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