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Northumbria University Mountaineering Club |
O U T A C |
Route : Helvellyn |
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OS MAP : |
Sheet 90 |
Grade : |
2 |
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GR : |
NY 349149 |
Terrain : |
1 |
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Distance : |
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Navigation : |
1 |
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Ascent : |
3,118 feet (950m) |
Seriousness : |
3 |
It's often
stated that Helvellyn is climbed by more people than any other British
mountain. (A survey in 1966 recorded up to 600 visitors to the summit per day
during the World Cup Finals). It is climbed from all directions, but most
people concur that the finest approaches to Helvellyn are from the east, the
classic route encompassing the circuit of Red Tarn via the twin ridges of
Striding Edge and Swirral Edge.
Striding
Edge is particularly exhilirating, a knife-edge ridge which can be traversed
along the very crest, or by a narrow path which winds a parallel route a few
feet below. Despite its reputation, Striding Edge is only really dangerous in
icy conditions (when it's considered a winter Grade I scramble), though a
memorial halfway along the ridge does little to help the novice's confidence.
This is the Dixon memorial, one of several monuments on Helvellyn, which was
erected here to mark the spot where a nineteenth century fox hunter, Roger
Dixon, fell to his death way back in 1858. It's located just below the highest
point of the ridge, High Spying How, which is regarded as a minor summit in
itself by peakbaggers.
The only
real difficulty on the Edge is an awkward scramble down a steep chimney at the
western end, but this (and the queues that sometimes form above it) can be
avoided by taking a path which runs along the south side of the ridge. This can
be picked up a little way back. After the chimney, a narrow path leads to the
summit plateau, passing the Gough memorial.
Helvellyn's
summit cairn is relatively small, most people arriving here tend to congregate
at the large cross-shaped wind shelter. The trig pillar is about a hundred
yards north west of the main cairn, and the lesser summit of Lower Man (3033' /
925m) is about a half mile away in the same direction.
There are
two memorials on the summit. Just south of the shelter, a small tablet
celebrates the first successful landing of an aeroplane on a British mountain
top by John Leeming and Bert Hinkler in 1926. After a brief stop, they took off
in their Avro 585 Gosport, apparently taking a short run straight over the
crags above Red Tarn. (The National Park Authority frowns on this sort of thing
these days).
The other
more prominent monument stands near the path which comes up from Striding Edge.
This relates the story of Charles Gough, a Kendal Quaker who fell into the
corrie of Red Tarn while making his way over from Patterdale to Wythburn with
his dog Foxie on 18 April, 1805. His body was found almost three months later
on 20 July, guarded by the emaciated dog, a whch inspired poems by both Sir
Walter Scott (Helvellyn) and William Wordsworth (Fidelity, which
is quoted on the tableau).
There is an
Off-Dartmoor Letterbox near the Dixon Memorial:, Just after ascending High
Spying How on the Edge find the Dixon Memorial on left. Box behind memorial 12
paces around corner on same contour until overlooking Nethermost Cove. Find
small slanting rock between two large boulders. Box behind stones under smaller
rock to right of slanting rock. Summit of High Spying How 88º. GR NY 349149
http://uk.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?GridE=334984&GridN=514948&scale=25000
Walking
amongst the finest scenery in England!
