Deepdale Horseshoe - Photo Gallery

It was dry but cold again, and there was even less traffic on the way up but some of the car parks were busy. I parked at Bridgend near Patterdale and walked a short distance up the road towards Cow Bridge to a gate with a signpost to Fairfield via Hoghill Brow. The path was a bit obscure at times through the trees but once I got to the start of the ridge the navigation was fairly easy. The view of Gavel Pike on St Sunday Crag in the morning sunshine was unusually well-lit and almost inspirational. It was a steady climb, especially with the usually soft ground being frozen solid, apart from a bit of a scramble up an easy escarpment. The upper part of the ridge was a bit more undulating and I kept expecting to reach a summit, but there always seemed to be a further rise; the skyline was stunning, Fairfield above its impressive crags. After the summit of Hartsop Above How it was a steady climb until the final steep climb up to the summit plateau of Hart Crag and short but careful walk over the frosty boulders to its summit.

I returned back to the path and turned left to descend to a col before the rough climb up to Fairfield's extensive summit plateau. Good old Fairfield, the mist came in as I started the easy incline up to the summit; as I walked along the edge of the mist-filled corrie the sun behind me produced a Brocken Spectre. The mist and frost could have made an interesting descent of the ridge down to Cofa Pike, but I chose the slightly easier path off the crest; the climb to the mini knife-edge was easy enough but the descent to Deepdale Hause was a bit more intriguing. The steady climb of St Sunday Crag was straightforward enough but Fairfield looked very intimidating and would have been daunting if I had been walking in the opposite direction.

The summit of St Sunday Crag was equally daunting, it was misty and cold; it would have been easy to follow the main path, but I had decided in the sunshine to walk to Gavel Pike. I took a compass bearing and walked across easy ground and found a path, a more rugged climb took me to the summit. I carried on past the cairn and to my surprise found an obvious path that took me, more steeply than I expected, down frosty boulders until I reached the normally wet fellside. The wetness had frozen, it is the most awkward and potentially dangerous ground; fortunately there were enough grassy islands for me to get safely down the icy slope.

Once I got past the ice and frost, it was a relatively easy walk down to the Deepdale valley path, and back to the bridge where I had left the car.

© Andy Wallace 28th December 2008