Backpacking in the Howgill Fells...

This is the view from just out of Ravenstonedale which is a village on the edge of the Howgills. Claire and I had parked in the village and shouldered our packs with the intention of doing a good circuit. We walked along the dead end road for a couple of miles - in lovely weather - before we started into the mountains.

Our first objective was Kensgriff, which has a lovely ridge and fell ponies grazing on it (as can be seen from the picture below). The pull up onto the ridge was heavy going with full packs and in the heat. Once the ridge was crested the majority of the

Howgills became visible; as can be seen on the picasa site ; links in earlier blogs. From the summit; we had a banana and country slice to fortify ourselves; along with some water before commencing the slog up Yarlside.

Yarlside is a mountain that is arguably the most prominent of all the Howgill Fells, despite not being the highest. This is probably because it's not on the main spine of the hills but a little away apart from the Calf/Calders plateau (which is where we were headed).

Summiting Yarlside we descended towards Bowderdale Head where we got a lovely view of Cautley Spout. The path which goes across the top of it before ascending the top of Cautley Crag to Great Dummacks appealed to us both and after lunch this is what we decided to do.

The ascent, in the heat of the day, was hard going; however the views (as usual) were superb. Once past Cautley Spout the volume of people dropped down to zero (as it'd been for most of the rest of the day - we saw one guy on Yarlside and that was it!)

The traffic increased as we climbed to Calders before traversing to the summit of the Calf (the highest point of the Howgill range). At this point we elected to shorten our original objective and traverse near the summit of White Fell Head before climbing Busk Howe and thence (over the Cobbles) to Langdale where we intended to spend the night.

This is the view from the top of the Cobbles, a small bump with many undualtions (hence its name I guess) and no summit...from which a steep descent (something the Howgills have a lot of are VERY steep climbs and descents) took us into Langdale.












 Our campsite can be seen suffice to say that it's one of the best pitches I have ever been on...lovely; grassy; flat; with water nearby and superb views....
Supper of pasta and pesto followed with cups of tea and a minature of whisky....really suffering as one can tell.


A great nights sleep followed although we had a little rain overnight and awoke this morning to a few more clouds.




Both of us were feeling a little tired after yesterdays walk and I had blisters on both of my heels - a legacy from the Cross Fell walk a couple of weeks ago. Ergo, we elected to walk along the valley for about 1km, which also gave my heel the chance to loosen up, before ascending the side of Hazelgill Knot. Emerging onto the ridge which runs parallel to Bowderdale we ploughed on over West Fell before descending to Bowderdale - and seeing a party of people ascend who where the first people we had seen since about 3pm the previous day.

The day was a bit gloomier -as can be seen by this view of (the ubiqitous) Yarlside looking up Bowderdale. Our day also got a bit gloomier when trying to cut across to Ravenstonedale...there has been a TON of new planting/seeding/whatever, even from when I rode that way in summer 2009...however a quick hitch along the road got me back to the car and thence to collect Claire....

All in all - despite aching legs - a fantastic trip