My nephew Sam is in Keswick for a week's holiday with his family. His wife Lucy had to to return to work early but the others stayed on.

During the week the youngsters, now heading for teenage, wanted to climb a mountain with their "Uncle Roger", so of course they chose the biggest local ones on the hottest day . . . Can we climb Blencathra?

Okay, why not, we'll chose an interesting ascent that's a bit scrambly, but not Sharp Edge !

Sam, Josh and Lili with Dougal, as we leave the A66 road and head up onto the fell path.

Our route today heads along outside the fell wall and continues west till we reach the point where we need to start the climb.

Blencathra has five arms reaching down to the main road, so five arms means four valleys, we turn just short of the third river crossing.

. . . and an even more interesting scramble to get up the other side, down in those trees.

Gate Gill is reached and we go down to see the old, silted up reservoir that used to help power the Gate Gill mine.

Sam and Lili's selfie with the summit of Blencathra in the distance behind them.

You may be able to see evidence of the old mine workings on the left . . . now we must back-track a few yards and climb up to the right.

We've left the bracken behind and the apparent temperature drops significantly as the humidity quickly decreases.

Our first breeze . . . so a quick re-hydration stop before the next part of the climb.

The path winds its way up, avoiding the worst of the crags . . . most of the way !

A couple of false summits along the route, false but not coming as a surprise as we can see them ahead.

A quick stop on one of them . . . not yet there Josh . . . but not far.

We find space a little way from the summit and sit on the edge, taking advantage of the comfortable seating position it offered.

Up here the weather forecast has come true . . . 21 degrees (or so) and a gentle westerly breeze giving perfect summer weather conditions.

It's also perfect flying conditions for this fellow it would seem.

The glider circled back and forth for a few minutes, gaining height in the updrafts and rising warm air from the valley.

The best lift seemed to be close to the summit . . . or was he just wanting to see what was in our sandwiches ?

Time for a panoramic look around . . . not a full one this time, but the forward view from our lunch spot.

Click here or on the photo for a larger version of this wide photo

There are a few things to see on the summit ridge, notably the tarn and the quarts crosses.

We'll pass on the second but do go across for a classic photo next to the tarn.

" Make it look un-posed, like you were just walking along naturally "

There should be a reflection but I think some of those ripples were left over from when Dougal went in the water to cool off.

Now the only way is down, give or take a few undulations along the way.

We considered whether to descend via Doddick or Scales fells, both of which in view and accessible from the main path.

However there was a request to go and look at the tarn.

Down below three lads were swimming across Scales Tarn, I hope they acclimatised to the water before they started off across.

Maybe we could have a swim too ?

They were safely ashore as we make our way down the steep path diagonally towards the lake.

Scales Tarn with the outline of Sharp Edge above.

Even from here we could make out a small number of people making their way up the classic ascent route.

Today would be a lovely day for it because it is dry and grip on the difficult slab section would be good.

A close up from shore.

I also had a dip but weirdly got cramp in my leg soon after entering the water, not a sensation I wish to repeat thank you.

After a short break we dressed and continued on our way . . . clothes were dry in no time !