10/09/2022
What a day this was!
Hiking Blencathra via Sharp Edge was an amazing hike with amazing views apart from the moment we got to the top of Blencathra…..Am I surprised? No! Just means I need to go back!
Before we had even set off from the car, we had a herd of sheep come past us walking down the road. It was interesting to watch as the farmer and dogs kept all of the sheep in line.
The day started off not to bad, the weather was dry but the mountains were steep. We walked over a small bridge where we spotted a red squirrel, to me that is a normal thing to see living by the pinewoods in Southport, but to my friend that I was with, it was something he had never seen before other than on the tv. It was a surprise to see that people had never seen a red squirrel before.
The first steep came quite quickly but was over just as quick. We walked down a track before turning off and heading up to our first Wainwright of the day. It over looked where we had parked, along with the pub we would end up in. It was a bit of a slog to start off with, but had us up quicker than I thought it would. There was a path to follow but it was slightly overgrown, so you found yourself pushing through some of the bracken, bit of a pain as I hate bracken but it wasn’t tall bracken so didn’t feel as bad.
Not too long later we were at the top, I was very happy to be there and enjoyed the flat for a little while, while we walked over to add our rock. We soon headed back down, which is always disappointing to me when you know you have to go back up! This brings you down and round to a very small waterfall, which you walk over and head up the long tedious steps which brings you up to the beautiful tarn that sits at the bottom of sharp edge. As you can see from the photo below, the tarn is so peaceful and untouched. There is a path that takes you straight up to the start of sharp edge. sharp edge itself is an amazing scramble but not one to take lightly. It is long and does have parts where you are walking along an edge. Personally I loved it but I know others that haven’t or wouldn’t. The scramble is brilliant but can be hard work as it carries on a lot longer than you think it would. It is well worth doing though if you have the ability and confidence to do so.
We slowly reached the top after enjoying the scramble and was sat within all of the mist you can see below, this was not fun as we did not get the view I had hoped for but was an achievement I was made up to have. We took some pictures and headed off.
If you know me, you know I like to push myself until I cannot go anymore or break the people with me first, this meant we carried on to collect more Wainwrights…You know, why not? May as well while I am up there and these Wainwrights ahead were easy ones to do!
Mungrisdale Common was one of the Wainwrights we completed that day….That happened to be the worst ever Wainwright possible! Wainwright himself even agreed in this book by saying ” It has no more pretension to elegance than a pudding that has been sat on”. There is no uphill to this one once you come down from Blencathra, it was just boggy and boring!
Here is Mungrisdale Common
The top of Blencathra, I was really hoping or a trig point, bit gutted to be greeted with this but it is better than nothing at all!
After Mungrisdale Common, we decided it was time for food. We finally found somewhere to stop for something to eat that was dry and not boggy. It also gave us a beautiful view of Sharp edge. We gained some energy back, have a sit down and took some photos before heading back off to complete the last ones for the day.
The ones to follow were not much further up and down hill compared to what we had already done, so as mentioned earlier, these felt rather easy but were enjoyable to do, nothing really special about them but a needs must when collecting Wainwrights.
A list of Wainwrights we did, included:
Souther Fell
Blencathra
Mungrisdale Common
Bannerdale Crags
Bowscale Fell
And an extra hill:
Atkinson Pike
For someone that loves hiking…I hate hills, like really hate them lol! I get out of breathe so quickly at the beginning until my lungs get used to it from long covid, if anyone has any hints or tips to stop this please let me know.
Overall this is a day I will be completing again as it is an amazing day and a very good scramble to do for one of your first! Go on…Give it a go! You will become just as addicted to scrambling as I have.
You will find many more of our interesting hikes on here, on our socials and on our YouTube! You can find everything on this link: https://linktr.ee/Acasualhikersguide Come and join us and see where we head off to next!
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