Blencathra and Sharp Edge - 03/02/2016

Today Richard decided to take me to Blencathra to do Sharp Edge. Now I've been wanting to do Sharp Edge for some time but I wasn't expecting my first time to be in the snow. We decided we wanted to see the sunrise while up there, so our alarms were set for 4 am. I drove to pick Richard up at 5am so we could get to the parking area near Scales Farm to start the walk for 6 am.

We got wrapped up nice and warm and with head torches at the ready we set off. We started our ascent by skirting around Scales Fell and walking above the River Glendaramackin towards Scales Beck. Further along the path, we had to don the microspikes as there was quite a bit of snow on the ground. After 1 hour 15 mins of walking, we eventually reached Scales Tarn at around 7.15 am. By this point, it was getting light. We'd planned to get on Sharp Edge for 7.30 am so we could see the sunrise, so we made really good timing.

We had a quick snack stop here before moving on. I wasn't too worried as Richard led me to the start of Sharp Edge as it didn't look too daunting at this point. As we got further along it started to get really tricky with the snow. It was just before the crux where I started getting really scared and the fear started setting in. I kept making the mistake of looking down which was making the fear worse.

'Living life on the edge'
We made it to the end of the edge and Richard reassured me that the difficult part was over so I felt a sigh of relief. We then started approaching the steep section at the end known as Foule Crag. From a distance, it looked fairly straightforward and I wasn't too worried. As we made our way forward though I found this more difficult than the edge itself especially with all the snow.

As we were talking about doing this walk only days ago I kept joking with Richard and saying "I laugh in the face of danger". I can tell you I was not laughing today. There were a couple of points where I was frozen in fear. I've never been so scared.

Foule Crag
We reached the top of Foule Crag around 8.30 am and then made our way across The Saddle to the summit. We finally made it to the summit at around 9 am. Unfortunately, we didn't get any views from the summit as it was too cloudy.

Blencathra Summit
Richard and Frankie
On the summit
We didn't spend a lot of time on the summit due to the lack of views and the cold, so after a few photos we descended via Scales Fell and made it back to the car at approx 11:15 am.

On the way back to the car
Thank you to Richard for guiding me up Sharp Edge even though I did prove to be a bit of a wuss at times :-)

4.5 miles and 2200 feet of ascent


1 comment:

  1. You wasn't a "wuss" Jaclyn, it was really tricky that morning because of the thin layer of snow and ice. Well done x

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