on all sides it was white, get it! Well I thought it was funny………Fantastic views all around, we could see for miles and miles but the scene that kept drawing the eyes back was to nearby Catstycam and the ridge to Swirral Edge and Helvellyn, I mean it was a wow sort of view today. The actual summit shelter was quiet, most people just passed it by without a thought, just using Whiteside as a descent route from Helvellyn Lower Man to the Kepple Cove zig zags, so we had the top to ourselves. Unfortunately my little Canon Ixus V camera batteries gave up the ghost here so I tucked it away for safe keeping and got out my bulkier Canon PS IS camera for the photos. No one felt like hanging around for too long here as it was just too cold and the descent towards Raise looked like it was going to be good for the main reason for coming here today, sledging!
Leaving Whiteside was going to be a bit iffy with the steep icy conditions, John who is like a sure footed mountain goat was down in the blink of an eye, Sarah was not far behind and I was slowly making my way down when a party of people on a winter skills course started to practise braking with ice axes, have you ever left home thinking that you have left something behind, oh well! Once on a less steep area slightly to the left of the main track towards Raise it was time for sledging, yippee! John was first and soon disappeared in the distance towards St John’s in the Vale! Sarah went next as we only had two micro sledges I was content to let the youngsters have their fun, Sam thought this new game was funny as he chased after them and the sledges, he only just managed to keep up and he has four legs! I was happy just to be here in these conditions so I was not too bothered about having a go until Sarah forced me to J One minute I am sat down the next I am looking back to where I stated from and thinking, s**t, I have to walk all that way back now! It was fantastic fun. As I was walking back up to John and Sarah two other people were there, at first I thought we had attracted the attention of some like minded people who were saying to John and Sarah “go on, gis a go!” But much to my surprise and in a very “Dr Livingstone I presume” moment it was none other than David Hall and Andrew Leaney, how good was this then! I have never met these two gents before but I instantly knew who they were, and more to the point they knew who we were, much to Sarah’s surprise, isn’t tinternet great!
It went something like this, two gents approach Sarah and say “You’re Sarah” At first Sarah thought they were the two gents that helped her to the top of Whiteside but she can’t recall introducing herself to them. Then the two gents say “and that’s Stephen and John, oh and Sam as well” By now Sarah is worried! I have to point out that Sarah and John are not members of the OFC (online Fellwalking club) and did not know that the night before I had posted a message saying that we would be up here sledging, a bit of a giveaway as to who we were if any member of the OFC was passing.
So here I was meeting two people who have been there and done it all before. A quick handshake and “where have you been today then” was the best that I could come up with. Andrew was one of the main inspirations for this web site, to actually meet him in the flesh 2800 feet up in the Lake District was a real treat for me. So after a quick discussion about where they had been walking today, something that made our feeble efforts seem rather, well feeble basically! I asked if they would fancy a go with the sledges, it was the best I could come up with at the time, a sort of “well you’ve walked the best part of 12 miles so far and managed to reach 8 different tops while we have just reached our first one today, but we’ve got sledges, fancy a go then?”
Of course they did! So they sat in the snow to remove their crampons and had a go. So that was that for the next 10 minutes or so. The five of us taking turns sledging on the ice, being chased down hill by Sam who wanted a go as well, what a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon, apart from the bitter cold which soon curtailed the enjoyment. On one of the last runs down John managed to loose the sledge to Sam who felt like he needed to prove that he was a Retriever and just to show what he can do in the retrieving department carried the sledge in his mouth most of the way back up. Unfortunately he did not make it all the way up before he lost interest and decided to drop the sledge, oops! The wind picked the sledge up and it started to head towards the group of winter skills people who stood above the track down to Kepple Cove, John chased after it and one or two of the group made unsuccessful attempts to catch the sledge, I had visions of either it blowing all the way down to Kepple Cove or someone having a nasty slip and following the sledge downhill rather quicker than advisable without a sledge under them! At first it was funny but it soon turned into a “oh no I can’t watch” thing , until the last man made a fantastic “save” that the England Goalkeeper would have been proud of, what a relief! John took the saved sledge of the last man, what a hero, and we resumed the sledging making sure that Sam took no further part in the retrieving bit, he’s still learning, honest!
By now it was just too cold to hang about waiting your turn, so we soon parted company. Andrew and David to head down the way we had come up and for us to continue onto Raise and see what lay ahead. With one last word of warning about the tricky bit that we had encountered on the way up we parted. My last sight of Andrew and David was of them putting crampons back on. For some photos of Andrews and David’s walk check the links. David has a great photo of Andrew traversing the part that I found very troubling on the way up.
We continued up to Raise which was a pleasure to walk. Gradual and very crunchy underfoot. I lagged behind John and Sarah as my mind contemplated what we had just done. We had a fantastic walk up here in conditions that are very, very rare for us, we had some rather exhilarating fun in a sledging sort of way and I had eventually met a couple of people who have been an inspiration to myself over the last few years, what a day it was turning out to be!
While still thinking all these deep thought we reached the summit of Raise. The Dodd’s in front of us totally white with snow, Skiddaw and Blencathra with a covering of snow in the distance and the rest of the high ground to the south and west with much more snow than the north, I mean how good was this! A strong breeze dictated that we not spend too much time here and so after the obligatory photos we headed down towards Sticks Pass. On this down slope the ground underfoot was much less frozen than between Whiteside and Raise, it was sinking into soft snow time. John kept running off trying to find a deep snow drift to jump into, Sam was doing the same and Sarah was mindful of John getting into his childish side and throwing snowballs at her, or her into a snow drift (past experiences that she has become aware of!) This was fun!
