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The Fellwalker by Peter John Farnworth
WALK 23 SUNDAY APRIL 8th 1984In life, sometimes we all have to climb an Everest. I climbed mine on this date in 1984, when I went to Catstycam. I have been onto Helvellyn many times before this date, and also Swirral Edge, which is only a stones throw away from this summit. It's like everything else in life, there are only so many hours in a day. Just the same when climbing mountains, there are only so many summits to climb in a day. Some have got to be left to be climbed another day, and Catstycam is one of those. But it has eluded me for the last ten years, so I was looking forward to climbing it. On reflection, I think it may have been a bad time of the year to attempt it because conditions at Red Tarn were not looking too good, but we had come a long way to achieve my goal.
The walk up from Glenridding to the lead mines was an easy walk. When leaving and heading towards Red Tarn, the conditions underfoot were getting a little bit slippery by this time. When we did arrive at the Tarn there were very icy conditions indeed. Another minus was the mist was coming in. We did not fancy it. We knew it be would all right as far as going onto Catstycam, but we had to climb Swirral Edge after this summit and this is very steep, abounding with rocks and crags. We followed the path from here at a point between these two and then head towards the summit. This is also a narrow ridge which falls away on each side, so care had to be taken. With the mist still down we arrived at the summit, and I had now conquered my Everest! I know it's a far cry from what a certain Mr Chris Bonnington did a few years back, which I admire very much. But this was just as important to me. Like him, I achieved my goal, with which I was delighted! Mark took my photograph, with me holding my ice axe aloft, then we returned back down this ridge, with the mist still swirling about. As we made our way up Swirral Edge, the increase in altitude made the snow and ice more compact and it was a good job we had our crampons on; it made walking much better as we made it to the top of the Edge. From here it was easy walking to Helvellyn, where we had a bite to eat. You will now understand why I wrote what I wrote at the end of Walk 3. As you may have gathered from my write-up’s, I tend to speak to everyone as though there has only been me walking the fells. I know there are more experienced fell walkers than I, but I am only trying to be helpful to the less-experienced person, who may find him/herself in difficult situations, and maybe this could be helpful to them one day. Back to the tale… We left the mighty brow of Helvellyn and walked round the rim of the fell and over Helvellyn Lower Man, towards Whiteside. When at this summit, I looked across to Catstycam to see if I could take a photograph of the summit from this angle. I was disappointed to see that the mist was still there, so I turned away to put my camera back into the rucksack. Just then, Mark said to me so very casually, "Hey, Dad, turn round again, and have a look at what you’re missing.' The mist had lifted and it was there in it's full glory, so out came the camera, which made my day. One point to make about that summit; I think there is only room for about eight fell walkers on that summit. Any more than that, and they would be hanging from the sides! From Whiteside we walked to Raise. Now this is a place to be when the snow is down, because here they have a ski run, which follows the fell side down to Sticks Pass, then you return via tow-arm back to the start. We left here, dropping down to Sticks Pass, then up the other side to Stybarrow Dodd. This is also a very pleasant walk from here to Green Side and pick up the Pass back to the lead-mines and Glenridding. Mountains walked that day: Helvellyn 3 White Side 16 Raise 12 Stybarrow Dodd 21 Catstycam 10 Diagram & Stats
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