Helvellyn

Helvellyn is a mountain in the English Lake District, the highest point of the Helvellyn range, a north–south line of mountains to the north of Ambleside, between the lakes of Thirlmere and Ullswater.
Helvellyn is the third-highest point both in England and in the Lake District, and access to Helvellyn is easier than to the two higher peaks of Scafell Pike and Scafell. The scenery includes three deep glacial coves and two sharp-topped ridges on the eastern side. Helvellyn was one of the earliest fells to prove popular with walkers and explorers; beginning especially in the later 18th century. Among the early visitors to Helvellyn were the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, both of whom lived nearby at one period. Routes up the mountain permit approach from many directions.
However, traversing the mountain is not without dangers; over the last two hundred years there have been a number of fatalities. The artist Charles Gough is more famous for his death on Striding Edge in 1805 than for what he achieved in his life. Among the human feats upon the mountain, one of the strangest was the landing and take-off of a small aeroplane on the summit in 1926.
Since 2020, the summit of Helvellyn including both Striding and Swirral Edges and the wider Glenridding Common have been managed by the John Muir Trust, a wild places conservation charity in partnership with the Lake District Park Authority.

Topography

General description

The volcanic rocks of which the mountain is made were formed in the caldera of an ancient volcano, many of them in violently explosive eruptions, about 450 million years ago during the Ordovician period. During the last ice age these rocks were carved by glaciers to create the landforms seen today.
Since the end of the last ice age, small populations of arctic-alpine plants have survived in favourable spots on rock ledges high in the eastern coves. A species of alpine butterfly rare in Britain, the mountain ringlet, lives on and around Helvellyn. Mineral veins, some with deposits of the lead ore galena, exist within Helvellyn's rocks, but attempts to find sufficient quantities of lead to be worth mining have failed.
The top of Helvellyn is a broad plateau, trending roughly from northwest to southeast for about a kilometre between Lower Man and the start of Striding Edge. Throughout this distance it remains more than high. To the west the mountain is rounded, its shape before glaciation: the ground drops gently at first but then more steeply down to Thirlmere, whereas on the eastern side deep glacial coves, each backed by high cliffs, are separated by spectacular sharp ridges or arêtes. The middle of these coves contains Red Tarn. The reason for this east–west contrast has been debated.
Like much of the main ridge of the range, Helvellyn stands on the watershed between Thirlmere and the Derwent river system to the west, and Ullswater and the Eden river system to the east. Streams on the west side drain directly into Thirlmere, apart from Helvellyn Gill which flows into a parallel valley to the east of Great How and empties into St John's Beck. A leat captured the water of Helvellyn Gill, taking it into Thirlmere reservoir.
A never-failing spring called Brownrigg Well exists below the summit of Helvellyn, about due west of the highest point, at the head of Whelpside Gill at 2,800 feet. In the nineteenth century a leat was constructed to direct the water of this spring into the gill to its north to serve the needs of the Helvellyn Mine further down. This leat has now fallen into disuse. The gill it led to is not named on any map, but some authors have referred to it as Mines Gill.
A shoulder of the mountain, Whelp Side, between Whelpside Gill and Mines Gill, is largely grassy though with a few crags and boulders, and with coniferous plantations on its lower slopes around the reservoir. North of Mines Gill are the Helvellyn Screes, a more craggy stretch of hillside, beneath the north-west ridge, with a loose scree covering in places.
The deep coves on the rocky eastern side of Helvellyn drain into Ullswater. Water from Brown Cove and Red Tarn unite below Catstye Cam to form Glenridding Beck, which flows through Glenridding village to the lake, while Nethermost Cove drains into Ullswater via Grisedale Beck and Patterdale village.
Red Tarn, enclosed between Striding Edge and Swirral Edge, is about deep, but in the mid-nineteenth century a dam was built to increase its capacity and supply the needs of the Greenside Mine near Glenridding. That dam has now gone, and the tarn has returned to its natural size. It contains brown trout and schelly, a species of whitefish found in only four bodies of water in the Lake District.
A second reservoir was built around 1860 in Brown Cove, between Swirral Edge and Lower Man, along with one further down the valley in Keppel Cove. These provided water to generate hydroelectric power for the lead mine. The dam in Keppel Cove is still in place, but water now leaks through its base. The remains of the dam in Brown Cove can be seen, but again water leaks freely through it. It is unclear whether there ever was a natural tarn in Brown Cove. Guidebook writers before 1860 refer only to Keppel Cove Tarn to the north of Swirral Edge.

