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Helvellyn from Wythburn
| Date of Walk: |
14/10/2000 |
| Mountains Climbed: |
Helvellyn,
Nethermost Pike |
| Length of Walk: |
5 miles |
| Starting Point: |
Wythburn Car Park |
Grid Ref: NY 324135 |
| Route: |
Wythburn Car Park, Comb Crag, Helvellyn, Nethermost
Pike, Comb Crag, Wythburn Car Park |
On our return to the Lake District
we stayed in Grasmere again, at the Grasmere Hotel, just as before.
This was very convenient for climbing Helvellyn and not too bad
for reaching Coniston, where we were heading the next day.
Back in April, we had taken quite a long time
to complete the walk up Scafell Pike, and we were concerned about
our lack of progress at the time. Despite both of us being fairly
fit, the terrain and steep climbs were not possible to re-create
during our walks on the South Coast, so together with our inexperience
of mountain navigation although David would ideally have liked to
climb Helvellyn from Lower Man, we decided that a shorter route
was probably more realistic, and we therefore chose the route up
from Wythburn.
Starting from the Car Park, the first part is
through the woodland at the foot of Helvellyn, but the path soon
climbs alongside this, revealing glorious views across Thirlmere. |
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Leaving wythburn car park |
| There was continuous mist from about
1,000 feet, but lower down it was still possible to enjoy the views
to the West whenever the mist lifted. |
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Thirlmere from the Wythburn path |
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View of WYth burn, towards high raise |
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Thirlmere |
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Looking up towards Nethermost Pike from the Wythburn
Path |
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Thirlmere from the Wythburn path |
| As we got higher up Comb Crag, the
mist was continuous, and all we could see was the path and the surrounding
crags. |
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Near Comb Crag |
The path was very clear, and well
cairned, and it was very easy to follow straight to the summit of
Helvellyn.
The visibility at the summit was very low and
with the howling wind making it near blizzard conditions, I only
just managed to take David's photo. The glorious views of Striding
Edge, Swirral Edge and the Eastern Fells that we had seen in pictures
had to wait for another day as we struggled to see anything. |
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David at the Summit of Helvellyn |
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Anna at the summit of Helvellyn |
On the ascent, we had made a note
of the cairn where the path splits, as we intended to also visit
Nethermost Pike, and it was not possible to see the otherwise clearly
defined path leading off to the South due to the mist.
Having found the fork in the path, we made our
way to the summit of Nethermost Pike. |
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David on Nethermost Pike |
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Anna On Nethermost Pike |
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David on Nethermost Pike |
The conditions were not getting
any better, and although we had thought about walking on to Dollywaggon
Pike, we decided that it would be best left for another day, when
the weather was better and we could take in the views.
We therefore made our way back to the cairn at
the fork in the path, and started our descent. We could have taken
a shortcut from Nethermost Pike to meet up with the path lower down,
but given the lack of visibility and our inexperience, we decided
it was best to stick with a safe route. |
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Descent from Nethermost Pike |
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David getting wet on Nethermost Pike |
| After a long, winding descent, we
finally reached the outskirts of the wooded area. By now the mist
was right down and we were not even getting views at this lower level. |
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Approaching Wythburn on the descent |
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The stream By the car park at Wythburn |
We returned to the car and drove
back to the hotel.
Later in the day, as is so often the case, the
mist lifted and the views of the mountains were completely clear.
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