White Side and Dark Side - Look at the photos of Helvellyn in Winter part 1 and part 2
I'm returning to the Helvellyn area again hoping that the sunny weather in the Lake District lasts long enough for some photo opportunities and I've picked a route to give me some long distance views of the Helvellyn group.
From the car park at Glenridding I walked to the Greenside Road, after the first cattle grid and just before a terrace of cottages there is the start of a path on the right hand side that immediately doubles back on itself and goes behind the cottages. Between the two terraces a path of sorts goes directly up the fellside and over to the right, higher up, a more obvious path is visible.
Gaining height quickly on the steep path there is an increasingly good view up the valley of Glenridding Beck and over the village of Glenridding. The path leads up towards a rocky knoll at the top of Blaes Crag, ignore the first path on the left and carry on to the knoll which provides the first viewpoint of the day. A good path on the left slants up towards The Rake, the col between Glenridding Dodd and Sheffield Pike.
From the col there are several variations up to the summit of Glenridding Dodd, I chose the direct route upwards because I haven't tried it before but the steep climb over scree has nothing to recommend it. The top of Glenridding Dodd is one of those complicated places full of rock outcrops and depressions that would take hours to explore. The visibility is good under cloudy skies, not perfect conditions but good enough to see for miles.
Back down to The Rake to climb the interesting little ridge up to Heron Pike at the eastern end of Sheffield Pike, the steepness of the fell containing the Glenridding Screes means that the Greenside Road is clearly visible far below. The view up the valley show a snow-clad Catstye Cam with the dark dam at Keppel Cove clearly visible against the white backgound. The view of Ullswater on the other side of the ridge gets better the higher I get especially when I get the the summit plateau of Sheffield Pike.
Usually a dark morass, it makes you wonder how the Grouse survive here, the frozen ground under a covering of snow makes for easy walking over the the summit cairn. The whole Helvellyn group is now in view, a magnificent sight. A frozen path leads down to Nick Head, usually one of the boggiest places in the Lake District but no problem today.
This is as far as I had planned, so I've got to decide what to do next, Hart Side is in the wrong direction and I can't see a path across the quarry spoil heaps towards Raise so I set off up the valley towards Sticks Pass hoping to find a better way over to Raise. I started to follow a path in the right direction but I missed a turn somewhere and instead of following footsteps there are only sheep tracks. Trying to find the path again I climbed upwards and ended up at the Green Side quarry, a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to work there.
I descended the pathless snowy slopes, not steep but I decided it was time to get out my ice axe, until I reached a rash of cairns and found the footsteps again and followed them up the valley. I should have looked at the map a bit more closely, I am going to end up at Sticks Pass if I keep going so I decided to cross the valley, over Sticks Gill with the intention of contouring the slopes of Raise. Walking through the snow covered long grass is quite strenuous, gaiters would also have been useful to stop the snow collecting in my boots.
I came across some ski tracks and decided to follow them uphill, the grass wasn't as long but the snow is still deep enough and loose enough to keeping filling my boots. Eventually as I reached the ridge of Stang I was on a path leading towards the summit of Raise which was another place too far out of my way today. Just after passing the ruins of a chimney, don't ask me why somebody should build a chimney here, a path seems to go off to the left following the contours.
The snow is a bit deeper and crisper on the slopes of raise with occasional deeper drifts, hard work enough without putting my foot into a pool of water hidden by the snow. Eventually I reached the path leading up to White Side, the snow was packed and slightly slippery but easy enough to climb. Catstye Cam looks impressive across the valley as though it should be the focal point of the Helvellyn group rather than a bystander.
The climb up towards White Side seems long and hard and I'm begining to wonder if I have enough time to get to Helvellyn, the climb up to Lower Man seems quite an obstacle from here, have I got enough energy to get to Helvellyn? I decided to carry on and the climb up to White Side wasn't as hard as I was expecting so I carried on and the climb up to Helvellyn Lower Man was a bit more complicated and slippery so that I forgot about how hard it was. The reward for all of this effort was the views of Skiddaw, Blencathra and the north western fells in addition to Helvellyn itself and still Ullswater had plenty to show for itself, there can't be many places where you can see Ullswater, Thirlmere and Bassenthwaite Lake.
I met a young woman at the top of Lower Man who asked if this was the summit, and I asked which summit did she want. She was dismayed to learn that the large mountain close by was Helvellyn and was higher than the point we were at but she didn't show any enthusiasm to make the extra effort, I made the extra effort and I was glad that that I had. Standing at the summit cairn I noticed somebody ice-climbing the eastern face of the mountain, now that's what I call an unusual route.
I took the popular path towards Grisedale and it was easy to see where I went wrong last week. Passing the place where I climbed up the steep snow covered slope last week at the col between High Crag and Dollywagon Pike, the snow had drifted over the path – this is not a good place to climb this hill.
The path leading down to Grisedale Tarn started to get slippy so I put my crampons on, they really are good for walking easily over icy ground but their use is not without risks. There was somebody else on the path not far below me who was obviously lost and in this momentary loss of concentration I tripped myself up as the crampons snagged each other. I fell forward and if I hadn't turned my face to the side then my nose would have hit the path, I was lucky that there wasn't a rock in the way because I wouldn't have been able to avoid it.
Safely down to Grisedale Tarn I set off on the long march back to Glenridding. Last week I chose the path on the right side of Grisedale Beck because I knew I would be overtaken by darkness and the farm road would be easier to walk along in the dark. This week I decided to stay on the left side of the beck and head directly for Glenridding in order to avoid the walk on the main road from Patterdale. I should have stuck to the farm road, I spent an hour in the dark, thankfully I had a torch, on small paths that I was unfamiliar with, I was glad to eventually get back the car.
In the end I had enough energy but not enough time.
Andy Wallace 21st December 2002