Friday - around Coniston
We arrived at around lunchtime on the Friday, so took a walk up to Levers Water via the coppermines above Coniston to warm up.
We started out up the Walna Scar Road, but turned off before the car park and headed back round the hill towards Church Beck, crossing at the top of the hydroelectric pipe. On the way round, there was a modest view of Coniston that seemed worthy of a couple of snaps.
Once past the Youth Hostel, alone in the no-man's land of the copper mine workings, we headed straight up to the reservoir. On the way, a brief stop for a quick squint through the binoculars by a waterfall. Not the most interesting view but I liked the waterfall, and you get the idea.
Levers Water was extremely serene, and, with the view back down into the valley, definitely worth a 360.
Once we'd run out of flat stones to skim (there weren't many to start with - logic says someone else had already skimmed them and they were all at the bottom of the reservoir), we started back, past Raven Tor to the south. The reservoir was still highly serene, so I took another quick pan before losing sight of it.
We walked down Boulder Valley on the mine track, and as we came past Crowberry Haws the sun came out and lit up the other side of the valley, which was nice, as you can see. After that we rejoined the main footpath and headed back down to Coniston via Church Beck and the hydroelectric plant.
Saturday - Helvellyn via Striding Edge
We parked in Glenridding and walked up to Birkhouse Moor via Miresbeck and Little Cove. The weather was dingy, and as we entered the clouds, wet. By the time we reached Hole-In-The-Wall it was looking like a pretty miserable day.
However, at approximately Low Spying How, the rain eased and the clouds began to break up a little. I braved my lens to the intermittent spits and spots to take a quickie back down towards Glenridding Common.
A little higher up, we even got some sun showing through, so I took another.
And another, looking over towards Nethermost Cove just below High Spying How.
[Quicktime VR version]
Much to our relief, by the time we got to High Spying How, the clouds had lifted considerably and it looked like the rest of the day would be OK. It would not have been fun negotiating the serious bits of Striding Edge inside a cloud!
[Quicktime VR
version]
[Quicktime VR
version]
Striding Edge is a superb, not to mention popular, walk, as can be seen here. I paused halfway along to take two sets of shots each side of the ridge, which go a little way to capturing the exposed nature of the path.
At the foot of a very steep 200m scramble to the summit, I took another shot back along the ridge. The summit was still lost in cloud, so we wouldn't be seeing anything from up there!
We had a spot of lunch by the drystone windbreak on top, then headed north to Swirral Edge. Just a few tens of feet down, and we started to come out of the cloud again. The misty roof on the view looked very strange, so I took a few shots.
A little further down, and the dark bulk of Catstye Cam provided a very eerie contrast with the brightly lit landscape beyond, so I thought I'd try to capture that too.
[Quicktime VR version]
We decided to bag Catstye Cam too in the end, which provided a better view than Helvellyn would have managed even without the clouds.
I paused for one more snap about on the way down - the weather had very much improved by this point so it seemed a shame to waste it!
Sunday - Wetherlam
We parked due east of Wetherlam on the road towards High Tilberthwaite. It was a beautiful day, in contrast to the restless weather we experienced on Helvellyn, so I was hoping for some good panoramas.
We stopped to look at the disused quarries after the first few hundred metres. I took a quick two-shot out of the shelf to see what the light was doing.
After a nondescript walk via Dry Cove Bottom, and further disused workings thereabouts, we left the path and headed up on the saddle somewhere between Blake Rigg and Hawk Rigg for the view and a spot of lunch.
We then went around the edge of Hawk Rigg and headed over Birk Fell Man,
along the ridge towards Wetherlam Edge. I took a couple more small pans out over Little Langdale.
Wetherlam Edge was a great scramble into the shadow of the hill, with the Langdales laid out behind us. I took a small pan while we had a breather at the top, with the sun behind me.
[Quicktime VR version]
The summit was relatively interesting, and surprisingly quiet. With the Old Man of Coniston ahead and the Langdales behind, I took a grand 360 from the cairn.
On the way down, over Lower Hows, the Old Man became particularly prominent, so I tried my luck shooting a shadowed landscape into the sun. Turned out well.
One more breather, at a picturesque pond somewhere between Lad Stones and Above Beck Fells. I should have waited for a clear shot ;-)