Recommend me a good one or two! Based in Ambleside, but I don't mind driving to get somewhere good.

Based in Ambleside, but I don't mind driving to get somewhere good

chuckle
You could go from rothay bridge up loughrigg fell to the tarn then over to high close and back along loughrigg terrace, or extend it with a trip over to elterwater. Scope out some lines for you next ride too 🙂

Aye I'm been shown round some riding while I'm there, but (and I'm ashamed to admit this) I've never really been to the Lakes before, and I'll be out walking a couple of days on my own.

Depends how adventurous you are but you can't beat Blencathra via Sharp Edge imo. For a short (but steep) walk with options to make it longer Helm Crag from Grasmere is nice (with optional mini-scramble to gain the summit).

Fairfield Horshoe is a good one to do from Ambleside.

*is noting all this down for proper planning later*

Blencathra / Sharp Edge looks like a good one, depending on the weather – how would the ridge compare to (say) Crib Goch up Snowdon?

Sharp edge is shorter than crib goch and only has one short exposed section, this is despite it looking fairly intimidating as you walk up to it. I like it and I'm not that good with heights. Done it loads of times in the past and it is great on a clear day. Used to be my back garden.

You could always go up striding edge and down Swirral edge (or visa versa) on Helvellyn. Not far from Ambleside and one of the classic lakeland scrambles.

Ace, sounds perfect. Reckon I'm about sorted now – ride natural stuff round Grizedale on Sat, Helvellyn (not sure which route yet, depends how knackered I am) / Blencathra on Sunday / Monday, and a lazy ride round Whinlatter on Tuesday.

Then back to work on Wednesday, probably incapable of walking.

Langdale is a short drive from Ambleside – Easy to make a fun route that starts and ends at the pub.

For straightforward scrambling I recommend "Jacks Rake" on Pavey Arc. Walk up the stone staircase path behind the New Dungeon Gill pub, to the outflow of the tarn. The rake is the obvious unbroken ledge-system that climbs the arc-shaped crag on the far side of the tarn, from bottom right to top left and is about the same grade as Crib Goch, and just as popular. To get to the rake, turn right and walk around the tarn to the scree slope where a rough trail climbs directly to the foot of the ledges.

From the top of Pavey, continue over the Langdale Pikes toward Bowfell, Crinkle Crags, PikeOBlisco etc. There are several escapes back to the valley.

Drive up the Langdale valley and park at the Old Dungeon Ghyll, than do either Bowfell via Crinkle Crags and back down the Band or head up Rossett Ghyll to Stickle Tarn/Pavey Ark; if you're feeling adventurous and are happy with a big and sometimes exposed scramble, go up Jakes Rake onto the top of Pavey Ark, then do the Langdale Pikes – Harrison Stickle and Pike O'Blisco then back down under Gimmer Crag. Either way you finish with a pint of Theakstons in the Old Dungeon Ghyll.

Helvellyn by the Edges.

Click to make bigger

Landgale Pikes/Pavey Ark are indeed lovely – be careful on Jack's Rake though. Sketchier than Sharp Edge imo in places.

Out of all of them, sharp edge is the one that always gives me the willys.

The strata on Sharp Edge is the wrong way, so there is always the feeling that a slip in the wet is imminent. Good walk though. Personally I like the Hall's Fell ascent.

Would this be a legitimate excuse to post this pic from the top of blencathra again? 🙂

Sharp Edge – not as bad as it looks!

Or these ones of Helvellyn? 😛

Swirral

Striding Edge

Sorry they're not very helpful for current conditions I suppose.

😀

You're just making we wish it was snowy now

lovely pics – looks proper wild in winter. Sharp Edge under snow and ice would freak me out though.

We had ice axe and crampons – no rope though. Was doing ok but but my gf was pretty nervous until a guy scooted past us in ski boots with skis on his back!

