Weather wise it hadn't been the best of weeks so far but Fridays forecast showed promise with sunshine forecast during the morning before turning overcast with possible hail/snow flurries for the afternoon. With this I set off for Patterdale to climb Helvellyn with the possibility of including Catstye Cam and Birkhouse Moor.

There was no reflection of yesterdays rain with the ground dry underfoot as I walked through a tree lined Grisedale Lane whilst the morning sunlight pierced through the branches overhead, on the whole, this looked like it was going to be a belter of a day. On reaching the Grisedale valley I turned right and crossed Grisedale Beck and started the steady ascent towards Hole-in-the-Wall. By now things were really starting to heat up with a certain mildness in the air which caused me to down layer.

I was met by a cool breeze as Hole-in-the-Wall appeared in the distance so I added my jacket and continued my ascent passing a gent I'd seen from lower down the path earlier were 'mornings' are shared continuing with my ascent only stopping once I was on t'other side of Hole-in-the-Wall. The blue sky I had been observing was making way for light cloud and that cool air had turned to a cold nip.

Up until yesterday evening I didn't know that Patterdale Football Club had opened up their car park charging just a £3.00 donation to park. The car park is found a short distance up Grisedale Lane and I can only imagine that access is dependant on the football/cricket seasons. I was thrilled to say the least because parking in Patterdale can be difficult especially through peak seasons so I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Lake District walker Lesley H for letting me know about parking here.

Under darkening skies I started the traverse of Striding Edge but stopped as I wanted to add my gloves, it was here the chap I had overtaken below Hole-in-the-Wall caught me up and asked "had I done Striding Edge before?" and "would I mind" if he acompanied me as it was his first time "absolutely no bother I replied"

As it turned out his name was Les and Les was from Chester-Le-Street in the north east.

Les had mentioned he knew of the Dixon Memorial and wondered of its whereabouts, as it so happened we were just above it so we dropped down to take a closer look, it was about this point I noticed that thick cloud had descended onto Dollywagon Pike and Nethermost Pike, in fact the head of Grisedale was now below cloud in the time it has taken us to reach the Dixon Memorial from Hole-in-the-Wall.

My initial thoughts was to pick up our pace if only so Les could enjoy the views before the cloud beat us to the summit.

We made our way down from the Chimney at which point alarms bells began ringing, I wasn't so much concerned about the ascent onto Helvellyn summit but how thickly the snow was starting to fall and consequently how wet our descent via Swirral Edge is likely to be.

We had descended the ridge taking extra care on the wet rock and inparticulary were the snow was starting to settle. Through the cloud a young man appears but he's off path soon followed by his partner who was better equipped and ascending via the path, the young man made it clear that he liked to "do things the hard way" or words to that affect but judging by his track suit bottoms and attitude he was totally oblivious to his surroundings and the harm he was putting himself and his partner under. I expressed concern asking after summating Helvellyn which was their chose descent route, they replied 'Striding Edge' Have you done Striding Edge before I asked, they replied with no.

If my facial expression wasn't enough to entice the couple from descending Striding Edge under such conditions nothing else would of worked and with my patience worn thin I left them too it at a point were even Les was in total disbelieve.