Harrison Stickle

It had been a while since we had climbed Harrison Stickle by the popular route, via Stickle Ghyll up to Stickle Tarn and Shen the loose scree directly to Harrison Stckle. This was our planned route for today. The weather forecast was for heavy rain but we started off in theory but low cloud on the tops.
The Ghyll was remarkably dry but, spite this, some schoolchildren were having a wonderful time Ghyll scrambling. The path to the tarn is now paved in stone steps more or less all the way. It was a quick ascent, not as tedious as I had recollected. Once at the tarn we followed the path to the left and again, stone steps took us through the loose rock to the col just below the summit.
By now the wind was strengthening and the rain was falling.We stopped for lunch below the top taking shelter from the wind and put waterproofs on.
On the top the wind was fierce and the rain heavy so not a place to stop for long. With no visibility, a compass bearing towards Pike O'Stickle got us got us safely down below the cloud and the reassurance the Pike O'Stickle was directly in front of us.
We now has good enough visibilty to head towards our intended descent route, avoiding Dungeon Ghyll, instead, taking the path from below Loft Crag, clearly marked with cairns.
A lovely descent back to the car completed an excellent round trip.

Time 4hrs 15mns
Memories

• Wet and very windy on top
• Compass navigation required in the mist
• Schoolchildren Ghyll scambling

Grade. Excellent

Completed 140 To go 74

Nethermost Pike, Dollywagon Pike

Starting at the Wythburn car park this was a route up to the Helvellyn ridge I had never done before. A notice at the bottom of the path through the forest warned us that no 'loops' could be walked form Wythburn or the Swirls because of forestry work and tree felling. Despite this we decided to carry on on if there was a problem we could drop down into Grasmere and catch the bus back to the car.
The path soon left the forest and climbed onto the open fell, reminiscent initially of the climb up to Stone Arthur from Grasmere. A good path all the way up with a steady incline but no difficulties. The weather was warm for September but a cool enough breeze to make the climb enjoyable. Although the sky was cloudy the tops were mainly free of cloud apart from Helvellyn itself which drifted in and out of view. The views generally were poor due to the extensive haze.
The path skirted round Comb Crags and then easily to the col between Helvellyn and our first goal, Nethermost Pike. Striding Edge seemed only a stones throw away and was being traverse by what appeared to be a group of schoolchildren in orange helmets.

We tuned right and keeping to the edge climbed  up to Nethermost Pike stopping for lunch at one of the cairns just below the summit. It was then an easy traverse across the lunarscape top to Dolywagon Pike, again keeping to the edge as the main path skirts below the summit .Rather than take the steepish direct descent heading towards Seat Sandal, we decided to descend the zigzag path down to Grisedale tarn.  Before reaching the tarn an indistinct but definite path contoured around westerly to join the coll between Dollywagon Pike and Seat Sandal.

The descent down Raise Beck was delightful. I had always assume this would be an uninteresting route when viewed  from the car speeding over Dunmail raise, but was pleasantly surprised. It was now Friday afternoon and we decided it was very unlikely any forestry operations were taking place and we had heard no noises of forestry machinery so we decided to take the footpath north back to the car park, without incident.

Time  5hrs 30mns

Memories

• Widespread haze affecting views from the top
• Watching scores of people traversing Striding Edge
• Warm but light breeze, ideal walking conditions

Completed 139  To go 75