Climbing over this wind-lip on Helvellyn not roped up was possibly the sketchiest thing I have ever done though. My dad said it would be fine, and I suppose it was 🙂

grumm, that might have been me… Stupidly mild at the moment though, only had a couple of proper frosts and no snow yet.

FWIW, Swirral, Striding and Sharp Edges are not really proper scrambling compared to Jack's Rake, with only a couple of moves on each that merit the use of hands, none of which are at all commiting. The 'sense' of exposure for me is higher on Jack's rake than on Striding or Sharp edges, whether it is or not, I'm not sure. All are good fun though on a quiet day (or night) though.

I did Sharp Edge with snow & ice a few years back, there was a group on there of very inexperienced walkers being led up it. One started to slide at the final steep section, this was followed by one turning back, one starting to cry a fair bit of screaming and the leader telling us to go through despite being slap bang on in the only passable route, we just about managed to manoeuvre round them and went on our way. Further up we found 2 girls from the group struggling to get up the snow final section to the top.

All good fun.

We did Snowdon with axes and crampons last year, that was fun. Gratuitous (and irrelevant) pic:

Climbing over this wind-lip on Helvellyn

Grumm, now you can walk the walk, you may as well talk the talk, it's called a cornice. 😉

Is that pic at the top of the snow bowl (directly below the trig point) on Helvellyn?

Haha – didn't want to call it a cornice cos it's quite small and I didn't want to sound like I was bigging it up too much. Cornice makes it sound like 'proper' mountaineering to my mind. Scared the shit out of me anyway!

crouch_potato – I agree about Jack's Rake. I know someone in Langdale MR and they have a lot of trouble and a reasonable number of fatalities on Jack's Rake. It's getting quite eroded in places as well. Fun though as long as you take care.

FWIW, Swirral, Striding and Sharp Edges are not really proper scrambling compared to Jack's Rake, with only a couple of moves on each that merit the use of hands, none of which are at all commiting. The 'sense' of exposure for me is higher on Jack's rake than on Striding or Sharp edges, whether it is or not, I'm not sure. All are good fun though on a quiet day (or night) though.

He asked for walks not scrambles. Agreed about Jacks Rake though. I love the route, but descending it is fun.

I'm quite happy with a bit of scrambling 🙂

Now these are Helvellyn cornices (trig point 20m left) 🙂 Sorry about rubbish quality, taken from a slide.

Striding Edge

Haha – penning wins! That slabby snow and big cornices look well dodgy! Least you were roped up though. 🙂

Eeeh we don't get winters like that any more eh? When was that?

Pennine, Have you done ^^^^^ Nevermost Cove gullys in the pic above?.

Grumm: Early 80s (in the days we had lots of snow). I seem to remember tensioning out on an ice screw to get my axes over the top & then swinging out and up 😈

BA Nana: Yes, climbed most of them over the years. Under lots of snow one of the better winter climbs is Pinnacle Ridge on St Sunday Crag. Definately worth doing if there is a decent snow build up this coming winter.

Nice pic pennine. B.A.Nana, i think the gulleys would be pretty 'marginal' in conditions as shown. There are a few easy routes of 100m or so with decent cover though. Infact, I've been eyeing them up and hoping for a good (deep) stable cover for a while now as I think there might be some good pitches for ski descents worth investigating. [edit too slow- and seconded- St Sunday is worth a look in for some quieter options all year round]

Hmm… now I'm looking forwards to winter- thanks for the pictures pennine and grumm.

Pinnacle ridge on St. Sunday is a cracking scramble also.

Pinnacle ridge looks ace in pics, but a bit over my level

Copied this photo off another website but it gives a flavour of Pinnacle Ridge under winter conditions

Yes, I recall brushing fresh snow off that downclimb to find the hand holds. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of me on winter climbs as I've only recently come into the digital age. Anyway, here's a bit that you will recognise from a recent visit, we took my mates girlfriend up on her first proper mouintaineering type experience.