Lakes for the Bank Holiday

Hi folks,

My girlfriend and I are quite new to the Lakes and are looking for some interesting hill / ridge walks to do over the up coming bank holiday. We're staying near Ullswater so the Helvellyn range springs to mind but we did do that via Striding Edge a couple of years ago (bloody brilliant it was too!). We were there over Easter as well to climb Great Gable and do the Mosedale Horseshoe, again, a fabulous time was had by all.

I was wondering which day walks people would recommend doing from Patterdale or that aren't a huge drive away (we are in the area after all, an hour or two is no bother). I was considering heading up to Skiddaw or Blencathra and climbing one of those, but again, any route suggestions would be welcome. We enjoy a bit of a scramble so this would be a bonus.

Look forward to seeing what people suggest

Cheers

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sharp edge on blencathra is good and down halls fell ridge. nearer to patterdale, the deepdale horseshoe is a great day out with slight scrambling onto cofa pike.

Dave, your 'walking man' avatar is very distracting!

From Patterdale, Helvellyn is the obvious first choice - perhaps you could seek a variant on your previous route? Or you could head up to Sticks Pass then do the Dodds perhaps?

If you fancy driving north it's not far to Scales from where you've got lots of options on Blencathra (including Sharp Edge up, Halls Fell down as Dan suggests).

Or you could drive south towards Windermere as far as the Kirkstone Inn then cut across 'The Struggle' to Ambleside and head out to Gt Langdale. There you have the Langdale Pikes as your playground. There are plenty of routes there (including Jack's Rake) but avoid the Mill Gill path which gets very crowded.

For a ridge walk from Gt Langdale, walk up over Pike O Blisco to Crinkle Crags and on to Bowfell and Esk Pike returning down Rosset Gill and along Mickleden. Wainwright rates the Crinkles to Bowfell as one of the best ridge walks in the Lake District and I agree.

Around the south end of Ullswater and along the east bank, then up Place fell then south along the ridge to Brock crags and back down to Patterdale

From Patterdale walk onto Deepdale Bridge then the ridge of Hartsop above how upto Hart Crag follow path onto Fairfield then drop down to Deepdale Hause and up on to St Sunday Crag, Finally droping back down into Patterdale for a hard earned pint.

That bastard Skip wrote (see)

Dave, your 'walking man' avatar is very distracting!

From Patterdale, Helvellyn is the obvious first choice - perhaps you could seek a variant on your previous route? Or you could head up to Sticks Pass then do the Dodds perhaps?

For a ridge walk from Gt Langdale, walk up over Pike O Blisco to Crinkle Crags and on to Bowfell and Esk Pike returning down Rosset Gill and along Mickleden. Wainwright rates the Crinkles to Bowfell as one of the best ridge walks in the Lake District and I agree.

walking man avatar is distracting but I like it and want one - just to p Skip off !!!

Helvellyn & bank holiday = nightmare to me - likewise Bowfell and Crinkle all popular route are likely to be the same. 

Sticks pass is a reasonable option but not much of a scramble

again not a scramb but Hartsop to Hayeswater and up to High Street via the Knott.

parking is quite restricted at the bottom, so get there early enough and shouldnt be to busy till High Street itself.

There are some local guys who will prob give you very good tips !

Well I'd have said that almost anywhere in the Lakes is a nightmare on a bank holiday! If I had to then I'd certainly be prone to try relatively obscure things.

Not given to scrambles myself so not well placed to suggest there. Plentiful guidebooks of course. 

Striding edge perhaps especially liable to be annoying. Does it ever reach the point of queues?

But then was seemingly happy over Easter so....

Chewie wrote (see)

....just to p Skip off !!!

Yer shooting fish in a barrel, Chewie - everything pisses me off

Chewie wrote (see)

Helvellyn & bank holiday = nightmare to me

Martin Carpenter wrote (see)

...  almost anywhere in the Lakes is a nightmare on a bank holiday!

True! I'd somwhow overlooked the BH bit despite it being bold as brass in the thread title - doh!

Nonetheless, it's possible to enjoy solitude in the Lakes on even the busiest days. Obviously, avoid the obvious tourist magnets (Scafell Pike, Helvellyn et al) and start really early in the day. If you are OK with a map and compass and can read the ground ahead competently, strike off on unpathed routes of your own devising.

Cheers for all the suggestions folks, lots for us to look at!

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