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Monday 2 February 2015

Blue Skies and Snow on Cross Fell

yippeee

Nobody could claim that we weren’t Fully Equipped for this chilly foray up Cross Fell.

We had the spikes and the axes and the snowshoes and lots of layers of toasty clothing. I didn’t have a dog, though, based on the weather forecast which had winds with 40mph gusts and a wind-chill of Minus 17C. I thought this would be too cold for the pup, so I left him at home with a dentastick and Mrs Pieman.  In the end, the met office reported lighter winds on Cross Fell (we knew that!) and a wind chill of only minus 16C. So… a bit warmer….  

This walk, in fact was a reccy for a Wednesday Walkers Walk next Saturday  (yes, I know…)

setting off...

We set off from Kirkland in bright sunshine along paths of frozen grass and sheepmuck and into the hills, where it soon became apparent that this was going to be Hard Work. We were following a couple of young whipper-snappers who quickly disappeared into the distance, snapping their whippers as they went. Some people are far too fit for their own good…

The snow was deeply drifted over the bridleway and was soft and a bit squeaky. So, we put the snowshoes on. This helped only a bit. We battered our way uphill, spirits lifted by the increasingly extensive and beautiful views all around and, especially of the lake District, not too far away across the Eden Valley.

climbing the bridleway

So, we too the snowshoes off again and fought on, lunching at the little shelter cairn on the edge. It was full to the top with drifted snow – not an ideal spot to bivi today…

stratified snowdrift

pieman

Onwards and upwards, me now wearing spikes we decided to shortcut the elbow in the route and took a direct line towards Cross fell Well – a patch of ice indicating the wet patch. And we’d put the snowshoes back on by this time. Sometimes they helped and sometimes they didn’t. But occasionally, there was hard old neve just under the snow and this stuff was nice and crunchy and, above-all, very hard and easy to walk on.

matt on the summit shelter

pieman again

me at the top

Eventually, we hit the summit plateau and wandered over to the newly rebuilt cross-shelter at the top. We rested only briefly here – it was no place to hang around, given the cutting wind and the fact that time was pressing, so we left, smartish for the tall cairn on the edge, and, taking another shortcut to take out yet another big corner, we descended deep snow back down again.

dun fells from tees head

A track took us back to the start, passing the Hanging Gardens of Mark Anthony on the way – a bit of an overstated label for a couple of mediaeval lynchets

The tall cairn appears to have a big white nose and a mischievous grin and we had a brief chat about Conservative Party Education policy and the security situation in Uranda Burundi, of which neither of us knew much at all.

me being interviewed by a cairn

The depth and consistency of the snow meant that this walk took almost twice as long as it would normally have done  and was really quite hard going – which means, of course, that I may need to abandon the idea when it comes to next Saturday’s walk . In which case, I have an easier alternative which still goes fairly high but which has less climbing.

In any event, if the day is anything like yesterday, whatever walk we do will be amongst remarkable beauty. So, I’m hoping the snow stays around, but stiffens up quite a lot, and if this happens, it could be breathtaking. It just needs some freeze/thaw.

Thanks to Matt for some of the pics.

into the sunset

.. and rest..

cross fell

7 comments:

Martin Rye said...

That does look a fab day out you had Mike despite the cold. Cross Fell has a sense of wild for me and I have always enjoyed my walks on it.

Louise said...

You seem to have found that grumpy old git again...

Dawn said...

Wow, awesome stuff, looks utterly fantasmagorical! Now all that is needed are a few polar bears lurking in the background???

Anonymous said...

Nice blog - cheers!

Al said...

Always a good trip that Mike, I've done it a few times on ski's..it rather looks like I need to get misel up there pronto and get some of those drifts skied.
They've certainly made a good job of the summit cairn since I was up there last winter (I think...)
Cheers
Alistair

Chrissie said...

Of course when the walk takes twice as long as usual, you can at least satisfy yourself that you've used twice as many calories and so can eat twice as much food after....
We did a snowshoe walk the other day. I struggled with them a bit, but when I got home I discovered I'd had them on the wrong feet....

One Girl and her Dog said...

Hi I'm new to blogging and enjoying reading yours. Look forward to the next installment.

Toodles - Paula :)

http://1girl1dog.blogspot.co.uk/