The Buttermere Fells

A panorama of the peaks surrounding Buttermere from Fleetwith Pike

Of the many enjoyable viewpoints on the Buttermere fells, my particular favourite has always been the one looking north-west from the summit of Fleetwith Pike. From this lofty perch, one is blessed with a grandstand view of the entire Buttermere valley; a complex yet perfect composition of intricate ridgelines, corries and buttresses rising up out of a valley filled with a ribbon of blue lakes leading the eye towards the distant horizon. But whilst this viewpoint was unquestionably the one which I particularly wanted to use, I was also very aware that achieving the precise image that I wanted was going to be extremely problematical.

The opportunity for my shadow-free image from Fleetwith Pike in early morning light was during a fairly narrow window around the time of the Spring equinox. And so, from the month of February I started to make frequent early morning visits to the summit of Fleetwith Pike; each involved setting off from Honister in the pre-dawn. Five years after starting what was turning out to be one of my most difficult projects, one morning I arrived on the summit along with the first rays of the sun to be greeted with totally clear skies and the most perfect view down Buttermere ...