Leaving the car and heading up towards Raise Beck.

 Behind us Helm Crag is shrouded in swirling cloud.

A rather full Raise Beck. It was raining on most of this walk as you can probaly tell from the raindrops on the camera lens.

Side streams cross the path to join the beck.

Steel Fell on the far side of the valley is covered in cloud.

 I spend quite a bit of time ensuring that I obtained the exact reference required, which I did, not helped in the fact that some of the rock on the cascade has eroded away.

 Once at the head of the gill I opted to head for Dollywaggon Pike. Instead of continuing along to the well made zig-zag path I took the more direct route up alongside the wall.

After a testing ascent, not helped by the slippy conditions underfoot,we soon reached the old fence post on the main path along the ridge. From here a short climb to the summit of Dollywaggon Pike.

Driving rain and low cloud, oh what fun on Dollywaggon summit! Next it was off towards Nethermost Pike (there were no other photo opportunities in between!)

Nethermost Pike summit. The main ridge path does not pass close to this point so it needs a slight diversion to actually "claim" the fell. There are other high points here abouts which are confusing in mist. You know this is the right one due to these large slabs adjacent to the cairn.

Onwards to Helvellyn. Approaching the summit shelter which is just in the top left corner of the photo you pass this memorial.

Bailey, today's Top Dog on Helvellyn.

Back to the shelter for something to eat. On all of this walk we only saw two other walkers and they were through the mist.

'Giz a biccie, go on!

From Helvellyn my route was to descent into Whelpside Gill. No distinct path for this bit just a bit of navigation through the mist off the western slopes.

Just dropping out of the cloud. Still raining as you can probably tell!

Whelpside gill, there was no hint of a path, it was another of those "off-road" routes.

Clearing cloud and a view of the southern end of Thirlmere, filling up nicely with this weather.

Wythburn in full flow across the valley.

Comb Crags. The zig zag path of the Birkside route crosses the fellside.

The impressive falls of Whelpside Gill, a difficult place to reach especially in these conditions but worth the effort. from here I contoured round to cross Comb Gill.

Comb Gill.

I maintained height by contouring round the slopes of Willie Wife Moor on a sheep track with views over a dull Thirlmere.

Even the small gills coming off the fell were pretty lively today.

I had planned to maintain height and then descend down the side of these falls, Birkside Gill. However due to the hard going underfoot through deep bracken and on slippy moss covered rocks I dropped down through the wood to come out here under the falls. It was now probably too dark to ascend and get the references that I needed so I headed back towards the car.

Looking back to the north near Dunmail Raise. The car headlights give a clue as to how dark it actually was.

Crossing the footbridge over Raise Beck. Not too sure when the wall was built but it looks pretty new even though it has part collapsed 3/4 of the way up.

In a few minutes we were back to the car. Hardly a day for great photos but I achieved most of what I needed and the dogs enjoyed the run out, despite the rain!