When I went to bed last night we had snow on the ground and when I woke up this morning we had more!  The cloud was still down though, so I didn't really fancy heading for one of the higher fells.  Instead I opted for a walk from my door.  Over my stile and up the field to the intake wall.  Then north above the intake wall and up the "peat track" on Beckthorn's Rib.  Good views over Beckthorns Gill but I met the cloud just as I reached the ruined sheepfold in the rushes at the top of the rib.  There had been 3 inches of snow in the garden but on the tops it was six inches deep with up to 2 feet in the drifts.

Visibility was so bad I abandoned plans to include Calfhow Pike and instead headed north east to pick up the track linking Calfhow Pike and Clough Head.  Why is it that walks in mist to pick up a track always take longer than expected?  No matter, eventually we met the track about half a mile from Clough Head summit.  It was near the summit that I met the only other walker I saw all day.  There was high wind on the summit and although it was not snowing, spindrift in the air meant it was no place to linger.  There was no way I was going to head west to try to pick up the start of the scree track leading down the north face so I headed north east towards White Pike.  Once at White Pike summit I was out of cloud again and could see just how extensive the snow cover was.  From White Pike summit I headed down the faint but good path to join the Old Coach Road by the stile at "Hause well".  A very enjoyable descent through powder snow soon brought me to the Old Coach Road where I stopped for a bite to eat.  As we neared St Johns in the Vale Polly was bemused to find a snowman built by local children!  She soon realised that it didn't want to play though!

Then it was back through thawing fields to Bridge House and along the floor of the valley to Sosgill Bridge and Fornside.  Four hours including a brief lunch stop.  A pity there is a thaw well and truely underway at Fornside with rain in the air - maybe we will be lucky and it will fall as snow on the tops.

A full album is available on Webshots http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/562004889IqMnQe.

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