Start point: Hawes End (NY 247 212)
Hawes End – Skelgill Bank – Catbells – Hause Gate – Allerdale Ramble – Skelgill Bank – Catbells – Skelgill Bank – Hawes End
Distance: 4.3 miles Total Ascent: 695 metres Time Taken: 3 hours 30 minutes Start Time: 08:30
Weather: Snow showers. 0ºC
There was a lot of snow around when I set of on the climb to Catbells this morning. My original intention had been to do the full Newlands Round but things didn’t quite turn out as expected and shows that you don’t necessarily have to get to the highest fells to get the views. It turned out to be a bit of an odd walk really, read on to see what happened…

Up on the summit of Catbells and central in the photo is a Sun Dog, caused by the sun shining on ice crystals.

Which way Dad? Well, not that way as all views were completely obliterated in the heavy snow as we descended to Hause Gate - in fact it was a complete white-out. It seemed pointless carrying on and I did wonder about getting back home once I reached the car as well so I decided to call it a day and walk back along the bottom of Catbells.

Walking along the path - what is that I can see up there? Hmm, blue sky. By amazing powers of deduction I worked out that there would be a nice inversion if I made it back up on high. Sooo...back up we go!

Actually it was quite quick moving that inversion, normally it is really still and they can sit for hours but this was rising and moving eastwards.