| Name of walk | Fairfield Horseshoe in a White-out |
| Date of walk | 2010-02-08 |
| Distance walked (miles) | 12 |
| Duration of walk | 7 hours 0 minutes |
| Weather | overcast, then a white-out |
| Peaks on walk | Nab Scar, Heron Pike, Great Rigg, Fairfield, Hart Crag, Dove Crag, High Pike and Low Pike. |
| Walked with | Ged and blind Kas |
| Parking | Roadside below Rydal Mount. |
The forecast today was for excellent visibility, no hill fog and sunshine.......yeah, right! This was true at about 8am this morning but the nearer we got to Rydal the duller the weather became. Looking down on Rydal Water from Nab Scar with Loughrigg Fell behind. We gain height quite quickly going in this direction. Loughrigg Cave can also be seen on the right.
Rydal and Grasmere.
Close up of Windermere.
Sunshine attempting to penetrate the clouds.
From Heron Pike it was obvious that today there would be no views from Great Rigg round to Dove Crag. But a good view down to the valley from here.
The Coniston Fells are out of the cloud at the moment.
These people headed off back to Grasmere via Stone Arthur.
We ploughed on. The wind was bitter and made me wish I had a balaclava.
We met up with a Scotsman called Robin who lived in Carlisle. He walked with us through all the mist.
Fairfield. Total whiteout and a minor blizzard! We needed to follow the cairns round, we didn`t bother with the summit shelter and headed off in the direction of Hart Crag.
See what I mean? Can`t tell the ground from the air!
Still following the cairns.
Hart Crag summit cairn.
Robin checks his GPS.
Kas looking a bit snowey! It was very cold I had to change my gloves for my waterproof ones as all the snow in the air had caked the surface of my gloves and made them damp and my hands were getting cold.
Heading down from Hart Crag the mist started to clear a bit. We were now at the wall so navigation would no longer be a problem anyway.
Looking Back from the route to Dove Crag down on Brothers Water with Brock Crags and Angletarn Pikes behind and Hartsop Above How in the foreground
Dove Crag summit cairn.
Looking over towards Froswick, Ill Bell and Yoke.
Robin heads off along the wall while we stop and take some pix.
Sunshine starting to penetrate the clouds..
Heading for High Pike with Windermere beyond.
Great Gable.
Still heading for High Pike.
Typical! Fairfield is now out of the clouds......Grrrrrr!
Scandale Head.
Looking down Scandale. We head for Low Pike.
After Low Pike we head off left down the track to High Sweden Bridge.
High Sweden Bridge with the lower ridge of Low Pike behind
Nearly at Ambleside we pass an unusual folly.
From Ambleside we head off up the road until we meet the path through Rydal Park. It also takes us through the Rydal Mount Estate. We were 5 minutes too late for the cafe and a hot cup of coffee! Looking over at Nab Scar our first Fell of the day and the start of the Horseshoe.
