Helvellyn

brilliant walk with my partner considering the weather and the snow

Really enjoyed this trail. We found the path easy to follow and extended the loop to bag Nethermost Pike & High Crag which clocked us a few extra miles. This also gave us a good view of striding edge.

We parked at Swirls Car Park, which was good. From here the route up to Helvellyn is great - a steep climb but a nice clear path. It’s a bit easier to go off trail on the way back down, but you can find your way if you keep looking out for the trail and cairns. Also a bit boggy in places. Nearer the bottom, rather than going all the way down to the road there’s a signposted route back to the car park.

Really enjoyed this trail. We found the path easy to follow and extended the loop to bag Nethermost Pike & High Crag which clocked us a few extra miles. This also gave us a good view of striding edge.

Up super steep but you reach the summit quite quickly. Stoned path so super clear. From the top we took the path where it forked and took the right hand path. This leads you back down and then across so it’s sort of a loop. However it did feel like forever on the way back. Toes definitely pushing out of boots on this one! Worth it as views at the top were stunning. Hat and sun cream if weather is set to be good. Thanks Wainwright!

The route up was really easy to follow, steep but straightforward. Views from the top were fantastic. Coming down proved to be more of a challenge as there wasn’t really a path to follow. I’d downloaded the map so was able to follow the tracker on that, even so I went off the path a number of times. As I was making my way towards the river, the route became completely overgrown with bracken and I ended up following a different path. It was a fairly exhausting walk, not helped by the heat (it was a particularly hot day) nor the fact I kept losing the path. Worth it for the views though.

We took this circular route anticlockwise and the way down from Hellvellyn's summit was a nightmere. From the summit you're supposed to go left, but there was no path. We continued walking folowing this route, but still no sign of a footpath. We ended up coming doinh through floadded fields and very steep and rocky areas. Instead of arrivign to Swirls car park, we arrived at a farm half a mile from our final destination.

Caution on using this route - think some of the reviews below meant to leave them for the Swirls “there and back” route, as not all of this is well-trodden or even trodden at all. We followed this route 2 weeks ago and once you descend from Helvellyn you are supposed to start to walk left, but there is no path. We started to wall it anyway and constantly got swarmed by loads of bugs. After 5 mins of the bugs it we’d had enough and had to ascend back to Helvellyn and then back down to the car park - overall much more elevation than planned but we had enough juice in us to do it. We hiked during the warm period where it was around 27 degrees, perhaps this is why the land was infested with bugs but also because it was not a trodden path.

I did it with my boys 4 & 6 year old. Quite steep, it took us 3 h up and 2 down but we loved every minute of it

We went on a anti clockwise route for this hike taking the steepest ascent first. It's well paved and was easy to follow, even when we reached the snow line we could follow with ease. It was hard as we closed in on the first summit but after careful negotiation we made it up, then it was a reasonable flat walk to the trig point. After that we walked the ridges following the route show on the app. It was challenging but worth the views when the clouds broke and revealed the beauty of the surrounding peaks and valleys below. Well worth the efforts, easy paths to follow.