The Fellwalker Introduction Top 100 Mountains The Walks Epilogue Leishmaniasis

The Fellwalker by Peter John Farnworth WALK 25 WEDNESDAY AUGUST 2nd 1984 What's the saying, there are never two days a like in the Lake District? We awoke to the makings of a good day, clear skies and warm, but the only trouble was that we were going home, sad to say. Left the Hostel at 8.45am, passed Keswick and picked up the A66 to Penrith. We were passing the ridges, which lead up to Blencathra, and I looked at the time (9.20am) then I looked at Mark. "Should we climb it?" I asked. ''Why not?!'' was the reply. So we pulled into a lay-by at the side of the road, near to the White Horse Inn. This is something we would not nominally do if undertaking a walk; I like to study the area in depth, to see which way to get off the mountain if the weather changes while on the top, but this was too good an opportunity to miss! After a quick study of the map and other information, off we went to climb Blencathra. We decided to go to the summit via Sharp Edge and, on reflection, I think it was a wise choice. It adds a little bit of adventure to the walk when going over this fine ridge. If I am not mistaken, I think this was called Knife Edge many years ago, but I could stand to be corrected on this one. What a good traverse it was when going over the Edge. If you look over the stone-wall near the end, you can see down to Scales Tarn - it's a long way down. On the summit of Blencathra there can be found, laid out on the grass from white quartz stones, a cross some 16ft x10ft. The person who devoted his time and energy to this task, deservedly should have a mention from me. He must have carried all the stones up from the valley many times to complete his work because there are no stones at all on the summit. Not a trace anywhere. Mountains walked that day: Blencathra 14    [[]] Diagram & Stats