BB1716 : Martin Edges Towards His 50th Anniversary

Wednesday 24th May 2017

Last year Martin suggested it was a good time to do Striding Edge.  I agreed, as the forecast was good, but Don’s reply was "Count me out", Tony’s unrepeatable and others said "You must be joking".

This week only Martin and I were available, with Don a maybe. However, the weather forecast was good and remembering Martin’s refuted suggestion last year, I asked if he fancied doing the edges. "Funny you should mention that, I was thinking the same thing but was reluctant to  mention it after being turned down last year" said Martin. And so a plan was agreed to climb Birkhouse Moor from Glenridding and continue on to Striding Edge, Helvellyn and Swirral Edge.  I copied the plan to Don in the hope that he could get a pass and wanted to join us, but the reply was brief  "Sorry, I’m totally stuffed today".

Comitibus: Martin, Stan and the Edges

My past recollections of climbing Birkhouse Moor were of a tiresome grassy slog, so at 7 a.m., whilst eating Weetabix, I consulted Wainwright to see if there was a better alternative. I was in luck as  the north- east ridge is described as "the best way up, offering a mild adventure albeit a test of route finding amongst low crags".  It also says it is "a route for scramblers only". Pedestrians with limbs starting to creak are advised to plod up by Mires Beck, which is the route imprinted in my memory.  So all I needed to do was convince Martin.

It was a beautiful day and we had a pleasant drive to Glenridding to find the car park deserted and  plenty of space to park outside houses if we were penny pinching. We decided to be polite to the residents of Glenridding and do the decent thing and parked in the empty car park.  As we tried to pay it became clear why the car park was deserted. The daily charge is £8, notes are not accepted, and no change is given.  As a concession for those who don’t carry £8 in change with them, you are able to pay on leaving, giving us a valid reason to visit the Travellers Rest later for the £8 needed in change.

I’d taken Wainwright’s book with me to show Martin the route "for scramblers only" and, brave soul that he is, Martin readily agreed to give it a go.  None of the maps I have show any route at all up the north-east ridge of Birkhouse Moor (this won’t surprise Bryan as he happily tells anyone who’ll listen that they’re my grandfather’s), but there was a dark green track leading to the bottom of the crags. We followed this until it suddenly ended and from there it was a steep, but pleasant exercise in route finding through the crags until we reached the top.  

Our exertions were well worth it as the views from the top in all directions were stunning and we could see all our remaining route in front of us.  

It was warm, but with a slight breeze so the conditions were perfect for walking with clear visibility and only a wisp of cloud on the top of Helvellyn which soon disappeared.

You may not be surprised that we saw no one during our ascent of Birkhouse Moor, and only as we made the short walk across to Striding Edge did we meet our first group of walkers, who were also doing the edges but had given Birkhouse a miss.  At the start of Striding Edge, Martin suddenly confessed that he had only been there once before and that was 50 years ago. At the time he was a strapping boy scout and his guide on the day was his scoutmaster.  Hence Martin’s  desire to retrace the steps of his youth.  He hastened to add that although this sort of outing might be frowned upon today it was normal fifty years ago and perfectly innocent.

Martin wasn’t disappointed as Striding Edge more than lived up to his memories, enhanced no doubt by perfect weather evidenced by the great photos which Martin took. Neither of us will be around in another fifty years so we were both glad to be doing the Edges again while we can.

It was heading towards 1 p.m. as we summited Helvellyn which we had targeted for lunch.  Surprisingly, on such a good day there were only 3 other walkers in the shelter. A bit different to the scene Poucher described in one of his books when he counted more than a hundred people on the top! Sadly, the shelter produced the only slight negative in the day.  The brilliant sunshine had brought out the flying ants – maybe this explained why only three people were there, but in any event we decided to repack our lunch and try to find somewhere ant free.  We found less ants at the start of Swirral Edge, finished lunch, and set off to complete the downward climb.

Halfway down we met a group of Asian teenagers from Birmingham we’d passed earlier in Glenridding.  We stood back to let them through and were pleasantly surprised when all of them said politely ‘thank you’.  Their schoolmaster said they all should have been taking exams but volunteered to go on the walk instead. A bright group.

I have always thought that Swirral Edge was the poor relation of Striding Edge, but admit the descent was trickier than I remember.  On looking back afterwards, it occurred to me that the main difference is that Striding Edge is, in the main, a flat rocky traverse, whereas Swirral Edge is very steep, so a definite scramble.  I’m sure Martin knew the answer, but at this point he asked me whether we were going to climb Catstycam. It’s a very short climb, and to miss such a fantastic top on this round would be a crime. No answer needed. The views from Catstycam are fantastic, as they are from all points on this walk on such a perfect day.

Having avoided the Mires Beck route to Birkhouse Moor, we decided to join that path on the way down rather than take the normal route via the mines.  It was the right decision as by now the sun was getting very hot as were the stone paths.

The Travellers Arms was a welcome sight and the cold refreshments went down well.  We discovered they are in collusion with the car park as 2 pints cost exactly £8 so to get the requisite change for the car park four ten pound notes have to be exchanged!

A  fitting 50th Anniversary for Martin, and many thanks to him for the photos

Stan  24th May 2017

Tony, 27th May 2017:

Well done lads. I was only saying to Don recently myself that we should do it.
But... already done it!!

Thought you might like to see the attached from my archives (note the trendy gear - jeans and a barbour!)

Map shown: Harvey's Anquet 1:25k

BOOTboys routes are put online in gpx format which should work with most mapping software. You can follow our route in detail by downloading bb1716 .

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