Topography
The Helvellyn range runs broadly north-south for about 7 miles (11 km), remaining above 2,000 ft (600 m) throughout its length. Raise is near the centre of this ridge, with Stybarrow Dodd to the north and White Side to the south. As with many of these fells, Raise displays smooth grassy slopes on the west and rougher ground to the east. Here however the contrast is much less marked than further south around Helvellyn and Nethermost Pike.
Unusually for such a high fell, the slopes of Raise do not have a toehold at valley level on either side. In the west the boundary streams of Sticks Gill (West) and Brund Gill meet just below White Side's Brown Crag. As Fisherplace Gill they descend a further thousand feet to the valley, and originally turned north to join St John's Beck. All of this changed as part of the Thirlmere reservoir scheme in 1894, when a water race was constructed to carry most of the water into the lake. To the east the fell is also squeezed out at height by its neighbours, failing to reach the shore of Ullswater. Raise has a short eastern ridge, Stang, descending between Sticks Gill (East) and Glenridding Beck, but these streams combine above the site of the old Greenside Mine to leave Sheffield Pike and Birkhouse Moor overlooking Glenridding.
To the north of Raise the pedestrian route of Sticks Pass crosses the ridge at a height of 2,445 ft (745 m), this being the highest pass in the District crossed by a regular bridleway. Now of use purely to hillwalkers, it once provided the only connection between the communities on either side of the Helvellyns. The name is believed to be taken from the guideposts originally used to mark the route. The becks flowing from either side of the pass summit are both officially named Sticks Gill, the '(East)' and '(West)' having been added by Alfred Wainwright in his Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells and utilised by later guidebook writers. To the north, beyond the pass, the ground rises again to Stybarrow Dodd and all here is grass.
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