Name of walk	Blencathra & Mungrisdale Common
Date of walk	2017-07-14
Distance walked (miles)	8
Duration of walk	4 hours 40 minutes
Weather	Overcast
Peaks on walk	Blencathra, Mungrisdale Common
Walked with	Ged and blind Kas
Parking	Blencathra Centre

On Friday Ged, Kas and I drove to the Blencathra Center at Threlkeld in order to climb up to Blencathra. Blencathra is comprised of five separate fells. Today we would ascend via Blease Fell, a route that I have only used once, to descend by. We would then continue on, passing all the fell tops before heading down the back of Blencathra to Mungrisdale Common, then back around the base of Blease Fell. A walk of eight miles. The weather was overcast, but the visibility under the low clouds was very good.

The route up Blease Fell from the public car park.

Ged told all the people we met that we had come up the "boring" route. I disagree, the route up was very easy, but with views like this within minutes of the start of the ascent, I don't think it could ever be called boring! Looking over Derwent Water to Catbells.

St. John's in the Vale with High Rigg and Tewet Tarn on the right and Clough Head and the Dodds on the left.

A gentle ascent on grass.

The paths zig zag up the slope.

Causey Pike and Grasmoor on the right, with Latrigg near right.

View across to Lonscale Fell.

Nothing to trip over or fall off! If this is boring, then I like boring!

Great and Little Mell Fell.

We hit the stone zig zag path.

The cloud is still down on the tops, so there are no views towards Helvellyn.

The cloud is drifting just above our heads, giving us a narrow window of visibility. Now we can see Thirlmere.

The cloud would come and go, sometimes totally obscuring the views. I took most of the following photos in windows of opportunity.

Approaching the ridge route up Gategill Fell.

A close up view across the Solway Firth to Scotland.

Kas goes on a lead as the edges are precipitous.

View across Mungrisdale Common to Great Calva.

A look over the edge.

The Hall's Fell ridge. The ridge I have ascended the most times, and where Blencathra summit is.

Looking down Gategill Fell.

View back from the other side.

Blencathra summit, looking back the way we have come.

A fellow walker takes our photo.

Hall's Fell ridge.

Ged at the top of the Hall's Fell ridge.

Doddick Fell ridge and beyond is the Scales Fell ridge.

Further along the fell is the view down to Scales Tarn, and the Sharp Edge route up to Blencathra.

I take a detour to Blencathra's tarn.

Then to the White Cross. There is no view out at all at this point, the low cloud was obscuring everything. The cross was made by Harold Robinson. He carried up the quartz rock on his hundreds of ascents from 1945 onwards.

Sharp Edge.

Sharp Edge from above. It is an 'interesting' route. I have come up this way once.....I am not ashamed to say that I practically slithered over the rocks on my hands and knees. Many people have lost their lives here, I had no intention of joining them. I have no wish to do this route again. I think I have established that I really like routes that others would consider 'boring'.

We now head up to the summit of Atkinson Pike.

View from the summit to Mungrisdale Common. Now even I would go as far to say that this really is boring! A grassy hillock, but I have never descended off it to the west and visited the Cloven Stone, which is what I have planned for today.

Blue skies over High Pike and Carrock Fell.

There is water for Kas to drink around the small cairn that marks the summit of Mungrisdale Common.

View to the back of Blencathra.

One of the two Stone Men.

In the distance is Skiddaw House. Its total isolation is apparent.

Skiddaw House in close up.

A bit of sunshine as we approach the Cloven Stone. Lonscale Fell and Skiddaw in the distance.

The Cloven Stone. Another excellent example of 'freeze/thaw'.

We head for Sinen Gill. Cross it then head down.

We will join the Skiddaw House path which goes directly back to the car park.

Our path back can be seen going diagonally around the fell.

Looking back the way we have come. Great Calva in the distance.

A big, wide, easy and high path with great views.

The car park is just by the trees ahead.

Blencathra is 2,847ft high, but the route up via Blease Fell doesn’t even raise your heart rate. A gentle stroll with excellent views out. Mungrisdale Common is surprisingly just over 2,000ft. The route down over Blue Screes from Atkinson Pike, was the only bit of the walk where care needed to be taken. The walk took us 4 hours and 40 minutes.

Jo.