St Sunday Crag seen through Grisedale Hause, Fairfield on the right, Dollywagon Pike on the left.
Joy and I went to the Lake District for a weekend in Ambleside this weekend. The weather on sunday was glorious with a lot of snow from about 500 metres upwards. We did a walk from Grasmere, up Easedale and back along the ridge to Helm Crag.
8 miles
530 metres ascent
7 hours start to finish
The outward leg is a nice warm-up along the valley floor of Easedale, a beautiful valley with craggy ridges on each side before climbing to a col at the head of the valley. There was already a good covering of snow at this modest height.
The col at the head of Easedale – turn right here for the return leg.
It returns along the broad and craggy ridge top towards Helm Crag and the well-known “Lion and Lamb” rocks. The views across to Fairfield and Helvellyn, with the Thirlmere valley below, were fantastic. Or would have been if Helvellyn summit had come out from the clouds.
The Helvellyn range with all-too-familar clouds.
The sheep are pretty hardy around here. I liked this “monarch of the glen” shot:
As we got closer to the end of the ridge we lost height and lost the snow but got great views of Grasmere and south to Windermere. You can clearly see the Lion and Lamb rocks on top of Helm Crag.
Climbing the rocks is pretty popular. This man kindly (if unknowingly) modelled for me.
From this end of the ridge you get a good view up the Thirlmere valley to Blencathra in the distance, with Sharp Edge clearly visible.
Here’s the full set of shots.
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