Saturday 11th April, Winter Skills and Striding Edge

Today I am working with Marta who is on holiday in the Lakes for Easter, we set off from Glenridding in perfect conditions with clear blue skies and no wind. Our plan was to climb up onto Raise in search of some snow patches to practice winter skills in preparation for Marta's trip to the Alps during the summer. Fortunately we found a number of large patches of snow and were able to cover the basic winter skills.

We stopped on the summit of Raise for lunch and were able to enjoy views over the Solway Firth and into Scotland. From here we went over White Side before ascending Helvellyn Little Man to the summit cairn of Helvellyn. The remaining snow on the Red Tarn side of Helvellyn was still in good condition so we walked down to the lowest point and climbed back up on the summit ridge to get some more snow skills pratice for Marta.

Helvellyn was extremely busy with and we decided not to stay for long on the summit and to cross over Striding Edge to get back down to Glenridding. This is a nice Grade 1 scramble and is good fun and it was also useful training for the alpine ascents Marta has planned.

After we finished the ridge we enjoyed a pleasant walk down off the hills in the evening sunshine.