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" Matterhorn Rock and other Local Walks "

Date & start time:       9th January 2024, and subsequent days.

Location of Start :      By the red phone box, Loweswater, Cumbria, Uk. ( NY 143 211).

Places visited :          Matterhorn Rock on Low Fell, Mellbreak, The Goblin Tree and Crummock Water.

Walk details :              Local walks, the first being a couple of miles back to the cottage.

Highest point :           Mellbreak North Top, 1,656ft  509m.

Walked with :              Loes, myself and the dogs, Dylan and Dougal.

Weather :                     Changeable from the sublime to the ridiculous.

                     

                     

 

© Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Licence number PU 100034184.

 

A week of changeable weather as we wait for the forecasted snow. 

The high pressure brings cold dry winter days which are a delight, but it didn't last. 

This is a selection of very different walks and very different weather which had characterised this week in Loweswater.

Loes and I were looking for a walk to celebrate the fine weather

so we opted for the low level traverse under the southern end of Low Fell, which includes several highlights along the way.

Dylan is limping a little so we drive to the Mosser track, walk up past "John's Chair"

and onto the old high level footpath that connected Loweswater to Thackthwaite.

At the highest point is a shapely rock similar to the famous alpine peak, but more akin in size to a similar outcrop on Gray Friars Fell near Coniston.

After the dogs posed on the rock I pursuaded Loes to join them . . . but I might have to help her up by the look of the angle she's sitting !

The path stays high and circles round to the Lonesome Pine

where we had lovely views of Whiteside and Grasmoor (that 'The Mob' climbed last Sunday).

Great visibility all the way up past Crummock and Rannerdale to Great Gable in the distance.

- - - o o o - - -

 

Loes has driven back to Harewood for a few days

and so I was taking the dogs on a small after-lunch walk up Mosedale

when the sun came out.

 

Suddenly the traverse path appeared beneath my feet

and in no time the dogs and I were on the top of Mellbreak's northern summit

and were technically above the snow line (by a couple of feet) :

Click here or on the photo above for a larger annotated panorama.

 

Unusually we descended by the northern side of the fell

and caught this 'View Round the Corner' on the way down.

 

Few photos because I hadn't really planned to take any !

- - - o o o - - -

The weather a day or so later had turned cold

and now the clear morning skies gave several beautiful sunrises at the top of the valley.

I couldn't stay in on days like this so I enjoyed a walk with both dogs across to Loweswater and The Bothy.

This is the view back towards the high fells.

After our lovely Mob walk this week, every picture seems to include 'Grasmoor' somewhere in it.

- - - o o o - - -

 

 

Close to where Holme Beck reaches the lake

there's a rather special tree.

 

Recently it seems the fine weather

had encouraged the Goblins to give their front door

a new lick of Woodland Green paint.

 

 

- - - o o o - - -

 

There's Grasmoor again . . . a great view if you get up early and have a walk around your tree before breakfast !

Two days with zero temperatures overnight and blue skies by day . . . but still no snow !

- - - o o o - - -

. . . but with a forecast like that it couldn't stay away for ever.

Not as heavy a fall of snow as in other parts of the Lakes, or for that matter Scotland, but snow down here in the valley nevertheless.

When I walked out around my garden before breakfast I had a different view from that at the Goblin Tree.

Gone were the high fells and all the colours were dulled.

By lunchtime the snow had turned to sleet and then heavy rain . . . still the dogs need their daily walk whatever the weather.

- - - o o o - - -

Before the light faded I walked them down to the Crummock.

I managed to get a dry walk in that last hour before the evening darkness descended.

The lake was looking very different from just a few days ago when it was reflecting a clear blue sky.

Fear not . . . give it a twelve hours and the weather will change again as more high pressure is forecast.

Let's hope it brings those blue skies back again . . .

- - - o o o - - -

 

Great 'Matterhorn Rock - cam !    . . . . .  Ed  Jackson.

 

- - - o o o - - -

Technical note: Pictures taken with my iPhone 11pro mobile phone camera.

Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.

This site best viewed with . . . a climate full of surprises.

Go to Home Page . . . © RmH . . . Email me here

Previous walk - 7th January 2024 - Mob Walk - Grasmoor

A previous time up here - 15th September 2021 - Loweswater's Matterhorn

Next walk 18th January 2024 - Cold, Sunny, Hen Comb