The fine weather into the weekend forecast was wrong. It was probably meant for the south and London. The cloud increased overnight and by morning there just a tiny horizontal slit of clear sky above the Howgills. Just as I was leaving camp the sun rose at 7:46. It appeared on the horizon, rose through the narrow slit and was gone behind the clouds. As I climbed towards Yolk I was soon in cloud and that was to be it for the rest of the day.

Just before sunrise.

A misty Ill Bell.

The stone rubble construction of the path I'd seen yesterday continued along the ridge towards Ill Bell. The climbing and winding path took me to the summit where I was still in cloud so nothing could be seen except the impressive stone cairns. I descended to the north but Froswick summit was in the cloud so I took the narrow by-pass path to the left. It's an entertaining route that re-joins the main path without the climb and steep descent. The newly stoned path continued and I followed it up towards Thornthwaite Beacon.

It finished abruptly before the branch in the path so I continued on the grass. The going was easy but at the crag summit there was still no view. The descent to Threshthwaite Mouth was a bit steep and narrow in places and so was the climb up to Stony Cove Pike on the other side. I was heading for a small group of tarns that are on open fell. The visibility was still bad so I followed the wall and used a compass bearing to get me in the right area. In the end I had to use my GPS unit to find the tarn as there were no physical features to guide me. It was flat and featureless when I arrived but there was little wind and I found a nice soft spot to pitch the tent.

Late afternoon view from Stony Cove Pike.