Lake District Trip 2019 – Day 4 – Helvellyn Horseshoe

We are now well into our holiday and starting to feel a little worse for wear, having averaged over 11 miles and nearly 250 floors per day over the last two days. We were keen to visit Helvellyn again, as we love this area so much, and climb Catstye Cam to tick it off our Wainwrights Map! Equally, from a photographic point of view, I was keen to capture Helvellyn from Red Tarn and the iconic nature of the Helvellyn Horseshoe, made up of Helvellyn and the two edges that lead to its summit, Striding Edge & Swirral Edge.

We set off yet again from Patterdale at 9:30am and had decided to make our way to Red Tarn via the tourist route up Helvellyn, via Birkhouse Moor. Compared to the other routes we have taken in the past, it was an easy climb with much of the pathway rock and steps. As we made our way up to the Hole in the Wall, the summit of Helvellyn came into view along with the brick wall that features the ‘Hole in the Wall’. In my opinion, the wall is a work of art, how this wall stays in one piece while battling the winds, rain and snow found at that altitude I never know!

We broke for a coffee next to the wall and this interesting looking rock feature.

We continued on to Red Tarn, following the path, and the mist came in over the summit of Helvellyn.

The mist came and went all day so we spent some time here, while also having our lunch, just waiting for it to cling in the right way, not to block the view too much but to add to the mood of the image.

We then continued up the Catstye Cam via the path that can lead you to Swirral Edge. Still keen to capture the Helvellyn Horseshoe; made up of Striding Edge, Helvellyn Summit and Swirral Edge, I kept an eye on the view. Sadly, cloud cover came in resulting in a pretty flat and boring view.

Assuming I wasn’t going to be able to get the image I was after, we continued up Catstye Cam. As we approached the summit, the wind really picked up, making walking quite tricky. As we came up over the edge the view over Ullswater came into view and it was magnificent! Keen to capture the view the Woolly Walker and I worked together to set the camera up on the tripod and to block as much of the wind from hitting it!

By now we were both freezing and keen to make our way off the summit. As we turned around to make our way down the path we had come up, the iconic view I was after of the Helvellyn Horseshoe illuminated! With the wind still in full force, particularly as where we were stood as quite exposed, I had to handhold the camera to capture this image. I managed a couple of shots before the light disappeared.

Really happy that I’d captured the images I was after, and then some, we made our way down Catstye Cam and set to making our return to Patterdale via the Glenridding Valley. Having used the valley as our route up to Helvellyn in the past we were pretty sure what we were letting ourselves in for but low and behold the path just went on and on! We finally made it back into Patterdale at 5:30pm pretty tired!

If you have enjoyed any of the images above they are all available as high quality prints for you to treasure in your home, from my Lake District Print Collection.