Helm Crag

Drove out to Grasmere, tried the car park (which costed £6.50 for the day – eek!!!) and parked up on the road.

Our route took us past the Youth Hostel and along the road that heads up Easedale with the general hordes.  About a mile from where we'd left the cars, we turned right onto another lane which skirts around the bottom of Helm Crag to the east and then north and followed the valley on the northern side of the ridge behind the crag.

Helm Crag from the east.

Anyway, we headed off around the eastern end of the crag and followed the valley...

 Our route up the valley.

Helm Crag from the north.

Pete and Paul and the view back down the valley.

Keith leading the way.

crossed the stream (Green Burn) and then started heading up the northern side of the ridge. It was quite steep, but not for very long and Keith broke ground for a while until he got back onto the tracks we’d been following.

Our illustrious leader breaking ground up the side of the ridge.

It was hard going for a while!!

Keith and Pete climbed up onto the highest point of the ridge to the west as we topped out, while Paul and I stopped for a chocolate break and then we all headed east along the ridge.

The view across Easedale.

It was pretty cool and although it was very windy in a couple of places, because we kept rising and dropping, it wasn’t all the time and it certainly wasn’t as bad as it was on some of the tops around.  We finally reached the top of Helm Crag and had another quick break while Pete climbed up onto the very top of the boulders.

Pete and Keith on 'The Howitzer'.

Keith and the view up Easedale.

The view across Grasmere from the end of Helm Crag.

Then we headed down as great speed, but even then we couldn’t keep up with Pete, who seemed to be on a mission.