Hartsop above How

The weather was not promising at all, driving out of Staveley through Troutbeck towards the Kirkstone pass. The mist was down almost to valley level, the normal beautiful views from the road between Staveley and Troutbeck were today non existent. What a pleasant surprise as we reached the Kirkstone Inn, we left the cloud behind us and we could see down to Brothers water and beyond. The higher fells still in cloud with snow patches on their steeper slopes but our target for the day was clear. We aimed to park at the car park west of Hartsop off the main road, but this was being upgraded by the national park authorities so luckily we were lable to find a spot by the phone box at Bridgend, right at the start of the walk.

Through the gate we followed the farm track a few hundred yards then took the sign to the left heading for a style in the wall and into the woods. The path climbed steadily and soon we left the wood, gained the open fell and continued up the broad ridge. The higher summits were now just clear. The pointed Gavel pike guarding the summit of St Sunday Crag, further up Deepdale, the dome of Cofa Pike and at the head the broad summit of the Fairfield plateau. Across the valley Hartsopp Dodd looked as steep as is felt when we climbed it last year, patches of snow lay on Caudale Moore and across to High Street we could work out some routes we could follow when tackling these tops.

Route finding up Hartsopp above How was easy, straight up the ridge. We were sheltered from the wind until we gained the first knoll when a biting gusty wind hit us. However it was never too strong to annoy us, the only real difficulty was to decide where the summit was so we tramped along the whole rdige above Gill Crag until the ground the descended before rising to Hart Crag. Retracing our steps from the top we found a lovely sheltered spot for lunch before descending by the same route back to the car.

Grade Excellent

Memories

• A clear dry walk after very low mist and rain leaving Staveley


• Contemplating future plans

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