03/04/2012 - Training Walk #12 - Frodsham and Helsby Hill Night Walk

As the evenings start to get lighter, it's becoming harder to have a proper night walk after work though given the weather has once again turned wintry following the basking temperatures of last week, we did have cold, sleet and high winds forecast for the evening which would make things entertaining at the top of Frodsham.

Rocksavage by day

Mark, Martin and Lee met at the rendezvous point near the Belle Monte at the top of Frodsham before setting off on the evening's yomp. We were tackling a similar route to the first night walk around the top of Frodsham but doing it in reverse and this time including Helsby Hill to give us more elevation.

The ascent to the war memorial at the top of Beacon Hill was relatively quick and we were thankful that this time we could take in the views in daylight and realised just how far the fall is if you happen to stray a bit too close to the edge.

Helsby Hill in the distance

Continuing along the trail, Helsby Hill came into view. When we generated the route on the computer, it showed quite a severe drop down to Helsby before the ascent. We weren't quite prepared for it being steps all the way and were somewhat thankful we were going down and not up them (but of course Lee had to be the one to suggest it for the future - the sadist).

The climb up Helsby Hill seemed to go quickly (so we must be improving!) and we were soon at the trig point with more cliffs and views across to Wales in the west and Liverpool to the north.

Martin and Lee near the trig point on Helsby Hill

After a small 'Balotelli' moment between Lee and Mark on which was the right way down as Martin looked on nonchalantly, we continued on a slight detour on which neither of them were correct but it got us to where we needed to be and headed towards the village of Alvanley. 

Mark had included Alvanley in the route - because it had a pub (well you have to check these things out don't you?). The White Horse as it turned out was a Robinsons pub and the car park was packed so it was noted for future drinking, I mean training.


Once into the last hour of the walk, the light started to fade rapidly so on went the headtorches and by coincidence the wind started to pick up and the sleet started to come down. Without knowing how bad it was likely to get, we instinctively started to pick up the pace and started to taste the fish and chips which were waiting for us in Frodsham.

It certainly seemed to spur us on as we completed what turned out to be 13.9km in 2hrs and 47minutes, a good 13 minutes ahead of what we thought it would take us and with 303m of climb. The stats for this walk are here.