Deepdale, Lake District, Winter
Winter has arrived.
We’ve been watching as temperatures in Cumbria have steadily dropped from the tens to near freezing point.
By around the 3rd December snow started to fall across the high fells of the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, followed by some ground level snow on the 4th.
Lisabet and I ventured straight into the Lakes on the Saturday to see if we could get some snowy mountain action whilst the snow was still around.
A lot of it had melted in the dale bottoms, resulting in some delightful cascades and waterfalls, but we were happy to see a fair bit of snow still clinging to the higher peaks of the Lake District.
We hiked into Deepdale, a small tributary valley off Patterdale, just north of Kirkstone Pass. The nice thing about Deepdale is you’ll rarely find a lot of people there. The not-so-nice thing is that the hiking can be laborious, as there’s not much of a path through the valley and there’s a fair bit of bog to navigate.
But what awaits you at the head of Deepdale is the magnificent hulking form of Greenhow End, a beautiful fell.
All photos taken on my Fujifilm X-T2 using both my Samyang 35mm f/1.2 and Laowa 9mm f/2.8 lenses. Photos shot using a customised Pro Negative Standard film profile.
Booting up. Love that anticipation and excitement when you’re getting ready for a hike, thinking about what scenes and light awaits you.
There were plenty of Herdwicks around the valley bottoms, fattening up for the winter. Probably all now pregnant, too.
Deepdale is quite a desolate and featureless valley, save for the wonderful crags at its head. There are a few glacial erratics lying about, though, that you can play with compositionally. I found this large boulder with a clear crack running through it, which I used in this focus-stacked photo to point towards Greenhow End.
Another group of rocks and boulders housed this little pool that I framed in another composition towards Greenhow End. A single frame shot at f/22 with my ultra-wide 9mm Laowa lens.
A tighter composition of the magnificent Greenhow End, with some gorgeous late-afternoon winter sun light.
I found another large boulder with some interesting moss, lichen, and trackline markings.
Another boulder I found had this very interesting crack running right through that, from certain angles, sort of reminded me of PacMan…
Heading back out of the valley I found more interesting arrangements of boulders to utilise compositionally, also positioning Deepdale Beck as a leading line towards Angletarn Pikes.
A tighter 35mm composition of Angletarn Pikes allows me to also features some of the old barns and farm houses of Wall End.
My lovely Lisabet, capturing a composition of one of her favourite stone bridges.
Herdwicks have such characterful faces.