The Mockerkin Mob, our local walking group, is rather depleted
today partly because Storm Eowyn on Friday left several homes
in the valley without power.
Mine returned after 9 hours but others aren't yet re-connected,
so as a consequence several potential walkers sent their apologies
for this Sunday "A" walk.
Other Mob friends also passed on this outing due to the difficult
route and the equally pessimistic weather forecast,
so it was a select band of two and a trusty dog that this select
group set out for a winter walk around the Whinlatter Fells.

This was the view Peter captured when he was up here doing
a recce for this walk a few days ago.
He encouraged me with the beauty of the view from Barf . .
. what could change in three days . . . it will be lovely !
How wrong he was !
- - - o o o - - -

To be fair, the forecast for the morning was okay, cold but
with good visibility, but rain was expected after 1pm.
An early start should mean we get a dry walk, or mostly dry
at least.

We parked the car at the top 'Spout Force' car park on the
Lorton side of Whinlatter Pass.
The view here is of a slightly white Ladyside Pike after overnight
sleet and snow.

My fellow walkers today . . . Peter and Dougal.
Note the straight wall and steep climb in the background to
this photo . . . it will feature in the ones I took after we
had dropped down into the Aiken Beck Valley.
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What goes
up the other side . . . has to go down this side first
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. . . as we make a steep
descent from the car park into the valley. |

The classic view of Scawgill Bridge.
We could have parked down by the bridge, but
the total ascent for the day would have been the same
and it would have meant a steep descent at the
end of the walk.
For now, the path we need to climb of Graystones
starts from halfway between the wooden gate and the bridge.
- - - o o o - - -
That wall I highlighted in the previous photo
is the same one that's alongside us now.
This route to Graystones summit is unrelenting
but not as steep as the direct ascent of Low Fell
that I did in the snow recently.
Peter leads the way . . .
otherwise you'd have a less interesting picture
with just the path and the wall.
- - - o o o - - -
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You can tell its a steep when the walling stone
is laid at a significant angle to the ground.
The stile gives access to one of the forest
tracks leading across the face of the fell.

The slope eases and so do we.
Chance now to look around at the snow topped
north western fells of Grisedale Pike, Hopegill Head and Grasmoor.
They have been becoming more open to view as
we climbed.
The weather remains clear and dry as forecasted
. . . but they didn't estimate the wind speed very accurately
in the forecast.
Up here the wind was cold and blowing sufficiently
hard to introduce a significant wind chill.
My attempt at a northerly summit panorama from
the top of Graystones, with Lords Seat on the right (the highest
ground) being our target for today.
Click here
or on the photo above for a larger
annotated panorama.

The slightly complex gate system at Widow's
Hause has perished over the years, and the sheep barrier is
now just a simple stile.
There's no dog gate for Dougal so he had to
to vault over, which he did by hardly touching the top bar at
all.

The stone wall that once was covered in thick,
verdant moss is now a cold and bare structure since the trees
have been taken away.
The protected micro-climate has gone and the
fragile moss succumbed to the cold and winds.

Talking about cold . . . time for a morning
coffee as we approach Broom Fell.
Rather than sit by the cairn, we dropped down
from the exposed summit ridge into a hollow, where we enjoyed
a small measure of protection.

As it happens, the shelter was bigger than we
remembered and so would have protected us should we have walked
the extra 100 yards.
The cairn is suffering from the high winds as
a few of the top stones have been blown down onto the ground.
A very tall man or step ladder would be needed
to replace them.

Dougal often likes a ball to play with on his
walks. If I haven't brought one then he'd often find a stick
to play with.
However I feel this six foot fence post is a
little excessive, even for him !

As we approached Lords seat we crossed the 'snow
line'.
The path had a crust of frozen sleet which hid
the peat bogs and mud, so careful micro-navigation was needed
to avoid wet and muddy boots.

Peter stands next to the three iron stumps of
old fence posts that define the summit of Lords Seat.

There's not a lot to see today as the cloud
base has dropped as a result of the incoming poorer weather.
This was the view looking across to the Whinlatter
area, in the direction of our intended route.

Looking back at Lords Seat. (Peter's
photo)
The original plan for today was to catch those
lovely views from Barf summit . . . but we felt they may not
be realised in these poor conditions.
To divert to it would also take extra time on
what was a day with a 'rain later' forecast . . . so we opted
for a change of route.

Peter had never climbed Whinlatter Fell itself
( the mottled fell opposite with cloud covered Grisedale Pike
behind).
To include would turn the route into a more
circular shape and gain him a Wainwright Point into the bargain
.
So we headed south, onward into the Whinlatter
Forest.

The snow covered path curves round towards Ullister
Hill, but we'd turn before then.
We'd take the alternative track direct to Tarbarrel
Moss and get onto a path that eventually skirts the western
edge of the woodland.
Life would have been easier if the Forestry
people had not been clearing timber.
Not only was the forest track thick with mud,
but newly exposed trees have fallen in the recent gales and
have blocked the route in several places.
There's people on the other side so progress
was possible and after a short climb up and over the roots,
we were on our way again.
Looking north west down the Aiken Beck Valley,
towards Graystones and Broom Fell that we'd walked earlier.
The route we took here cleared the forest on
the right at a simple stile, passed behind me and curved round
to start a short climb up Whinlatter Fell.
Route finding was relatively easy as the path
was highlighted by the snow and formed a white line across the
fell side, guiding us ever forward.

Just be careful that the white line of wet snow
could hide a patch of mud, bog or ice with equal ease.
We both has double trek poles today and we commented
that they had been useful all the way round, from helping with
the climbs, leaning into the wind when it gusted,
catching your balance when the foot slid on
ice or mud and generally testing the ground as were walking
along.
Oh yes, I forgot that they even got used to
point out distant landmarks when the visibility allowed.

The view from Whinlatter summit, a new fell
top for Peter today.
To view of the Whinlatter road far below did
need a slight diversion to the edge of the steep ground.

Peter's photo of me consulting the O.S. map
on my phone.
It was a bit cold and windy to get a paper version
out of the rucksack and I was only after the name of the next
minor summit on the ridge.

The whole spur of the fell which heads north
is shown on the map as Darling How.
The small summit shelter just visible in the
photo is that of Brown How, part way along the ridge.
Time now, about five minutes to one.
Five minutes past one and the weather weather
forecast had come true, spot on time.
The snow was fortunately falling on our backs
rather than in our face but as time went on it changed to sleet
then rain.
Brown How shelter offered little protection
from the strong southerly squalls, but we were not in need of
a stop anyway.
The coffee we had earlier meant that we could
put off lunch till we reached the shelter of the car at the
end of the walk.

Historic clearance on the end of Darling How
has opened up the fell and a new path down has been established.
There was now an easy route down to the first
of the forest tracks next to the lower trees.

Still raining now as we reached the forest track.
It would have been nice to cut down through
the field this side of the wall, but there was no path available.

Instead we had to take a half mile detour to
get down to that same point just a hundred yards below us.
This put a little kink in the circle as that's
Broom Fell and Lords Seat on the skyline ahead.

Fortunately the rain had now eased as we made
our misty way past Darling How Farm and back to the car.
It had been a hard walk in the conditions, but
an enjoyable one nevertheless. Thanks Peter.