A winter walk in the snow from Kettlewell to Great Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales
January 2025
The day started with me squealing excitedly, seeing a barn owl fly off from a drystone wall across the snowy fields.
We walked up from the pretty village of Kettlewell and up past Hagg Dyke, to the summit of Great Whernside. Ice crystals sparked in the sun. Drifts whipped up like walnut whips almost hid the drystone walls and meant clambering over blocked gates.
In snow, my view of the landscape changes. The dry stone walls and barns appear darker and bring a more graphic quality to the shapes within them. The warm golden hues of grasses and vegetation punctuated the drifts of snow.
The waves of snow softened the otherwise rugged millstone grit boulders at the summit. Walking across the summit ridge seemed like another world. With just a whisper of wind, it was so peaceful. Ice crystals formed horizontal shards on the wire fence. Sunlight highlighted Pen-y-Ghent, Whernside and Pendle Hill in the distance.
We dropped down to the top of Park Rash, crossed the road and looped down from Cam Head back into the village. The latter was meant to be the easier bit. Instead, we were sinking into mid-thigh snow every few steps. Not easy!
As the light faded fast and the sky was an ombre of tones from peach to blue, we walked back down to Kettlewell, spotting three hares along the way and hearing several owls.
Eight miles took over seven and a half hours! Taking photos while walking with poles and gloves isn’t easy, but neither is snow that varies in depth so much. I felt like I’d done a day on some kind of cross-fit trainer, but it was one of those days that will stay with me forever. It had that on-top-of-the-world feel I experienced while travelling through the Tibetan Plateau 20 years ago. A sense of isolation from the trappings of modern life and how nature is a far more powerful force than we are.
Inspired by this walk, I’m sketching ideas for a series of linocut prints. Snow is quite a challenge in linocut, particularly with the reduced colour palette I love. They may or may not work and see the light of day as original prints, but I will have a go!
I'd love to hear which are your favourite photos that you'd like to see translated into linocut prints.
Michelle
Subscribe to my newsletter
for news on my latest releases, workshops and creative inspiration
I only send monthly (sometimes bi-monthly) news
About the author
Michelle Hughes is a North Yorkshire landscape artist. Much of her work depicts the Yorkshire landscape and Yorkshire coast, including the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors.
Michelle loves exploring the British countryside by bike or on foot, with her camera in hand, and capturing ideas for her next linocut prints. Back in her garden studio, Michelle creates simple but stylised silhouettes based on her photographs and carves these shapes into lino. She hand prints with an etching press, using oil-based inks to create tonal blocks of colour.
Michelle’s original linocut prints are limited editions.
Comments