The Fairfield Horseshoe in Winter

Much as I love walking the Lake District in summer, there is something I find alluring about walking in winter conditions. I think part of this comes from the challenge, and part of it comes from the change in the scenery and the dramatic light that it can bring.

On this day we'd decided to walk the Fairfield Horseshoe from Ambleside. This is a great route for those looking to make their first foray into winter walking, although it's still important to make sure that you have the appropriate kit. From valley-level the tops may not look too bad, but once you get higher up appearances can soon change. What looks like a thin covering of snow can soon reveal itself to be an plateau of sheet ice, and without crampons and ice-axe it can be a dangerous place.

We'd gone up a few hundred metres from the valley floor before we encountered much snow, and this was the view to the summit and our route ahead.

The snow underfoot was still soft at this point, but it was clear that it wouldn't be too long before we had to get the crampons out. This soon proved to be the case, and with crampons donned we continued our ascent. Looking across to the other side of the horseshoe we could just make out fellow walkers making their way steadily along the ridge.

In winter the summit area of Fairfield often turns into an ice-sheet, as the wind whips across the exposed plateau. Care really must be taken here, as it is a convex slope and it would be all too easy to slip and end up sliding dangerously out of control.

As we reached the summit itself we were enveloped in cloud, so it was quick lunch stop before beginning our descent. The normal route is to descend via the opposite side of the horseshoe, but our later than planned start and the short winter day meant that we decided to descend the same way we had come up.

From a photographic point of view luck was on our side, and previously continuous cloud cover finally began to break up. Spectacular beams of light lit the landscape around us, and it was tempting to stop and take a photo every ten yards.

As the breaks in the cloud moved quickly across the sky the Coniston range in the distance was suddenly illuminated. Opting for a panoramic shot I took 3 frames that were later stitched together in Photoshop. Extreme dynamic range posed its problems here, and even with a graduated filter I had to be careful not to lose all detail in the dark foreground.

The final shot shown here is looking back down towards Ambleside and Windermere beyond. Again the dynamic range made exposure tricky and in these conditions shooting in Raw can provide real benefit, as can bracketing shots to give yourself a range of options to work with. 

Satisfied with my images from the day we slowly but surely made our way down through the snow line and back to civilisation. A warm mug of tea providing the perfect tonic for cold hands and weary legs.