Despite not having many views we had a great day climbing Esk Pike and Great End from the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel in Langdale taking in the additional summits of The Allen Crags and Rossett Pike.
We set off from the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel at 9am and headed up the track behind the hotel towards the Mickleden Valley.
There was a lot of low cloud today, but we could see breaks to blue sky above and were hopeful that we would climb above the cloud, in fact driving over Red Bank this morning there were some great views from above the mist.
We were soon past the last wall and following the track along the valley admiring the glacial moraine around the head of the valley.
We crossed the footbridge over Stake Gill and took the path alongside Rossett Gill, the recently laid footpath here is a great improvement and we were easily up onto the zigzags and climbing below Rossett Pike.
As we approached the col at the top of Rossett Gill we felt the wind in our faces for the first time, pretty chilly today and quite strong, a marked change from the past few calm days.
The cloud now was much thicker and as we crossed Angletarn Gill we had to peer into the murk to make out any of Angle Tarn.
We were soon up at the next junction, turning left onto the lesser walked path towards Esk Pike and Ore Gap.
After a few hopeful short breaks in the cloud we were once again enveloped in thicker cloud and it was now turning a little damper so waterproofs were put on and a few extra layers as protection from the wind.
There was a short section of damp snow at the top of the steep climb towards Ore Gap but this was easy enough to cross and the ground was bare again as the gradient eased towards Ore Gap.
The wind was now quite strong, it wasn't a day to wait around anywhere for too long so we turned to the right and took the path towards the summit of Esk Pike.
I don't seem to have been having too much luck when it comes to views from Esk Pike recently, and today was no exception, the visibility here today was almost as bad as it gets, so after a short break out of the wind behind the summit rocks we pressed on, descending from the top of Esk pike towards Esk Hause.
There were a few more patches of snow leading down from the summit of Esk Pike, but nothing to hard, most of it could be avoided by walking around if wished, but where would be the fun in that?
We had assumed that Esk Hause would be the windiest point of the day, it usually is, today was no exception, we pressed on and were soon up in Calf Cove, out of the worst of the wind. There is a useful wind shelter at the bottom of the cove, we decided to get the summit of Great End out of the way first and return to the shelter for a lunch break.
We climbed up above the snowy Calf Cove and took the path up to the right onto the summit plateau of Great End, crossing over quickly to the summit, and after a quick photo stop retraced our steps back down to Calf Cove and the wind shelter for a well earned lunch break.
After Lunch and with a few gloves and hats dished out we descended back to Esk Hause, this time dropping down to the north by the wind shelter below the Allen Crags, climbing the short slope up to the summit of The Allen Crags.
From The Allen Crags we descended back to the south to pick up the path descending down towards Angle Tarn, the view of the tarn was just as good as it had been earlier, we were only 10 metres away and couldn't see it!
From Angle Tarn we climbed up to the summit of Rossett Pike before dropping back down onto the Rossett Gill path. We were out of the wind as soon as we started down the path and before long we were back below the cloud with a few views along the Langdale Valley.
It wasn't long before we were walking back along the Mickleden Valley towards the Old Dungeon Ghyll and a well earned drink at the bar.
