Mardale New Years Day

It was a day of two halves really The first half misty and the second rather windy as we sat in the car at the head of Mardale waiting to see if the drizzle would stop, we drank a cup of coffee and reminisced about how the last time we had tried to get down here we had been thwarted by icy and snowy roads. We set of up Kirsty Howes and Kirsty Pike, it was a lovely pointy ridge we could think that we had been up this way before. Although I think that I had in the dim and distant past. We stopped for a cup of coffee and bit of something in our orange shelter. Before heading to high Street and Mardale Ill Bell. We then headed down to the stone shelter and had the rest of our lunch. I wasn’t sure if my ankle was up to much more but after a rest I thought it would cope. so we headed up to Hater Fell it became very wind for a while but the hill fog had gone and there were some lovely views down Kentmere, we looked at the mountain ponies and Kentmere cottage – happy days with Lancashire youth and community service residentials. It made me think of Mary and the day we took a group of girls up Angle Tarn. We then headed down to the track leading down from Gategarth Pass. There was lots of patchy snow and ice about but not enough in the gullies for Ice scrambling. Blea Tarn and Small Tarn were completely frozen over. A good start to the year.

Car park at head of Mardale

On the way up Kirsty Pike

On the Summit of High Street

Roger heading to the summit of Harter Fell

Harter Fell with High Street in the background.