Boxing Day - Blencathra

Paul, Keith and I got up at 7am on Boxing Day morning and left at 8am. By 9:30 we had arrived at the garage just off the M6 at the Penrith junction, where I texted Pete to let him know where we were.  He was only at junction 35, so I told him not to hurry and we drove on to the foot of Blencathra, parked up on the side of the A66 and ate our lunch while we waited.  We'd driven through snow showers as we came over the tops near Shap, but by the time Pete arrived and we got our walking gear on it was fine again and the sun was peeping through the cloud.

The first part was really icy and the others disappeared some distance ahead. When they waited and I caught up, I suggested that it was a waste of time us walking together as I was so slow.  Keith was right though, the ice soon disappeared and from there on the snow was soft and easy to walk in.

Clouds to the south.

Pete waiting for us to catch up (he did a lot of that!!).

We went up over the end of the ridge (in effect, although I only realised this on the way down) and dropped down into the valley behind the ridge, running parallel to the road.

The valley behind the summit ridge.

We walked up to the tarn and I saw most people heading off to the left up a straightforward slope.  Keith and Paul had started off to the right to Sharp Edge, but I decided that it looked a bit too ‘technical’ for me and my little crampons (that I never got around to putting on anyway - probably just as well because I'd never used crampons before!) so I decided to go to the left, while Pete followed the others.  As I started heading away, Paul left Keith and Pete and came and joined me, saying that it wasn’t a good idea to split up as the top of Blencathra was still shrouded in cloud.

Sharp Edge.

We plodded up the hill and onto the ridge proper to some spectacular views of the surrounding countryside to the east and southwest-ish towards Keswick.

The view south from the ridge.

In the end we arrived at the top long before Keith and Pete even appeared on the horizon and we took some photos of the views (the cloud cleared as we approached) and sat drinking hot chocolate while we waited for them.  It transpired that the ridge had been a bit more on the ‘technical’ side than even they’d anticipated and Keith had had to hand his ice axe to Pete at one point!! Darn glad we didn’t go that way!!

The view from the summit to the southwest.

The view towards Derwent Water.

Pete approaching Paul, who was enjoying a hot chocolate.

We then headed back down the ridge and went off the far end.

Our route back down.

Paul and Keith went on ahead and Pete and I realised that we’d missed the path back down the way we’d come up, so he went back up slightly to pick up that path.  I carried on down because I knew the original route was really icy at the bottom and it was just as well because Paul and Keith were waiting at the very bottom of the path, tucked completely out of sight.  Back on the flat, Keith went streaking off leaving me and Paul to slip and slide our way along the lane that dropped back down to the pub and so to the cars.