Catstye Cam

We headed off to Red Tarn hoping that a faster pace would deter the midges. It didn't. I branched off the main path towards the tarn itself. On reaching the top of the embankment around the tarn I saw a man having a pee in front of me. I halted and waited for him to finish.  During this period, I took the opportunity to study the ascent line up Catstye Cam. The fellow didn't seem to be in a rush. I even had the time to study the ascent line up Swirral Edge. Eventually he zipped up and wandered off and we could proceed down to the tarn. Red Tarn is a stunning location with Striding Edge over to the left, the Helvellyn mass in front and Swirral Edge over to the right. On the way up to Swirral Edge dozens of crows flew above us making a cacophony of noise. They landed further down the flank of Catstye Cam.

Once we reached the ridge we doubled back to the summit of Catstye Cam. It is quite a pointy hill and the summit is fairly small. The two other routes to its top dropped steeply away. Calse was looking worried. I'd told her that Swirral Edge was on today's itinerary and she wasn't a happy bunny. Her Catstye Cam summit photo was rather pensive. We had a 10 minute break in the hope that it would calm her nerves. She looked so nervous it was making me nervous too, even though I've ascended and descended Swirral Edge many times.

Swirral Edge is a little steep in places but there's plenty of good handholds. There isn't a great feeling of exposure on it either. In the end Calse climbed up it without any issues. Her summit photo on Helvellyn looked far happier than on Catstye Cam.

The summit of Helvellyn was very busy. Our friend with the short wave radio, whom we had now seen on Pike O'Blisco and Dale Head, was also here on Helvellyn. We stood near and found that the conversation he was having was actually quite boring. Somebody was annoying everybody by flying a drone up and down Helvellyn's edge Three seagulls were also circling the edge and looked as though they were getting annoyed with the drone too. I half expected one of them to attack it but they weren't as brave as our early morning midges.

Nethermost And Dollywaggon Pikes

The path from Helvellyn over to Nethermost Pike and Dollywaggon Pike is reasonably flat. It offered super views back along Striding Edge and down into the Nethermost and Ruthwaite Coves. On High Crag, a chap with a Scottish accent asked me whether I knew the location of Nethermost Pike's summit. We'd seen him asking another person a few minutes earlier. Obviously I looked more trustworthy. I pointed him in the right direction.

Four cows were resting on the top of the plateau near High Crag.  They seemed to be enjoying the sun and the lack of midges. I wondered whether the farmer knew they were up here. We had lunch sat on the grass looking westwards over a ripple of Lakeland peaks. Now we had got rid of the midges and had got Swirral Edge behind us, it had turned out into a glorious day.

We descended the zigzag of stone steps to Grisedale Tarn. 

Grisedale Valley

We headed down the Grisedale Valley. The ramparts of St Sunday Crag looked menacing up to our right. Falcon Crag on the side of Dollywagon Pike looked near vertical on our left. It is a delightful valley to descend with Place Fell at the end as a marker to your progress. The coves of Ruthwaite and Nethermost looked as impressive from below as they did from up above. Before reaching the end of the valley we headed up to Lanty's Tarn. I've often seen a Heron up here looking for his lunch. Today the path down to Glenridding had been closed due to a falling tree and we had to take a slight diversion away from the tarn. I bet the Heron was making the most of the lack of public to get some serious fishing done. 

The path down the stone steps to Glenridding had great views up to the mine workings and also over towards Ullswater. Glenridding was busy with ice-cream eating tourists and dogs cooling off in the beck.  

Five Wainwrights completed and Swirral Edge under our belt. We were all happy. In fact, Calse was very happy.