Start point: Wythburn (NY 324 136)
Wythburn – Birk Side – Nethermost Pike – High Crag – Dollywaggon Pike – Seat Sandal – Wythburn
Distance: 8 miles Total Ascent: 1042 metres Time Taken: 5 hours 30 minutes Start Time: 06:30
Clear Temperature 5 ℃ Felt like 5 ℃ Wind Speed 1.3 mi/h Wind Direction ENE
Regular followers of this site over the years will know I like a sunrise walk and particularly at this time of year up to Helvellyn. All the conditions looked to be good for a decent sunrise today so I felt compelled to go for it, and I am mighty glad I did as it was absolutely fantastic up there. Previously all my December walks up there have been memorably cold but this time it was not so bad. Of course you never know what the conditions are really going to be like walking up in the dark but the view of the inversion to the east when nearing the top was fabulous and I knew I was in for a treat from that moment.
Pre-sunrise and it is shaping up to be a fantastic day ahead.
Ghostly Striding Edge is completely enveloped in cloud.
I had time for a walk along the summit plateau before the sunrise proper - there were another couple of people there to witness the spectacle as well.
Here we go, the first glimpse of sunrise - it is, of course, relatively late at this time of year at around 08:30.
Catstycam looking solitary.
Well worth the wait...
...and well worth a photo or two.
Helvellyn sunrise.
It is absolutely superb this morning.
The clouds look like you could jump from the edge into them. Perhaps you could swim to Catstycam?
Striding Edge looking fantastic, like some sort of prehistoric beast emerging from the clouds.
No man is an island.
Fletcher leads the way from Helvellyn.
Striding Edge is constantly changing with more - or less - being revealed by the clouds as they ebb and flow.
Acres of fluffy clouds as far as the eye can see to the east.
Looking great from every angle.
Fletcher is oblivious to the magnificence behind him.
I did hang around on Helvellyn for a good while (for me anyway) and walked along the ridge a couple of time before heading south to Nethermost Pike, here looking to the west with Bowfell to Great Gable in view through the inversion.
The inversion clouds are sinking away from Striding Edge and Catstycam now.
A penny for them Fletcher.
Heading for High Crag.
A panorama to the west. The central part if the lakes along Thirlmere was clear of cloud.
Fairfield and the Ill Bell ridge beyond.
Seat Sandal under a cloud cap. I stopped on Dollywaggon Pike and had a coffee and watched the fascinating cloud movements unfold. The cloud was pouring from Grisedale Tarn and down Raise Beck and began to fill up the Thirlmere valley.
Looking along The Tongue from Dollywaggon Pike summit, a good place to sit for a while. Amazingly I never saw anyone along this ridge after I left Helvellyn.
...and looking back the other way.
At the old gatepost that marks the start of the steep descent to Grisedale Tarn, Seat Sandal summit is out of the clouds now so let's go for it!
More thoughts for Fletcher on the way down. Oh my, I had forgotten how steep this was!
We're going in!
Then, as if by magic, the cloud has all but gone looking to Fairfield and St Sunday Crag from the steep climb to Seat Sandal.
Grasmere, Windermere and Coniston from Seat Sandal summit.
A brocken spectre? Nearly....sort of...not quite. If the clouds were a bit thicker it would have been a cert from that position but not to worry.
The view from Low Wood on the way home - rarely is Winderemere this calm.
