South from Stickle Tarn

Probably best viewed large

The view south from the top of Stickle Ghyll, Langdale, Lake District. The knoll of Side Pike projects above the cloud in the centre of the photograph.

The morning began unpromisingly, it was drizzling as I left the house at 0830. I met up with Brokenbanjo in Kendal, and we changed the original plan and headed into Langdale. By now there were flecks of blue sky above, and low cloud was hovering in the valleys. As we climbed to the top of Stickle Ghyll, the cloud was filling the whole of the Langdale Valley below.

Beyond Stickle Tarn, where the massive face of Pavey Ark was reflecting in the icey surface, we went into cloud and on to Harrison Stickle. The cloud thickened further as we tried to trace our way to Pike of Stickle. Here were many walkers wandering around lost in the cloud. We watched two men circling round and round unable to decide which way to go. Eventually after consulting both compasses, we found the Pike and scrambled up, being rewarded with blue sky above as we reached the top. Then we began the slippy slidey descent above Dungeon Ghyll back to the car.

I'm not sure if this is the best photo, and my intention was to post more on Flickr. But the computer has defeated me tonight, everything is taking too long. I may add some links later.

Anyway, it was a great day out in the snow, and we weren't rained on once.

A year ago: a much flatter scene, Infinite Space, a study in brown.