Ever since we started coming to
the Lake District, David has been very keen to walk in winter conditions.
We therefore decided to try a holiday in January, hoping that we
might catch some snow. We were not able to stay at the Grasmere
Hotel, as they close in January, so we thought we would try the
Rothay Garden Hotel just down the road instead, having seen it and
liked the look of it.
We arrived to find the fells dusted nicely with
snow, just as we had hoped. On the way, we took a detour via the
Hawkshead ferry from Windermere, and the views were spectacular
from the water.
We stopped at Hawkshead Village to look at the
lovely white-washed cottages before driving on to Grasmere. |
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The Eastern Fells from the Hawkshead Ferry |
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Outside the Hawkshead outdoor clothing store |
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Hawkshead Village |
Choosing the Rothay Garden Hotel
turned out to be an excellent decision. The room we had booked had
not only a real four-poster bed and views down on the river Rothay
(where we could watch the dippers at close quarters), but also a
large corner bath with jacuzzi - just the thing to soothe the muscles
after a day's winter walking. We were even more impressed when we
sampled the dinner that evening - the advertisement on their website
mentioned that this was an award-winning restaurant, and it was
easy to tell why - the food was simply delicious.
Having settled into the hotel room, we went for our usual walk
by the River Rothay. Opposite the hotel, in Broadgate, is an area
of shrub, and in this was the most beautiful Robin we had ever seen.
He was not tame, but he was not afraid either. We soon found out
why - as we walked back to the hotel, there was an old chap by the
bushes feeding him! |
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Our Robin in the Bush |
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Our Robin on the ground |
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Our Robin on the wall |
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Saying goodbye to our robin on the wall |
| The next day our luck was in with
the weather! The sun was out and the sky was blue, and the lower fells
were clear, but the high fells were covered in snow. We decided to
walk up Seat Sandal, as it was close to the hotel, and therefore did
not require us to use the car, and also it was a relatively short
walk which meant we had plenty of time to enjoy the views and the
snow without worrying about the time. |
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Helm crag from the a591 |
| As we walked along the road, Seat Sandal was indeed
an inviting sight! The top was covered with just enough snow to be
enjoyable, but not enough to worry about crampons and ice axes. |
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Looking towards seat sandal |
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David walking alongside the a591, with helm crag and
steel fell on the left |
| We turned off the A591 at Mill Bridge and started following
the path towards Grisedale Hause. |
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By mill bridge |
| The views were splendid, bathed in winter sun, and we
could see the High Raise ridge dusted in snow above Easedale Tarn.
As we walked along the path, we could see Seat Sandal and Fairfield
ahead, both covered in snow. |
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the Path to grisedale hause with seat sandal behind
and fairfield on the right |
After a while, we came off the
main path, and crossed to the main tongue running up to Seat Sandal's
summit, which we intended to follow all the way up along the ridge.
Looking back towards Grasmere, the mist was still
hanging in the valley above the village. |
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mist over grasmere |
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Helm crag with the high raise ridge behind |
| The Fairfield horseshoe seemed to
have a lot more snow than Seat Sandal, and casting our minds back
to the previous year's walk, we did remember that there was still
snow laying between Hart Crag and Fairfield at the end of March. |
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Looking towards the snow-covered fairfield ridge |
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grasmere still in mist with Helm Crag to the right |
As we made our way towards the
half-way point, the sheep were grazing amongst the grass that was
still exposed among the snow - what hardy creatures they are!
As we climbed, we could see the high tops all
covered in snow, with the lower fells still clear. |
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The Langdale Pikes in the distance |
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Grasmere |
| The ridge ahead now had an even covering
of snow, which was a pleasant sight, without being difficult to walk
in. The only impression in the snow, apart from those made by sheep
was that of a boot, which seemed to be much larger than a size 12,
going in the same direction as us, so we thought we might find an
abominable snowman at the summit! |
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Snow on seat sandal |
| Still following "the Boot", we had some splendid
views of the snow-covered Fairfield ridge. |
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Fairfield from seat sandal |
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snowscape towards Ullscarf from seat sandal |
As we got up higher, we saw a Mountain
Rescue helicopter flying over, in the direction of Fairfield. |
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mountain rescue helicopter hovering above |
As we got nearer to the summit,
however, the snow started to get deeper - at one point, David put
his pole into the ground in front as he was climbing, only to find
that it went in waist-high.
There were also parts of where there were sheets
of very icy ground, so we had to choose our route carefully for
the rest of the way up. |
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deeper snow nearer the summit |
| The views were still spectacular, and we were now able
to see a snow-covered Skiddaw in the distance, together with the Grasmoor
range. |
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looking towards the grasmoor range |
As we reached the cairn at the
start of the summit plateau, the cloud was coming down over Fairfield,
and we were not sure if we would make the summit while it was still
clear.
Luckily, the walk was an easy one for us, and
we would not have problems re-tracing our steps even if the cloud
did come down, so we carried on walking, still following "the
Boot". |
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David taking some video shots on seat Sandal |
| From the summit plateau, we could
see St Sunday Crag and towards Ullswater, where the cloud was patchy. |
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Dollywaggon Pike with Skiddaw in the distance |
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Looking towards St Sunday Crag |
| Like Fairfield, the Helvellyn range, with Dollywaggon
Pike our nearest peak, had a greater covering of snow, and the tops
were also in the cloud. |
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dollywaggon pike and the helvellyn range |
| In spite of the clouds all around us, we made it to
the summit in the clear, but there were no abominable snowmen, nor
any other walkers for that matter, in sight. |
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david enjoying the snow on seat sandal's summit |
| As we started making our way back
down, we were able to simply follow our foot-prints from the ascent,
being careful of course to avoid the part were we narrowly avoided
being in snow to our waists. |
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Snow on seat sandal |
| All we had to do was follow the ridge
down towards Grasmere... |
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the side of nab scar with alcock tarn on the horizon |
| David decided to use his rucksack
as a toboggan in order to beat me back down to the valley. Or so he
said. It looked to me as though he slipped on some ice! |
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david taking the icy descent too literally |
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A sheepish resident on seat sandal looking at david's
tobogganing exploits. |
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Zooming in on the Langdale Pikes |
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descending to grasmere |
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david enjoying the last bits of snow |
| The gentle slope downhill made the descent an easy one,
and we soon found ourselves back above Little Tongue Gill and the
path towards Grisedale Hause. |
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little tongue gill and our path below |
| Whilst Seat Sandal had managed to stay clear while we
were up there, Fairfield was becoming increasingly covered in cloud. |
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the fairfield horseshoe with its summit now in cloud |
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The Langdale Pikes from our descent |
And as we made our descent, the
Mountain Rescue helicopter returned, circling between Dollywaggon
Pike and Fairfield.
We did not see it land, or attempt to land, so
we do not know if it was looking for anybody, or just on an exercise. |
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the mountain rescue helicopter is back |
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Mountain Rescue Helicopter making its way to Fairfield |
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a sheep on seat sandal |
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another sheep on seat sandal |
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and another one... |
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Stone Arthur |
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Great Rigg |
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Afternoon Sun over Helm Crag |
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Yet another sheep... |
| Back at Little Tongue Gill, we rejoined
the main footpath towards Grasmere. |
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david by little tongue gill |
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The route ahead |
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Little Tongue Gill |
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the bridge over Little tongue gill |
| The path at this low level was frozen,
and with the water from the gill leaving water on the path, it was
actually more difficult to stay upright down here than at the summit
of Seat Sandal. |
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little tongue gill |
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looking back towards grisedale hause |
| By the time we reached the road, the
moon was out!!! |
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Moon rising over Stone Arthur |
