Lake District Hill walker captures ghostly Brocken Spectre on Red Pike fell [Video]

A hiker has captured a spooky moment of a rare weather phenomenon called a  ‘Brocken Spectre’ while walking on a fell. 

Chris Randall was on Red Pike near Wasdale in the Lake District, Cumbria, on Sunday. 

The climbing enthusiast said the moment was ‘creepy’ as the illusion looked like a figure with a rainbow halo was moving towards him. 

The spooky figure is created by a large shadow of a person which is cast onto cloud or mist, giving the illusion that another person is approaching them

Chris Randall was walking on a fell on Red Pike near Wasdale in the Lake District, Cumbria, on Sunday when he saw the creepy phenomenon in front of him

Mr Randall is a Peak District ultra-marathon and fell runner. When he saw the phenomenon on Sunday he was completing nine hikes using maps drawn by famous guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright MBE

Named after the German mountain where it was first noted, a Brocken Spectre is a large shadow of an observer cast onto cloud or mist.  

According to the Met Office, the phenomenon appears when a person stands above the upper surface of a cloud – on a mountain or high ground – with the sun behind them. 

‘When they view their shadow the light is reflected back in such a way that a spooky circular ”glory” appears around the point directly opposite the sun.

‘This makes the rather disorienting effect of a giant shadow moving in the distance,’ the Met Office said.

Mr Randall, who is a Peak District ultra-marathon and fell runner, was completing nine hikes plotted by famous guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright MBE. 

He tweeted that although it is just his own shadow cast onto the cloud, it was a creepy sight. 

In 2019 another hiker captured the weather spectacle in the Lake District, describing it as ‘magical’ and ‘absolutely incredible’.

Adrian Conchie, 39, was on an 11-mile hike at Swirl How near Coniston when the Brocken spectre appeared to him.

Adrian Conchie captured the Brocken Spectre back in 2019. The rare weather phenomenon appears to show a ghostly-looking figure with a rainbow halo behind them

He said: ‘I had always wanted to see one after seeing pictures online and hearing about how amazing they are from friends.

‘When we got to the summit I looked down and there it was – it was so vivid.

‘I thought it would disappear there and then but it stayed for a few minutes, it was a really magical experience.’

Mr Conchie and his friend Bryony stumbled upon another Brocken spectre later that day, up a nearby mountain called Wetherlam.

Brocken spectre: The optical illusion first observed in 1780 that ‘curses mountain climbers to die the next day’

 

The Brocken spectre phenomenon is an optical illusion created when low sun shines behind someone looking down into fog from a ridge.

The atmospheric conditions throw the person’s shadow forward, creating this spectral apparition.

It can appear on any misty mountainside or cloud bank, or even on some occasions, from an aeroplane.

The extraordinary sight involves the light behind a climber casting their shadow – often in an odd triangular shape.

The shadow can also fall on water droplets of varying distances from the observer’s eye, causing confused depth perception.

Amazingly, the ghostly figure can sometimes appear to move rapidly when the cloud layer moves or there are variations in its density.

The head of the figure is often surrounded by rings of coloured light caused by light diffraction.

The Brocken spectre got its name because of early sightings on the Brocken, the highest peak of Germany’s Harz Mountains.

German scientist Johann Silberschlag first observed the phenomenon in 1780 but since then they have been seen and recorded many times in the region.

Among mountain climbers, there is a superstition that whoever sees a Brocken spectre will die in the mountains the very next day.