Walking and Climbing

I climbed Wetherlam yesterday via Wetherlam edge. On my way up I was looking across at Steel edge and couldnt help wondering is it actually do-able by a walker? It certainly looked from where I was that it was probably a grd 2 scramble and may need ropes.

I had been thinking about tdoing the 'horseshoe' - i.e. up Steel and down Wetherlam, but after seeing Steel edge I'm now not sure.

Also, after going up Wetherlam edge i'm not entirely convinced I'd want to come down it. The southern/eastern side of the edge looked like it may be a bit easier, but couldnt see any evidence of any paths. Again anyone any experience?

Mrs. Nesbit wrote (see)

I doubt it's even a Grade 1

Really!!?!

I'd better give it a go then.

Coincidentally, when I was camping at Gt Langdale recently I fell to chatting with a guy who'd just spent the day walking from the campsite to Wetherlam via Fell Foot, Tibberthwaite Quarry and Steel Edge. He traced his route on the map to show me and highly recommended it. IIRC, he said Steel Edge was akin to a mini version of Striding Edge with no technical challenges.

Craig H, if you want to find out more just Google "Steel Edge" + Wetherlam (with the quote marks and 'plus' symbol) and you should turn up several accounts of the route including some illustrated descriptions.

Simon Parker 2 wrote (see)

Steel Edge sounds like a candidate for inclusion in my next Lake District sortie !

It's now in my itinerie too (perhaps next week if time and weather allow) - I've not yet been up Wetherlam.

Steel Edge is marked on the OS 25K but not on the 50K as far as I can see (I haven't got the Harvey Lakeland Southwest so not sure if it's shown on that one).

I Googled and found this illustrated route description

I went up Steel edge this summer .it was pretty easy don't remember any scrambling being involved.definitely an easy route.Nice though

http://www.stridingedge.net/Walks/2010/11.%20November/29.11.10.htm

I often look to Sean from Striding Edge for a little inspiration.

Just on the subject of the Lakes, many walks are held in high regard that I consider a little of a disappointment when I have done them, but that's not to say I have done them all. One I have done and yet not heard about before was the route up Blencathra via Hall's Fell Ridge - that was pretty exciting!

Aye, cracking walk, went up Steel fell from Tilberthwaite, over to the summit and down Wetherlam edge, back past the old mine to T'thwaite.

I wouldn't like to do it in the snow though, there's a few old mine shafts and that are VERY well hidden in the heather and ferns hereabouts, and that's in the summer.

I know; cos I was straightlining it beween mining features once and very nearly ended up blundering into one.....

Steel Edge is nice with lots of snow. (more the better.)

mega easy and certainly not a graded scramble.

john 2 wrote (see)

I went up Steel edge this summer ...an easy route.Nice though

hillhiker1 wrote (see)

Aye, cracking walk, went up Steel fell from Tilberthwaite, over to the summit and down Wetherlam edge, back past the old mine to T'thwaite.

Reading back through this thread has decided me.

I'm camping at Gt Langdale from tomorrow for a few days and the forecast is good for early next week. So I've printed an A4 blow-up of the OS 1:25K around Tibberthwaite and intend to do the route up Steel Edge, to Wetherlam summit then down Wetherlam Edge (plus any diversions that look particularly interesting). I'll do a TR when I get home.

On Monday (7 Nov), a companion and I walked up Wetherlam. We missed Steel Edge on the way up, partly because we were distracted by the inviting industrial archeology all around the cove in front of us but also because we were looking below Lad Stones for an 'edge' (in the sense of a scrambly rocky arete) rather than a grassy tongue.

Instead, we spent quite a long time wandering across the cove exploring all the mining and quarrying remains before stomping up some loose stuff onto Wetherlam Edge to follow the rocky path onto the summit. After pottering about on top in the warm afternoon sun, we skirted the coombe and just followed the well-trodden track back to Tibberthwaite. 

When we got to Tibberthwait Gill we studied our maps again and decided that the easily-graded grass tongue was indeed the feature marked as Steel Edge.

So what I suspect Craig was looking at (in his original post) was the skyline of the Lad Stones and the ridge beyond Steel Edge itself.

Wetherlam is a pleasant afternoon walk (and the little summit plateau provides a good all-round viewpoint) so I'll probably go again - but next time via Steel Edge and the Lad Stones.

Thanks for that hillhiker. Looking up the tongue, it looked to me as if there were several alternatives where the slope steepened and became rockier: the gully almost straight ahead (is that the one you mean?); a grass rake climbing across the contours to the left (southeast) which goes round the shoulder of the crag; and an awkward-looking scramble directly up through the crags.

Next time I will try not to be seduced away from the route by mining ruins.

The mining ruins often draw me away too....

Here's a couple of pics; one's taken from near the main mine area, I've shown the rough line up steel edge in red.

The other is looking down pretty much from the base of the scrambly bit, you can just see the track up to the left of centre the brownish area just above and right of the pic centre, is the mine area I suspect attracted you...