Tuesday 23 February 2010

Helvellyn 18th February

Pete took this shot from near the top of Raise Gill, looking over Dunmail Raise to Steel Fell when he and Bella were on the way up to Grisedale Tarn last Thursday. From there they climbed the zig-zag path up to Dollywagon Pike; there's still a lot of snow on the hills and it was really hard going. It misted in just beyond the tarn, and with visibility reduced to a few yards, they struggled to follow the path. It cleared a little once and Pete got a glimpse of Nethermost Pike ahead so he knew they were going in the right direction. The mist thickened as the pair walked over Nethermost Pike and they saw practically nothing until they heard voices ahead and saw the shelter on top of Helvellyn emerging from the murk. And there were people... lots of them, who'd come up from Wythburn and Swirls. The intrepid duo dropped off Helvellyn by the main tourist path to Swirls though this was practically obliterated by the snow; Pete's Kahtoola mini-crampons really came into their own on the steep sections of what was a rapid descent and they had time for coffee at the King's Head while they waited for the 3 o'clock bus back to Keswick.
Here's Bella in her warm jacket, on the descent from Helvellyn, just below Brown Cove Crags.

4 comments:

rita said...

Hi Lyn, Pete and brave little Bella,

well, this is a wonderful walk in SUMMER (isn't it included in the KMF 2010 programme?), but in these weather conditions...b-r-r-r, it looks freezing cold up there! Roll on spring, and within the next two weeks, please! Or hall I really have to bring my crampons back to England then? Hopefully not! What do you think?

Do you do a walk on the 1st of March, as it was stated somewhere here recently?

See you soon, bye for now.

Tess said...

Ahhh, Bella looks sweet in her coat! Hope everyone enjoyed their walk up Helvellyn, lucky souls. We're off to Wales soon, hope the mountains look as nice (ie snowy!), pity we won't have chance to do the likes of Trefan!

Alice said...

Hello! the new KR website looks SUPER! I love the new look especially the header with little footprints. I did notice one thing, maybe it is just me but when I read "KR Blog Equipment Programme" it read as one statement, only when I moused over it wondering what that meant did I realize it was 3 links. Is it just me? Anyway, sending you lots of love!

Lyn Armstrong said...

Hi Alice, I think the website is best viewed using Internet Explorer, sorry I know you have an Apple which presumably uses Unix based OS and I don't know which browser that is? Anyway, in IE the buttons have little text attached which you see as you mouse over and so do some of the photos which have little amusing anecdotes.