Yesterday we split up after Grasmere, with 5 Pebbles taking the low road from Grisedale Tarn through the valley, 4 taking the medium road up St. Sunday’s Crag, and Moe and I undertaking Helvellyn.  Except for some reason Moe is incapable of remembering that name.  He insisted we climb, “… Van Helen is it?”  It quickly evolved, and now we simply refer to it as Van Halen.  “I hear it’s rocky,” Seth added.

Van Halen is the 3rd highest point in England at 3120′, less than 100′ shy of the highest, Scafell Pike.  But it’s the highest along the coast-to-coast Wainwright Walk we’re doing.  And since Moe and I are used to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, we’ll take what we can get.  The two edges heading down from the summit, of which we chose Swirral rather than Striding to avoid a backtrack, are breathtaking knife edges that I’ve not seen anywhere in the Whites.

Finally having uploaded all the photos from the first 5 days off my camera, including today’s hike over Kidsty Pike to Bampton Grange, I’ve noticed something peculiar.  There are more photos of sheep than of fellow Pebbles.  So in lieu of a photo of Moe and me on Van Halen, I hope you appreciate the more representative sheep who accomplished the same summit perhaps only moments before us.  Or he lives there.

Onward to Orton tomorrow, with a stop for lunch in Shap on the way!