Conquering Helvellyn

I finally climbed my first mountain! Although a baby compared to the 6,288 foot Mt. Washington, Helvellyn still packed a punch at 3,115 ft.

The beginning of our journey was a steep climb for about the first 1500 vertical feet, although this offered some amazing views of the valleys below, as well as some of the surrounding ridges.

We finally got to the top of the first ridge after about an hour and a half, and stopped to refuel and layer back up, because we started to hit some winds.

Once everyone was situated, we continued on up towards the clouds. Right about as we hit the bottom of the cloud layer, we came upon a pretty idyllic mountain lake, with some tents set up along side, just to the right of what I captured in the frame.

Just after this, we hit the Striding Edge. It was far too cloudy to get a good shot of our surroundings, but I've borrowed from the internet so you can have an idea of what we were dealing with. This picture is looking back along the edge from the summit. The terrain is difficult to make out here, but our entire way was difficult, rocky, and windy with about 700 foot drops on either side of us, and we had to use our hands almost constantly to keep close to the rock face.

http://www.stridingedge.net/lake%20district%20features/striding%20edge.htm

The outcrop in the center of that picture is called "The Chimney." While most of our group took the path alongside the side that you can make out in the picture, my roommate Paul, two of our guides, and I clambered our way over and down the other side, where we had to use foothold and handholds to make our way down, all with a precarious drop on either side that looked to us like a sea of white fog, since we never made it above the cloud layer.

http://www.stridingedge.net/lake%20district%20features/striding%20edge.htm

The people you can see in this picture are making their way down, this picture was taken from farther up the path. It's a shame that it was so cloudy so we couldn't get any landscape pictures, but I did get some good ones of people in action!

Finally, after about 3 hours, we reached the summit! It was below freezing and incredibly windy, but we stopped for a little while to refuel and rehydrate before making our way back down the other side of the mountain.

Descending was no easier at first, as we came down Swirral Edge, which was more climbing with 80 degree slopes on either side of us, although we clearly had fun!

We finally hit a some less strenuous surface after a steep descent, and from then on it was just a winding trail down out of the clouds and along a winding river, made up of hundreds of little streams that crossed over our path. Although we were going downhill, this was probably the most difficult part. Not only were we mentally checked out, but the downhill terrain was playing havoc on our feet and knees. We finally got down, had a drink at a local pub while we waited for everyone to catch up, and then made our way to the hostel. After we got a little settled, we had dinner, and some people moved on to another pub for a nightcap, but I was asleep by about 8:30.

Sunday morning, we got up, ate breakfast, and went on about a two-hour walk along the edge of the valley opposite our starting point, and got some pretty good views of the lower areas that we had walked, although we couldn't see the top of the mountain because of the low cloud layer.

We also found a pretty nice cave that we were able to climb down into. It didn't go back too far, but it would've been a nice place to camp if you needed to get out of the elements for the night.

It also had a second entrance through a much narrower tunnel, but I didn't manage to get a picture of that. It was a nice walk in some cool fall air, and once we got back, we piled into our cars and made our way home.

I've been asked what my favorite place to visit so far has been, and I would have to say that this was it. It was an awesome experience to walk and climb along ridges where all you could see on either side was the white of clouds. London offers an incredibly wide range of experiences, but this was something that was definitely worth the 5 hour drive each way, and I can't wait to explore the walks around New England once I get home.