Images from Tent Peak

 Tent Peak from the North Col

 One of the locals from the walk in!

 Surrounded by mountains in the Annapurna Sanctuary

 Sunrise on the South Face of the 8000m Annapurna 1

 

Crossing the glacier to Base Camp

 Climbing up towards Tent Peak ABC

 First views of an insignificant looking Tent Peak

 Crossing the glacier on summit day

 The exposed and dramatic summit ridge from the North Col

 Steep climbing on fixed lines

 Tent Peak summit

 Tired legs on the descent

 

Plenty of stunning sunrises on this trip

Crossing the Renjo La

 Seabuckthorn at Pangboche

 Tibetan Snowcock

 Gokyo lakes

 Everest & Nuptse from Gokyo Ri

 Everest sunset from Gokyo Ri

 Everest & Gokyo from the Renjo La

 Sherpa village in the Thame Valley

 Namche Bazaar with Ama Dablam peeping over the shoulder

 Namche Bazaar Monastry

The gateway to Namche Bazaar

Solo on Ama Dablam

The spectacular Ama Dablam from Base Camp

Looking along the line of the SW Ridge of Ama Dablam

Expedition tents at ABC

First light after an open bivi at Camp 1

Stu Peacock (Adventure Peaks) climbing the Yellow Tower

Enjoying the view from the top of the crux Yellow Tower

Looking along the Mushroom Ridge at sunrise

A welcome sunrise on summit day

Dawn breaking on the Mushroom Ridge

Camp 2.9 perched at the top of the Mushroom Ridge

The Dablam and summit slopes from the site of the dangerous Camp 3

Climbing the headwall above the Dablam

The final steps across the strangely convoluted summit

Self portrait on the summit of Ama Dablam (6129m)

Stunning views of the SW face of Everest from the summit

Great video from Phillippe Gatta from his successful 2010 ascent

Island Peak images...

 That bridge below Namche hill...

 Ama Dablam dominating the Khumbu Valley

Atmospheric views over a Stupa

 The Sherpa capital of Namche Bazaar

 Art materials in Tengboche Monastry

 Evening twilight on Ama Dablam

Approaching Island Peak BC below the South Face of Lhotse

 Sun halos over Ama Dablam

Early morning start on a very cold Island Peak

 Tricky glacier crossing on Island Peak this season

 The final ridge on Island Peak

 Looking back down the final ridge from the summit

Summit of Island Peak :)

Sunset solo...

 Helvellyn sunset

A late afternoon solo of Left Branch (II) on Brown Cove Crags put me on the summit of Helvellyn as the sun disappeared behind the large bank of clouds moving in from the west. More snow is forecast with 15cm likely on the hills :). Left Branch still contained a narrow ribbon of ice but many routes are now hacked out after this weekends traffic so a good dump of snow on this base should set things up very nicely for the next few days.However the calm and clear conditions over the last few days have started to develop some surface hoar crystals on the snow pack, especially on north facing slopes, so there will be potential for a few slides if we do get any significant snowfall.
 

 Alpenglow over Ullswater and Catstycam

The forecast snow moving in from the west

A stunning winters day on Helvellyn

 Looking down to Grisedale Tarn from Fairfield

35km & 2000m of ascent today over a spectacular Helvellyn range. It's always interesting to see what your fell running fitness is like after an extended period in the Himalaya so not too bad today. There was some new snow over the old frozen pack which gave good running for around 60% of the time - the rest of it was postholing through a breakable crust! I had my spikes with me but only needed to use them on the very icy paths around Rydal Water in the valley bottom

The east face of Helvellyn was incredibly quiet considering it was a weekend with a perfect forecast. The few teams who were out reported reasonable conditions on most of the major gullies plus V Corner. The turf is frozen where the snow pack is shallow but remains soft in some of the larger bays. Plenty of unconsolidated snow to play with but overall things are pretty stable. Away from Helvellyn there was some action on Rampsgill Head where conditions were reported to be pretty good.

 Red Tarn from the summit of Helvellyn

Walkers on the west ridge of Catstycam