With an incredible weather window, I went for a revisit to Striding Edge yesterday.
Just look at this place. No wonder I’m consistently drawn back here.
I won’t take you through the whole route again as that’s in the original post. But for my fourth crossing, I decided it would be an opportune time to get some photos and videos that answer some of the questions that we’ve been emailed most often.
Typically, 2 of the things that come up most often are:
- Are there bypass paths and how safe are they?
- Is there a way around the bad step? And how bad it is?
So let’s take a little look at that.
Striding Edge bypass Paths
There are bypass paths around much of the crest of the ridge. Lots of this path looks a bit like this:
So you can see this is down off the crest of the ridge to the North for most of the crossing.
It’s walkable for sure but in some places a little hands on light touch “scrambling” just to get over a rock or two may be needed.
Make no mistake – a fall even on the bypass path on Striding Edge has the potential to be serious – the slop down towards Red Tarn is steep and taking a tumble down there would be far from ideal.
But for those who are keen to avoid the real serious crest exposure for most of the route, this is an option.
The “Bad Step” on Striding Edge
The “bad step” is a short down climb at the end of the ridge (end if you’re going up to Helvellyn, beginning if you’re coming down from Helvellyn). So how bad is it?
Well, here’s how it looks from the bottom.
You can see:
- There are plenty of hand holds and foot holds
- The rock is rather polished in parts thoough
I’ve tackled the Bad Step both facing away from and into the rock an prefer facing into the rock.
Yes, a fall here would be potentially serious. But if you take your time and maintain 3 points of contact, this is relatively straightforward section.
Can you avoid the Bad Step on Striding Edge?
Yes. So the bypass path over the ridge sits to the North, ever so slightly off the crest. The little bypass route for the Bad Step sits to the south and is easy to miss. If you’ve been on the bypass across the ridge you could easily miss it.
I haven’t taken it myself, so I can’t comment on it. But speaking to someone on the summit yesterday who said they’d bypassed the Bad Step, they commented that they thought the bypass was more exposed and they’d probably do the Bad Step next time.
So as ever, take a view on it for yourself.
