It’s been several weeks since I last wrote a blog and being conscious that I did not get out with the camera last week due to domestic duties, I kept an eye on the forecast for this weekend with the aim of visiting somewhere that I do not get to visit to often.
The forecast was for Storm Arwen to arrive on Friday evening in Cumbria, but the worst should have passed by Saturday morning and the winds were showing has reducing around 9.00 am on Saturday morning.
I planned my mornings photography around a hike up Hallin Fell as I have never visited this location before and it’s been over a year that I got to take a look at Ullswater.
I set off from home in plenty of time, but the first job was to get some fuel as the car was nearly running on fumes, once I got the fuel, I set off to Ullswater, everything was fine until I reached the junction on the A66 when I was suddenly met by a road covered in snow, what a surprise this was. Not long after this I encountered my first of many sections of road that was covered in branches from the adjacent trees, probably blown down by the storm during the evening, needless to say observant driving was the priority whilst making my way towards Hallin Fell.
As I dropped down to the lakes shore to head towards Pooley Bridge, I encountered many sections of road that were covered in debit, luckily, I only encountered one fallen tree which I could easily navigate around.
It wasn’t too long until I pulled up in the car park opposite the quaint little chapel at the foot of Hallin Fell, it was here that I noticed how cold it was, it was showing 2 degrees on the temperature gauge in the car, but the wind chill was probably reducing this to below freezing., I began to don my boots and clothing and surveyed the scene in front of me, a thick layer of snow all the way up the fell, or as far as I could see.
I switched on the head torch and began the accent, remembering the route from the map that I viewed the previous evening, it was far too windy to get the map out of my backpack. As I climbed, my body began telling me how out of condition it is, my temperature began to rise and by lungs began telling me that they were not getting enough oxygen in to them, so regular short stops were the order of the day.
I soon got to just below the summit of the fell where I could just make out the substantial summit cairn, the wind was battering me from the north, and was ice cold. I headed to the summit to take a view of what was on offer, and was promptly blew back down the slope, so I conscious decision was quickly made, any photography, initially at least would have to be done on the leeward (southern) side of the fell but this wasn’t too bad has the rising sun was beginning to make an appearance in this section of the sky. Once there was some visibility from the rising sun, it was only now that I truly realised how much snow had fallen and the vastness of its coverage, a sure sign that winter has arrived in the Lake District.
I took a quick video of the conditions on my phone to use as a social media tool, and then set about picking out compositions to use. There was a very pointed fell to the west which drew my interest, and this would be included in several of the images that I took during the morning, I believe that this fell may be called Raise, it reminded me of a Pyramid.
There were images to be had looking towards Place Fell and High Dodd Fell, with the valleys of Martindale and Boredale also creating interesting compositions, the autumnal browns, oranges, and greens colours in the bottom of the valley contrasting the bleak snow-covered peaks.
I got a lovely series of images of the snow-covered Helvellyn Range of mountains as they were dowsed in a thin colouring of pink colours has the sun began its rise over the eastern sky.
As I trekked about the top of Hallin fell, I wanted to capture a panoramic image of Place Fell and High Dodd fell but the location I was at did not afford enough elevation to create any separation from the foreground fells to the distant ones, so I climbed up towards the summit, stopping about head height below the summit, however the wind was howling around the rocks and hitting me with some force, I dug in the tripod legs into the ground, leveled the camera, set up the exposure and tightened down every tripod head adjustment knob as tight has I could for each image that I took, these looked sharp and in focus on the back of the camera, however when I got these home on the computer I was disappointed to see that there was movement in each of the images due to the wind. A lesson to be learned here, double check your photos in the field to make absolutely sure that they are sharp and in focus with no signs of movement in the image! Having said this, here is a little shot with some intention camera movement included in it!
Despite very cold fingers, and being buffeted about by the winds, I had a pleasing two hours and a half hour on the top of Hallin Fell, no doubt Storm Arwen had created unexpected conditions which were a bonus, it was great to be out in the landscape again, to suck-in the fresh air, and gain a little exercise to hopefully get back on the fitness improvement road again.
First thing on the agenda once I was back in the car was to find a café to get a well-earned coffee before setting off home.
A selection of images taken from Hallin Fell
