| Name of walk | Deepdale and St. Sunday Crag In Snow |
| Date of walk | 2012-12-05 |
| Distance walked (miles) | 9 |
| Duration of walk | 6 hours 20 minutes |
| Weather | Blue skies and sunshine |
| Peaks on walk | St Sunday Crag, Birks and Arnison Crag |
| Walked with | Ged and blind Kas |
| Parking | Patterdale car park |
Yesterday Ged, Kas and I drove to the parking spaces by the telephone box at Bridgend to walk the length of Deepdale on to St. Sunday Crag (2756ft), then on to Birks (2040ft) and Arnison Crag (1424ft). A walk of about nine miles.
I did not take many photos here as there was too much light contrast, but the photo below gives an idea of the terrain. Thankfully the ground was frozen and not wet. We were heading for the lowest point on the right skyline
Deepdale Falls
Ice sculpture
Ged and the view back down the valley
Sleet Cove. The Hause is on the right just out of the picture. Cofa Pike ahead in the sunshine
The view back down Deepdale from the climb up to The Hause
It was powder snow, so it was easy going. The snow had concealed any trace of the path so we just zig zagged up
View to St. Sunday Crag ridge from the ascent
Towards the top we located the path. Ged had just taken a photo of me, so I took one of him!
Ged's photo of me
Deepdale Hause with St. Sunday Crag ridge behind me
View down to Grisedale Tarn
Dollywaggon Pike, Nethermost Pike and Helvellyn
Close up of the western fells
Looking back to Deepdale Hause. Cofa Pike and Fairfield on the left. We had climbed up the slope on the left!
Virgin snow
Close up of Striding Edge. Three people on the ridge and one on the top near the cairn. It was very windy, I would not have wanted to be on the edge! Forecasts were for 45mph winds rising to gale force in the afternoon. Sean McMahon was on Helvellyn this morning, he was up for the sunrise. Maybe that is him by the cairn? Do go and see his photos: http://www.stridingedge.net/Walks/2012/05.12.12.htm - Wonderful pix!!!!
Two photo panorama
Spindrift looking over Deepdale to Hartsop Above How
The snow was lovely. Not like the stuff from the last walk, this was easy to walk through! The summit is still some way off!
Full view of the Striding Edge route on to Helvellyn. Catstycam on the right
The summit is now in sight!
Ta da! It was incredibly windy. Note the 180 degree angle of the straps on my ice axe and walking pole! Poor Ged has had to endure a 40 degree drop in temperature. Last week he was in Cuba in 30C! Today the temperature on the summit was -5.2C with a wind chill of -13.8. (Temperatures from the fell assesor on Helvellyn, at 12.30pm......so it was probably colder by now!)
Looking down to Gavel Fell
We now head down to Birks on the right
Most people would take the track on the left that leads back to Patterdale. We still had two more fells to climb, so we took the path ahead
We walked over Birks then headed down the side to get out of the wind. Our next fell, Arnison Fell is ahead. We need to head steeply down the fellside, and then back up again on to Arnison Fell gaining the track above the wall
On the track to Arnison summit
Summit view
Panorama from Arnison summit. The route up to Striding Edge by the wall on the left. Beyond that is Glenriding Dodd and Sheffield Pike, with the Dodds behind left. Right of Ullswater is Place Fell
We just follow the wall back to Patterdale
There is a lack of paths on the main road back to the car, so we cross the river and walk back through Rooking, Crookabeck and Beckstones, a nice little walk (40 mins) by itself with some lovely cottages. Light levels are low so I took no pix of this section of the walk. It was almost dark by the time we got back to the car. An excellent walk. We met no one at all on the fells today. The only footprints were ours! Practically unheard of on such a popular fell and on such a blue sky day! We did speak to a farmworker at Crookabeck who asked me if I had a license for my hat! I told him it was also visible from space!
Due to the cold and wind we didn`t stop for any break today, so we had a quick bite to eat and drink in the car before setting off home. The walk took six hours and fifteen minutes.
Jo.
