Claire bags another munro...*

Looking to St. Sunday Crag and Fairfield - part of our walk in April

Part of the summit view

Striding Edge..

It was still misty in Penrith when we drove back to the flat....a faint aura of smugness could be discerned in the car at that point..well at least from the one of us who was awake!!

Saturday was gorgeous in Cumbria and actually quite cold - which bode well for today and it did not disappoint. Claire had never done Helvellyn so, as our first walk since our engagement, we drove down to Glenridding; with bags packed with lots of fleeces expecting it to be cold. It wasn't, and we were both unfit so the slog up towards the 'hole in the wall' (where several paths converge and one must choose how to get onto Helvellyn) was long and hot...the views and the weather were somewhat of a palliative for this however - as can be seen they were quite simply superb.

We decided on Swirral Edge (not as famous as Striding Edge [which is massively overrated anyway]) which does have the benefit of a terminally loose headwall - I would recommend doing Striding Edge under a hard frost seriously.

We took the avoiding path a bit; scrambled a bit and soon arrived on the plateau, with just a short step to the summit and some more amazing views. Lunch was taken early and more photo's were snapped...after lunch the party, as Bill Murray might have said, sat on its haunches, had a hot drink and decided its next move.
We elected to traverse over (term used loosely) Helvellyn Lower Man and Whiteside before descending the steep zig-zag path (good recce for me and the bike!) and enjoying the afternoon walk down to Greenside Mines (oh and a pint in the Travellers Rest might have had something to do with it!!).
Helvellyn Lower Man is quite probably the easiest 'top' in the UK - on ski/bike in mist you might well not even notice it. There was more of a pull onto Whiteside before a very pleasant descent to the start of the path down. This is quite steep - running would probably be easier than walking to be honest...we also saw hordes of mtb riders - coming uphill. Most were pushing up - some brave souls tried to ride - it would be a good test of fitness...

The weather was still pretty warm - base layer only weather - and, in due course, we arrived at the Travellers Rest...and ambled out later with some Red Tarn (a beer I had not tried before) inside us...all that remained was a wander through the village to the car and the drive home (for me)/snooze (for Claire..)....oh until we saw the mist in Penrith :-)

https://picasaweb.google.com/102361192587557786751/HelvellynWithClaire#  is where you can see the rest of the pictures...


* the Irvine Butterfield book - ' The High Mountains of Britain and Ireland' has all the peaks over 3000' including the English ones!