Sadly, it looks like there have been a few fatalities up in The Lakes over Christmas. In the most recent example from the 2nd of January, someone fell to their death from Sharp Edge, a popular ridge walk on Blencathra that I don't think people realise just how dangerous it is. If you find the various reports of that accident, there are pictures of the rescue helicopter landed near the start of the ridge, with plenty of snow and ice visible in the background.
I climbed that very ridge back in the summer of 2016, before my body started to fall apart on me, on a beautiful sunny day. There was a gentle breeze and most importantly the rocks were dry as a bone. Despite tackling it in pretty much ideal conditions, after getting to the top I had no desire to ever climb it again, it's easily the most unsafe location I've visited on my various tours of The Lakes and this is coming from someone who once inadvertently wandered off Great Gable in foggy conditions via a steep gulley of scree known as Little Hell Gate, which definitely lived up to its name, but felt a lot safer than this ridge.
Some pictures out of my archives, taken with the Nikon D750 and I think the big old Nikon 17-35 f/2.8 AF-S.
The ridge runs right to left in this picture. It doesn't look too bad from here.
At this point, I've reached the top of the little path you can see running up to the ridge on the right of the previous picture. It still doesn't look too bad, but that last steep bit at the top turned out to be really treacherous as all the protruding rocks are angled down, making it nigh on impossible to find a secure hand hold.
The flat looking section just before the steep bit was no walk in the park either, but we'll get to that.
Here I'm stood on part of the flat looking bit from the previous picture. It's a sheer drop down to the tarn. Glad those rocks are dry.
Looking back across the smooth rocks that I've just traversed, all aligned at a nice jaunty angle that threatens to throw you off the ridge to sudden death on the left hand side. If this had been wet, I'd have turned back. Even bone dry as it was, it was nerve wracking to cross because of that sideways slope.
More highly polished rock that cannot be avoided as we come up to that final steep scramble. Somewhere along here, hidden from view, is a wide sheer drop you have to step over, this is kind of a leap of faith jobbie that, once again, if you slipped, you'd be taking the quick, but painful route down to the tarn.
Here, I'm stood at the base of the final scramble, looking back along the route. There's a person in there for scale.
No casual walker should be tackling this ridge in anything other than ideal conditions, there are just too many sections along the ridge with no secure hand or foot holds that will be extremely slippery when wet and are totally exposed to the sheer drops on either side of the ridge. I'd be interested to hear what other people who've tackled this ridge think about it, but even if I was still fit enough, it's not somewhere I'd want to climb again.
