A wild day today on the Langdale Pikes as the snow melt continued, with very little visibility on the tops we took in the summits of Pavey Ark, Harrison Stickle and Loft Crag.
We set off from the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel a little after 10am and headed up the path alongside Stickle Gill, climbing up to the new bridge and crossing. We took the zig-zag path up towards Tarn Crag and were soon up into the murk that was covering the fells, it was patchy today as we climbed, we could see a reasonable distance from time to time in some directions but not others.
We were soon up at Stickle Tarn, when we arrived there was a brief view of Pavey Ark but this was soon obstructed by cloud.
When a strong gust whipped across us we decided to press on, following the shore of the tarn around to the east and crossing to Bright Beck and followed the beck to the crossing taking the path up onto the North Rake path.
There were a few patches of deep snow on the North Rake path and as we climbed towards the top of the rake this became deeper and firmer with a few icy patches.
From the top of the North Rake we crossed the short distance to the summit of Pavey Ark.
The summits today weren't the places to hang around for too long today so we were soon off again, crossing around the rim of the combe to climb up towards the summit of Harrison Stickle, the highest of the Langdale Pikes. By the time we had reached the summit of Harrison Stickle the weather had deteriorated a little, the wind was getting a bit stronger and the rain more persistent, never a good combination!
We took some shelter just below the summit of Harrison Stickle and decided to head down over Loft Crag and make the day a little shorter.
From the summit of Harrison Stickle we descended the grassy path into Harrison Combe, crossing the combe and climbing up to the summit of Loft Crag.
Down again and we were soon on the path down, taking the path down to the south of Dungeon Ghyll towards Mark Gate, dropping out of the slushy snow quickly and down the grassy section towards Mark Gate and down over the rocky lower slopes, droping back down to the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel.
