Blencathra

Blencathra throws out a bold south-facing array of ridges including the delightful Halls Fell which provides an excellent introduction to scrambling. 'Round the back' and largely hidden from the roadside view, the impressive corrie nestling Scales Tarn produces the other fine challenge of Sharp Edge.











Sharp Edge is the scariest walker's ridge in the Lakes and is well worth doing. It is of the same level of difficulty as Crib Goch but it a lot shorter. The scramble consists of a short 50m long ridge followed by the ascent of a short buttress. The route is decidedly slippy when the rock is even slightly damp. Under these conditions, the more exposed south-facing slope often dried by the sun is thus the far safer than the shaded damp side of the ridge. Other ridges provide easy and uncomplicated ascents of the mountain.

The most popular place to start from is a layby along the A66 at Scales.

The summit of Blencathra is a great place to take a break you will be rewarded with views to the Irish Sea and Scotland. In foul weather there is little shelter. In the swirling mists which often hug the summit you can see where the name 'Blencathra' comes from which means 'hill of devils'. There are many ways to descend Blencathra the safest way is to head east from the summit to Doddick Fell from the small cairn which marks the summit there is a easy path which leads to Doddick Gill and the Blencathra Centre

Trip Reports
Blencathra 2002