The Langdale Pikes

I spent an enjoyable day last week wandering around Langdale in the Lake District, with the aim of getting some pictures of the Langdale Pikes. Harrison Stickle has always been on my list of best mountains - I first climbed it at the tender age of 4 and have been up there many times since. Until now though I've never really had any photographs of the peak.

Given the recent weather I was a bit concerned about the conditions on the fells, so went armed with ice axe and crampons, although as I drove down the valley it was apparent that the snow wasn't actually that bad, so the winter kit stayed in the car. Photographing mountains in winter is always a balance between the amount of kit you take and the weight of your rucksack. I use a winter climbing rucksack with a sleeping bag comartment adapted for camera storage. This gives plenty enough room for my camera gear and walking gear, with room for storing tripod, crampons and ice axe if necessary.

As I started up towards Pike of Blisco I soon gained enough height to get a good view back across to Harrison Stickle and Pike of Stickle. The light wasn't great, but there were a few breaks in the cloud, and with a bit of patience (a useful trait for landscape photography!), I took the picture above.

Winter days are always short, and it didn't feel like long before the sun was starting to drop and so I made my way over to Blea Tarn for some more shots before the light disappeared. A frozen tarn was an added bonus and I was able to spend some time wandering around trying out different compositions. Extra warm clothing in the rucksack a necessity here, as body temperature is quickly lost when sat stationary by a tripod.

Graduated filters were the order of the day here, helping to prevent the highlights being blown, or the foreground being lost in the gloom. Some prefer to take two shots and merge in post-processing, but personally I prefer traditional filters for this type of shot.

With the best of the light now gone, it was time to make my way back to the car, headtorch on. The legs were tired, but it had been a great day.