Helvellyn 8 February 2025

The weather forecast this weekend wasn't great, but we decided to take a chance and went to the Lakes. Sonya joined us; we picked her up at the station in Penrith. We set up a camp at the place where we had overnighted before. It was less than an hour's hike from the parking space in a drizzly weather. At least it was warm to sleep.

The blue and red lines show our track in the first and second days. Shift-click on the track link will open it in nakarte.me.

We woke up in the morning surrounded by gray mountains. Everything was lightly powdered with snow.

Every vein in the rocks is visible.

The valley where we spent the night. These little hills are called drumlins.

Frost on the rocks.

When we reached the plateau, we walked into a cloud. There was almost no visibility. Surprisingly, we met a few people. We couldn't usually see them, but we could hear them very well.

An icy heart.

The summit of Helvellyn, the highest point of the area. There were a lot of people here: some with ice axes and crampons, some with skis, some in running shoes. We carried microspikes.

The queue to go down the Swirral Edge ridge.

At one point the visibility improved and was saw Red Tarn covered in ice.

We got to an easy path.

The ice on the lake is quite thick, but probably not strong enough to walk on it. The wind blew snow streaks on the ice surface.

Through the “Hall in the Wall” pass we descended into the neighboring valley. Suddenly the sun peeked out!

The visibility improved, the grass and trees became visible again, the world turned from black and white to color.

Despite the overcast weather, we had a wonderful walk this weekend. It's not often you get to see the Lakes in the winter.