Ridges

A total of five ridges diverge from the summit ridge of Helvellyn at different points. The northwest ridge continues from Lower Man over Browncove Crags, becoming almost insignificant when it reaches the shore of Thirlmere, yet still separating the valley of Helvellyn Gill from the reservoir, before finally rising again to the wooded height of Great How at its terminus. The north ridge, the main ridge of the range, descends from Lower Man, passing over White Side and Raise to Sticks Pass, then over Stybarrow Dodd and Great Dodd to terminate at Clough Head.
The northeast ridge is Swirral Edge, a sharp arête which joins the summit ridge at a point half-way along, and which terminates in the shapely pyramid of Catstye Cam. The east ridge is another sharp arête known as Striding Edge. This joins the summit ridge at its southern end, not far from Helvellyn's summit. It passes over the subsidiary top of High Spying How and leads to Birkhouse Moor before descending to its final top, Keldas, beside the south end of Ullswater. The south ridge continues the main ridge of the Helvellyn range over Nethermost Pike, High Crag and Dollywagon Pike to terminate at Grisedale Tarn.
The former county boundary between Cumberland and Westmorland lay along the Helvellyn Ridge.

Subsidiary tops

Name	Grid reference	Height	Prominence	Classification	Classification
Helvellyn				Furth, Marilyn, Hewitt, Nuttall, Historic County Top	Wainwright, Birkett
Lower Man				Nuttall	Birkett
Browncove Crags
Great How				HuMP	Birkett
Catstye Cam				Hewitt, Nuttall	Wainwright, Birkett
High Spying How				Nuttall
Birkhouse Moor				Nuttall	Wainwright, Birkett
Keldas

Routes

The whole of Helvellyn, above the conifer plantations to the west and the intake walls surrounding the valleys of Glenridding and Grisedale to the east, is Open Access land. In January 2018 Helvellyn was named 'Britain's Best Walk' in an ITV show presented by Julia Bradbury.
Routes up Helvellyn can begin from the villages of Glenridding or Patterdale to the east, Grasmere to the south, or from a number of places along the A591 road to the west, and can follow any of the mountain's five ridges, or the ridges of its neighbours, as well as some of the gills and shoulders on the west side of the range. Walkers can choose between many routes.

The eastern ridges

Striding Edge is a popular route which involves some scrambling, linking the summit ridge of Birkhouse Moor to Helvellyn's summit by what becomes a sharp arête. It begins at Hole-in-the-Wall and then stretches for over to the Helvellyn summit plateau. This starting point is accessible from both Glenridding and Patterdale. Hole-in-the-Wall used to be a prominent gap in the stone wall on the top of the ridge where a gate was missing. Today the gap has been filled in and a ladder stile crosses the wall. From here the initial part of the ridge is relatively rounded and has a solid path running along the right-hand side. This changes upon reaching High Spying How, the highest point on the ridge —. At this point a narrow path continues close to the top of the ridge, which becomes increasingly narrow, and scramblers often follow the very top of the arête. The path on the right-hand side continues until near the end of the ridge where it switches over to the left-hand side. Scramblers who continue on the top of the ridge are forced to descend an awkward short gully down from the final rock tower to rejoin the path. At this point the ridge connects with the main Helvellyn massif. Reaching the summit plateau involves a steep walk or scramble up about of rough rocky terrain, known as The Abyss by W. A. Poucher, author of a popular series of mountain guide books between 1940 and the late 1960s. From the top of this climb the summit is only away.
Striding Edge is a notorious accident spot among hikers and scramblers. In winter conditions the climb from Striding Edge up to the summit plateau can involve crossing steep icy ground and a snow cornice, and can be the most dangerous part of the walk. Without an ice axe or crampons this presents a serious obstacle. In January 2008 two walkers died after falling from the ridge in separate incidents. Another walker died after falling from Striding Edge in May 2008. Over the August Bank Holiday weekend in 2017, Patterdale Mountain Rescue attended a fatal fall from Striding Edge on the Saturday and helped rescue a seriously injured walker and his dog on the Sunday.
Swirral Edge offers a shorter scramble along a similar sharp arête. The main path to it comes up from Red Tarn, which is linked by a surprisingly level path to Hole-in-the-Wall, making this ridge equally accessible from Patterdale as from Glenridding. The ridge walk can be extended to include the summit of Catstye Cam.
Nethermost Pike has an east ridge which gives an alternative route to Helvellyn from Grisedale, overlooked by many walkers. It can be combined with a scramble on Eagle Crag, or this part can be bypassed by taking the path to Nethermost Cove before joining the ridge.