My first trip to the Lake District for a holiday with Eileen and I was quite impressed. Eileen doesn't climb so I went for Helvellyn on my own. I parked at Glenridding for £2 which wasn't bad but had no idea where Helvellyn was or how to get there. No sooner had I bought a walks guide I saw a sign for the hill and after that it was an obvious walk, with a track virtually the whole way up, just like Ben Nevis. Up the street and at the first gate I came across three people talking. This became a feature of the climb as so many people were so friendly and chatty. Fear of the Striding Edge ridge seemed to be both the attraction and the worry to many walkers and almost everyone I met wanted to know what it would be like. As if I knew. My guess was that it would be similar to the CMD arête, i.e. a stage 1 climb.
The path is very well made, almost like a staircase at times which makes it a bit artificial. You can't blame them though. With the amount of traffic they are getting you need a path like this or the erosion would be horrendous. About halfway up some lads, obviously first timers, were again asking me about Striding Edge. They were nervous but one really amazed me when he mentioned that there was cloud around and what would happen if mist came down. The others laughed when I pointed to the six foot wide path and asked how could anyone get lost with that in front of them.
Striding Edge was interesting but a bit disappointing. I think I've done too many sharp ridges in Scotland to be impressed by this one. The actual boulder hopping sessions are short and apart from one short part I never felt there was any real steepness on either side. I went straight over the top without any qualms and felt no sign of exposure. I could only rate it a half in my stages numbering. Mind you there was little wind and it was by now a beautiful day so I got it at its easiest.
From here it was the usual slow climb up rocks to the summit. There is a windbreak shelter about 100 metres from the summit which was useful for sandwiches (no Guinness) after the summit was reached and I got someone to take my photo. Very misty on top but quite pleasant with lots of people around. Not interested in any other descent and went down the way I came up, this time using the bypass path around Striding Edge. I could have made it even easier by taking a track leading from a dip beyond the summit. Such a shame having tracks that motor cars could use, coming off such a nice mountain. I hope Scotland never gets like this. The way down was much quicker than expected and I was back at the car just before 4.00.
