Helvellyn & Striding Edge Guided Walk

I met the group for our guided walk on Helvellyn & Striding Edge  at the Walkers Shop in Ambleside. Enrique, Alison, Rajav, Ravel, Neil and Suzy were all ready and waiting to go.  With the group really excited to get on the mountain and begin our walk we all jumped in the Adventure Peaks bus and got on our way to the start point at the Glenridding Tourist Information Centre…

18th August 2013

I met the group for our guided walk on Helvellyn & Striding Edge  at the Walkers Shop in Ambleside. Enrique, Alison, Rajav, Ravel, Neil and Suzy were all ready and waiting to go.  With the group really excited to get on the mountain and begin our walk we all jumped in the Adventure Peaks bus and got on our way to the start point at the Glenridding Tourist Information Centre.

As the group got ready it started to rain but as soon as we got moving up Mires Beck the sun came out and warmed up a bit.  It was a case of layer on layer off as the sun came and went replaced by wind and rain but everybody was in high spirits as we reach the top of Birkhouse Moor.  Neil, 10, the youngest of our group was doing really well and full of energy.

Once we reached the foot of Striding Edge I just made sure everybody took care on the rock as the rain had made it quite slippery.  Unless you concentrate and have good foot placements it can be a common place for a slip or two.

A few were a little nervous with the exposure but in the end they did really well as we made our way slowly towards the summit.  I pointed out Red Tarn below and Nethermost pike to our left as we walked to the summit marker.

The wind was very strong on the summit and packed quite a chill.  In order to avoid getting too cold we sat down for lunch on the sheltered seats.  There was a great atmosphere on the summit with people all having a laugh and eating their sandwiches. There were a couple of lads making tea and coffee for charity.

Neil was a bit cold on the summit so I kitted him out in a nice warm gilet, gloves and hat and he soon perked up!  After pointing out all of the mountains from the summit we made our way over to the top of Swirral Edge.  I gave the group a quick briefing to mind their step and to use their hands to help them scramble down the steep rocks.  Everybody had big smiles as we scrambled in and out of the rocks and down to the saddle between Swirral Edge and Catsycam.

We raced to the summit of Catstycam and had a group photo with Glenridding Beck and Ullswater in the distance.  The view was amazing.

All in all we had an excellent day and the group were really pleased that they had achieved a top time of just less than 5 hours for the day out.