The Twin Peaks of Gowbarrow

After much hesitation, a bit of vacillation and some shilly-shallying I eventually decided that it was time to bag the first bag on my list of Things To Bag for 2013. And in new boots, too…. wot I got from Cotswolds with my 20% Countryside Volunteer discount – I got a fleecy sleeping bag liner too.    And I wore spikes due to slipperiness and gaiters for to keep the snow out of me socks.

The Bag to be bagged was the recently (fairly recently anyway) discovered slightly higher bit of Gowbarrow and new HuMP into the bargain. I’d already been up the Wainwright Gowbarrow and the Birkett Gowbarrow and I desperately needed the set, and so, full of porridge and , more dangerously, a few prunes, I clipped Bruno into his ejector seat in the knipemobile and launched off up the A66 to Ullswater to the bottom of today’s hilly victim.

It was a grey morning, but as we climbed the snowy slopes (just a mere frosting compared with Pieland’s blanket), I was sure that the sky was brightening up. As we visited all the little tors and lumps, just to be sure, the sky did brighten and, by the time we’d got to the top (not that top, the other top), the sunshine was quite pouring out of a blue heaven – to such an extent that I was beginning to wish that I’d gone for a walk up some of the bigger hills all around. But this was not The Way Of The Bagger. Determination and a singular dedication to the less romantic or dramatic is the Bagger’s creed. Bugger.

Never mind. We had a nice walk anyway and the views were quite nice. Bruno ate lots of snow and I had a PEK and tomato butty with English mustard (Epistaxis Strength) and a Lion bar.

We did six miles.

We went to Ulcat Row and back along a nice path which visited an ancient Ash tree which appears to have gone through several reincarnations and, hopefully, will survive ash die-back and continue getting yet even bigger.

I’m not doing a map. Can’t be arsed. Its not the alps, it’s an Alf (what’s that woman doing in here?) Wainwright lesser fell with a bit of snow on it.