Slippery when wet – taking careful strides on Lake District’s Sharp Edge
OUT AND ABOUT WITH RALPH: The adventurous route to the summit of Blencathra is only for experienced hill walkers and scramblers
It is already winter on the higher mountains, and you won’t meet many other people on Highland peaks. But in Cumbria’s Lake District, it might as well still be high summer for the numbers venturing up the fells.
On a cold, grey October day with showers, a stream of walkers was crossing the misty 2800-foot summit of Blencathra, some even determined to eat lunch on the exposed top.
A little girl, maybe only six, had reached the summit, quite an achievement. But now she was crying. I think she’d been promised a picnic. But her parents were hurrying her down again, it was too cold. “I’m not cold,” she wailed.
“For God’s sake, if you want to get something to eat, hurry up,” her mum scolded her in a posh southern English accent. “We’re going home!”
“I don’t want to go home!” cried the little girl. What they should have done was to encourage her with a bap or a chocolate bar and promise to stop where it was more sheltered. I don’t know why some people have children.
Mountain experiences in England are a bit different from what we’re used to in the north.
I’d come up via Sharp Edge where there’s a little bit of scrambling which wouldn’t be out of place on the Cuillin ridge. The difference is that the rock is polished smooth by thousands of climbers and doesn’t have the same grip as Skye gabbro.
One spot is extremely dangerous when wet, but there are no warning notices at all. Every year there are accidents and usually at least one person is killed.
It’s not our culture to install hand rails and the like on mountains, but there really should be an exception here as so many take this route. A couple of chains, as on the Elie chain walk, would make all the difference.
I’d cycled to the foot of the peak, a lovely ride along the Keswick railway path through the autumn woods with many bridges over the river and even a tunnel. I plodded, slowly, up the first steep climb, a lady was striding down. On meeting this old man making slow progress upwards she warned me: “Careful, it’s slippy further on!”
Maybe she was a nurse. But at least nobody has yet stopped the traffic to help me cross the road, as happened to my older brother last time I was with him. The path did indeed cross a couple of easy rock slabs, but when I can’t manage something like that it will be time to give up on the hills.
Probably it was that which determined me to have a look at Sharp edge, which I hadn’t traversed for a few years.
The path climbs steadily to Scales Tarn, with Sharp Edge forming the rocky skyline to the north. The rocks had dried out after earlier rain so I carried on, encouraged that two other walkers had completed the ridge and were now nearing the summit. Most people, though, were avoiding it.
A relatively easy path bypasses much of the crest, contouring very steep slopes, but there is then a steep scramble to regain the narrow knife-edge. These rocks were sheltered and still wet, making for a slow and careful climb.
But the crest was dry, it was just that my nerves weren’t as strong as they used to be with big drops on both sides and I was glad to get over the dodgy bit, which I never even used to notice in the past. Though there was one occasion when I got caught out descending in mist and rain and, to get a better grip, had to cross the slippery wet rocks in socks.
Then the rain started, ten minutes later and I’d have had to turn back. But there was still a steep scramble up rocks and in the wet it was, indeed, slippy. I had to take great care over handholds and footholds and took ages before finally reaching easier ground. There really should be more warnings that this route is only for the experienced!
Two other walkers who had been following me had, I noticed, turned back after the rain had begun.
There was no view from the top but I wasn’t bothered as I’ve often been there in fine clear conditions. There are many easy routes up Blencathra and now I followed one of the popular paths down, soon emerging to better views.
Two other walkers caught me up. They’d done Sharp Edge after me, and in the wet. “It was a bad decision,” they said, “but we’re still alive!”