Conquered Lion and Lamb on Helm Crag

But they put up a fight. Having failed to complete the summit in February 2016 as the result of heavy rain and gales we tried again today.

We were going to do Blencathra today, changing our minds when we looked out of the bedroom window to see whitecaps on Ullswater despite clear skies. The temperature was at freezing too. The forecast for 800 metres was -6c with gale force winds. Not for us.

An abortive start for Helm Crag as I’d left my camera on the back seat. It took us an hour to collect it and get back to where we were. Then there were beck crossings to be done, one of which involved stepping stones above a waterfall. We didn’t cross there.

The path marked on the map didn’t seem to exist so we struck off straight up to a track we could see above us. That track led us to zig zags that took us to the main ridge and the short walk to the summit. Those zig zags are not marked on the map.

Finally achieved the top, only 405m but windy with great views. On the top of the Lion was a man shouting into his mobile device. We could hear him while we ate lunch in shelter overlooking Grasmere which was where today’s shot was taken. We could still hear him on our way down. Goodness knows what he was doing and why he was spoiling the experience with his behaviour.

The descent was easy and we were soon in Grasmere for tea and tea cake in Baldry’s cafe. Helm Crag is a pimple and should have been an easy walk. Out and back the same way would have been the quickest but doing a loop and more importantly forgetting my camera made it more of a challenge than it should have been.