Haweswater, Measand End, High Raise, Kidsty Pike. Tue 22 Feb 2005

Another solo walk as Eric is giving it a miss again. Some overnight snow made the minor lanes a bit difficult to drive along. I was heading for the car park at the southern end of Haweswater and as I drove along the one dead-end road I realised I was the first through of the day as no other tracks were to be seen in the snow. I just hoped it didn't snow any more and that I'd be able to get out. It was about 8:15am when I set off along the path following the west side of Haweswater. There was high cloud but most of the high tops were clear. The main difficulty was spotting the areas of sheet ice and the fresh snow had done a good job of camouflaging them. The first I knew of their existence was suddenly finding myself horizontal in the snow! I reached the footbridge at Measand beck and had a re-think about my route. My intention was to follow Measand Beck up to High Street but I didn't fancy the sheets of slab ice so decided on the more pedestrian track up Measand End.

Haweswater from Measand End.

This was another track that had obviously been used for ages and was well engineered up the hillside until it reached a lesser gradient, and then vanished. Long Grain was easy to follow as the ground was frozen hard and a quad bike trail ahead followed an obvious route to the top of Low Raise. The wind picked up and light snow started and soon I was in cloud. Although everything was covered in ice the temperature was only -1 deg C. Passing over High Raise I descended to the saddle and clearer weather. Kidsty Pike was ahead and a few minutes below the summit I found a dip in the fell-side where I found shelter to eat my sandwiches

Kidsty Pike and Riggindale.

Near Bowderthwaite Bridge

From Kidsty Howes the descent steepens and was difficult due to the ice sheets covered in snow. I reached 'The Rigg' and saw my first walkers of the day. Back at the car-park only one other car was there. Fortunately most of the snow had gone from the roads.