The Ski Tow soon became visible and we spent a few minutes watching people using the Tow and then showing off their skiing skills. I was aware of the Ski Tow from the map and other web sites but had never really thought that I would see it in action, it was just not the sort of thing that you expect to see in the Lake District. After taking a few photos and a bit of video I put my camera away and thought it might be a good idea to put the little compact one into my rucksack for safe keeping, too late, it was gone! I had last had the camera at the summit of Whiteside but put it into a jacket pocket for safe keeping when the batteries died. So it lay somewhere between Whiteside and Raise. I contemplated going back to look for it but with time getting on and signs of some bad weather coming in thought better of it, perhaps I should have gone back as some of the images that I took would have been rather special I thought. John and Sarah said it would turn up in the bottom of my rucksack or jacket pocket but I knew better.
So weighing the pluses and minuses from today we walked towards Stick’s Pass, a straight return to Glenridding was decided upon due to the time so we started to head down, perhaps with no signs of a path we headed down too soon because all of a sudden I sank to my waist in a snow drift, I should have been watching where I was going but I was still weighing up the cost of a new camera against the priceless views and fun we had had, there were just too many good bits to be worried about the camera, although the memory card would be sorely missed for it’s images.
The others thought that the sight of me from the waist down in a snow drift was fun, it took a few minutes for me to extricate myself and then Sam jumped down to explore what I had fallen in to, it was probably nothing more than a sheep scrape but the drifting snow had totally covered it. It was fun actually trying to get out, this snow stuff is really great at times isn’t it
We soon reached Sticks Pass and started to follow the easy path down. All of a sudden the familiar pain in my toes started and I was forced to a snails pace, John noticed and asked if we should stop for a drink, oh yes please! So I sat down and rummaged in my rucksack for the flask of coffee and also a search for the missing camera, no joy but at least the coffee was still warm! A few minutes later and my toes felt better so I set off down a bit before John and Sarah. I had no problems and made quite good time all the way down to the old mine spoils above Greenside. A brief winter shower caught up with us here, little hail stones and bits of snow, as it was coming from directly behind us it was interesting rather than a problem.
As we neared Greenside more and more people came into view all heading downwards, most of these people carried either snow boards or skies with them, they looked very out of place now that we were below the snowline. The nagging thought at the back of my mind about how easy it had been to walk down Sticks Pas from Raise to here was suddenly confirmed as the view down to Greenside Mines became evident, it was still way below us, this would mean a steep descent, my knees hurt at the thought! It wasn’t that bad really and the view over the old mine buildings and down the valley to Glenridding made up for it, I love these high up overlooking things sort of views. As we made our way down the path Catstycam came into view once again. It did dominate the view and once again I was wondering what the photos that I took with the missing camera would have looked like from earlier in the day. Just above the mine area we came across the start of the path that we had missed earlier in the day, something to think about when or if we return up here, I have no doubt that I will be returning soon, as soon as the snow melts to begin the search for the camera!
Along the road back to Glenridding my toes played up again and John took the keys for my car from me, he thought it would be better if he continued on with Sarah and drive back up here to pick me up, what a kind thought! After a few minutes rest I decided to carry on and eventually caught them up. These problems with my toes are beginning to drive me mad, one minute I am fine, the next I am in agony! A few minutes rest and I can carry on as if nothing has happened, help!
As we neared civilization again Sam was put back on the lead and I even managed to walk into the car park in front of John and Sarah. Once in the car park I spotted yet another OFC member, well actually the big cheese himself sat in his Landrover. I wondered over and said hello to Peter Burgess. I had spotted his Landrover in the car park earlier on but expected him to be long gone by now. We chatted a while as Sarah and John got changed by my car. He was another OFC person who had had an epic day out today. Check this link out for Peter’s photos of the day. Myself and Peter walked back to the car and he had a quick chat with John and Sarah before we departed.
The three of us all had the same idea now, food! Past experience told us that the way south over Kirkstone Pass was devoid of any really good eating places so we decided to head north to Pooley Bridge and the Sun Inn. Unfortunately they were not serving any food until 7pm, an hour away. Well that left us with no choice but to head down the M6 and to our home from home when returning from the north lakes, the Cross Keys in Tebay, I know it’s a hardship but someone has to keep the place going! Yet again we all had a fantastic meal here, and then carried on down the M6 back home. Back at Preston John had no problem getting his car out of the car park, it was still icy but at least he knew where the boulders and flower beds were so he could avoid them this time J
All in all another very special day on the fells, it was so good that the loss of a camera doesn’t seem such a bad thing, there are way too many plus points to dwell on it.
FOOTNOTE
Unfortunately one individual that will remain nameless has communicated with me that they have found the lost camera and have even tried blackmail / bribery to give it back ! As I know this person and also know that the actual chances of him knowing where it is, getting up there, and then getting it back to me are about as slim as me being able to plat sawdust I recon the £50 is safe, don’t you Mr Newsome? Oops I’ve named names! But thanks for all of your comments anyway, they help motivate me in a way .....................................................