Helvellyn (17.02.2013)
Written by hmsv1 (Hannah Vickers)
| Start point | Grasmere village |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | Swirls car park |
| Characteristic | Hillwalk |
| Map |
|
| Ascents | Dollywaggon Pike (858m) | 17.02.2013 |
|---|---|---|
| Helvellyn (950m) | 17.02.2013 | |
| Helvellyn - Lower Man (925m) | 17.02.2013 | |
| Nethermost Pike (891m) | 17.02.2013 |
Since I had to catch a train from Windermere in the afternoon, I decided just to take a short morning trip along a route I knew well, beginning in Grasmere and passing over the tops of Dollywagon Pike, Nethermost Pike and Helvellyn.
I had a plan to descend back down to Swirls and walk through the forest back to Grasmere but in the end I decided to be lazy and get a bus back to the village instead. Had really nice weather - blue skies, sunshine and it was not cold. Well, that's not exactly true. It wasn't cold in the start of the day when I was walking up Tongue Gill, but by the time I reached Grisedale Hause, there was a massive strong wind coming up from the south, and that made it pretty difficult to walk at times.
Thought there might be a bit of shelter behind one of the walls on Helvellyn's summit but they were next to useless. So I didn't really stop walking until I was well down the north side of the mountain and in the lee of the wind.
There was a surprisingly high number of walkers - families and other young people, who were out on the mountain wearing only jeans and trainers, even though I was fully dressed in outdoor-type clothing and had to use my crampons for part of the descent because the snow surface was so icy. I get slightly annoyed sometimes that despite it still being the winter season and on one of England's highest hills, there are still people not really taking the terrain seriously. Fortunately I didn't hear about the mountain rescue teams being called out to any accidents that day.
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