Ullswater dawn as I headed to Glenridding.

Lanty's Tarn and Birks.

Grisedale and St. Sunday Crag.

Belted Galloways.

 Dollywaggon Pike and Nethermost Pike from Grisedale. Already there was a fair amount of haze.

 Dollywaggon Pike.

Crossing Grisedale Beck.

 Heading up towards Ruthwaite.

Ruthwaite Lodge. Operate by Outward Bound Ullswater.

Cascades and Old Mine level near Ruthwaite Lodge. From here I headed up to Ruthwaite Cove.

Ruthwaite Cove with Dollywaggon Pike on the left. Fairly pathless here in the cove.

Hard Tarn under High Crag, a delightful spot. To gain the east ridge from here requires an angled ascent across a scree slope.

On the scree looking back down to Hard Tarn.

Once on the ridge there is a fine profile of Striding Edge. At this time there was only one walker on it.

This ridge of Nethermost Pike is not without its excitement,the dogs wait for me.

Looking back down onto the fine arete section. A hazy Grisedale far below.

The hounds on Nethermost Pike summit cairn. The cairn lies to the east of the main path most walkers just bypass it en route to or from Helvellyn.

Striding Edge from above Lad Crag.

A fairly quiet Helvellyn summit and the last remnants of the winter's snow.

It would have been straighfroward for me to descend off via Swirral Edge but I decided to traverse Striding Edge as it still looked fairly quiet, the advantage of the early start.

Catstycam and Red Tarn from Striding Edge.

The Chimney. This short scramble can sometimes cause a bit of a problem for those travelling in the normal direction (east to west) as it has to be descended. It can be bypassed on a path on the south side. Today the hounds ascended it without any problem.

On Striding Edge. Of course I was going "against the flow" but there were not too many people about at this time.

The crest of the edge looking back to Helvellyn.

Ridge walking.

Along the ridge from near High Spying How. The couple are on the actual crest of the ridge, most people that I saw were following the easier path down to the right which gives an alternative to the airy route.

From near High Spying How I took the cross country route to Red Tarn's outflow.

Red Tarn and Helvellyn a good spot for a bite to eat.

From the tarn I took the well made path up towards Swirral Edge. The photograph I needed was of the edge from a point just a bit further along from this.

Striding Edge and Red Tarn. Needless to say, the edge was now rather busy.

Behind the dogs is Catstycam, our next port of call.

Helvellyn from Catstycam summit. The conditions today were possibly the most hazy I have seen in a long while and now there was a cloud cover over Helvellyn, not ideal for photographs.

Descending off Catstycam back towards Red Tarn. Our route was to follow the path and then the wall over to Birkhouse Moor on the far left.

Birkhouse Moor from near the Hole In the Wall.

The Helvellyn range from Birkhouse Moor summit.

The cairn on point 2318' of Birkhouse Moor. Ullswater hardly visible though the haze.

Now we simply descended via Little Cove to Glenridding.

Crossing Glenridding Beck as we return to the start.

A good route and I achieved my aims. Fortunately the photographs I needed were not of distant views as the haze would have spolit my chances of coming back with good results.