Lake District Trip – Helvellyn and Aira Force: 27-28 January 2025
It was my birthday for me this week, so N and I headed up to the Lake District for adventures and celebrations.
N’s sister had very kindly booked us a stay at The Quiet Site in Ullswater. Initially in a Camping Pod, but the absolutely lovely legends at the site very kindly upgraded us to one of their Gingerbread Houses for free as they were quiet (apparently not many people want to camp in the Lake District in January!)
After driving up and getting settled, I stared at the mountains and tried to convince myself that the weather would be fine for walking the next day…
I’d had my eye on Helvellyn as a birthday walk, and had been checking the amazing Weatherline reports daily from the Helvellyn Fell Top Assessors. Up until a few days out things were looking good, but conditions had been getting worse as the day drew near…
We decided to have a pop at it anyway, adjusting our route to get up the mountain by the shortest and least treacherous route from Swirls as it seemed like the morning would be our best chance of a decent weather window.
At about 450m we hit the snow line, but very manageable.
At about 600m the snow was thicker, but paths still visible and visibility was decent.
But as we got higher, everything started getting nastier…
And nastier…
Until we called it at Browncove Crags, at about 800m, with hail and snow battering our faces in the wind, and the weather looking like it was just about to go full white-out. We turned back having hit our limits, happy with what we’d got to experience. There’s something so beautiful and wild about winter mountain conditions, but with the real edge of knowing that if something went wrong, things would go south very quickly…
As we headed back down the weather worsened.
And we were very glad to get back in the car, warm up, and head to the nearest National Trust tea room!
The Fell Top Assessor’s report filed later that day confirmed that we made the right call!
I’m putting learning full Winter Mountaineering skills on my bucket list. Would love to be able to tackle this in future….
That evening we swapped a cold mountain for the comfy Rampsbeck restaurant and had a beautiful meal, bookended with a country road walk on either side. Always nice to experience some proper darkness getting out of the city.
After a warm sleep, we decided on a slightly tamer walk before the drive back to London, taking in Aira Force waterfall, Glenbarrow Fell, and some cracking views over Ullswater.
Aira Force is the waterfall that inspired William Wordsworth’s The Somnambulist (I’d never heard of it either!) and was in full force given the weather conditions.
After wandering up the higher falls, which were super pretty, we headed up Glenbarrow fell and got pretty nice 360 degree views from the top.
It was the second half of the walk, coming back around alongside and above Ullswater, that was probably most special though. Stunning views in the fading light, with the fell totally to ourselves, and some cute little spots to stop and enjoy.
The perfect way to end the trip before the drive home!
