A Short and Snowy Howgills Walk

I met the nephew in Sedbergh (eventually… due to somebody digging up the A65) and we parked badly out of the way of the stupidly expensive pay and display car parks and set off up the path along the flanks of Winder and into the snow.  Bruno was off the lead as the sheep had all, wisely buggerred off somewhere less arctic and so he proceeded to go a bit mad, running around in huge circles at high speed just like a 12 year old dog doesn’t.

I’d encountered a bit of a blizzard and some lovely hillfog on the drive over the A66 a bit earlier, so I was somewhat aware of what the conditions on the high tops might be like. As it was, they were shrouded in mist but as we blundered ever upwards into the more frozen variety of snow, it became obvious that the climate would be less than idea for a long walk with a late start and what with having nothing spiky to wear on the feet. So we just got to the top of Arant Haw, at just under the hillfog and just underer the 2000 foot mark, selected a nice descending ridge and followed it down to a sunny and relatively tropical sheepfold where pies and pickles were scoffed.

The sheepfold, it turns out, is a rather nice place for an overnight camp – with a choice of two becks of clean water for the brewing, some walls for shelter and some ever-so-slightly tilted short, green and comfy turf for the pitching of the tent.

We returned by following the intake wall back to Sedbergh, a route I’ve followed many many times before.

For those specially interested in walks in the Howgills – here’s a plug for something wot I ritt a while back and which was published by Phil Lambert in his Doodlecat website: howgills diary in doodlecat    Apart from this fine bit of rittings, Doodlecat’s trip reports is a cracking resource for anybody intent of having a crack at the TGO challenge

Here’s a map of the Howgills walk.