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At the weekend, I felt like I needed a bit of a challenge, to go higher than I had been before. Seen as the highlands still seem to be covered in snow I thought the Corbetts in the South would give me an ideal chance to do that. After some debate, me and my dad ruled out White Coomb as he said there were pretty boggey patches to get to it by our chosen route and lets just say my £30 boots dont live up to the manufacturers promise of "waterproof"
So Hart Fell it was. This would be my dads 4th time climbing the hill so felt confident we could get round the route in a pretty fast time. Not that getting round it in a fast time is hugely important, I just like to test my fitness. I was also hoping to see the mountain goats, more on that later.
On arriving at the car park, I was really impressed by Saddle Yoke which was a very fine looking ridge which wasnt expected down in the south of Scotland. There were a few cars parked which my dad didnt seem overly happy about (he likes the hills to himself
) No matter, we set off around 11am and began the ascent of Saddle Yoke.
The further we climbed this impressive hill, the more I enjoyed it. Theres nothing about it that I could find boring, and the views across the valley to Swatte Fell were stunning, especialy with the cloud lingering over it with the sun beaming down.
After pushing on hard, we were rewarded by the views from the top of Saddle Yoke. This hill in its self would be an impressive walk and well worth the journey up to just turn back. The views across to the crags on Hart Fell and Swatte Fell were stunning. The cloud was still hanging over Hart Fell quite heavy however and we were worried we might not get a view from the top.
After descending Saddle Yoke and climbing Under-Saddle Yoke (as eaqually impressive as the hill before it, as was the col between the two) I got what I had been looking for. There was a family of goats grazing when we interupted their feeding. The picture was from quite far and I would have preferred a closer look at them but they moved off to the left as we were walking through. Still, I got a look at them.
We dropped down into the valley and found a nice quiet spot that was protected from the wind, an ideal spot for lunch. After some grub we dawned the softshells as it was only going to get colder.
We began our climb up onto Hart Fell Rig. The cloud appeared to be moving off and it gave us some cracking views of Broad Law, Culter Fell and even as far as Tinto.
From here it is a gradual climb until the summit and it was here that we met the first faces of the day. 3 ladies, who had came a long way from Perth to do just this Corbett, hats off to them. We said our goodbyes and made on for the summit where we passed a further 2 people and saw another heading off down the back of the hill just as we were reaching the summit.
Me on the summit, Culter Fell visible to the right. Tinto can be just about seen on the left.
My Dad on the summit
The views from the summit were nice, but the air seemed hazy after the cloud had lifted which impared the views slightly. Still you could see as far as Culter Fell and Tinto which was nice as I had climbed both of them. After a few pictures we decided to head off. On the way down we passed another 3 people.
The descent was a long one but with not too many steep drops and there were plenty of flat plateu areas which made the walking easier.
The walk onto Swatte Fell Is quite easy and eventualy we reached a small part of the hill which is slightly out from the main part of the hill and makes an almost "mini pinacle" which slopes away in 3 directions quite steeply with crags beneath it. A nice suprise as I didnt know it was a feature on the hill.
Me out on the "Mini-Pinicale"
Dad out on it.
After this, the descent became a little steeper and was a little harder goin on the knees and calfs. We decided to drop down through a few steep craggy patches and onto the main slope which takes you down to the valley floor. This proved to be a bad decision as it was steeper than anticipated and was pretty painful on the knees. After this I had a "technical" river crossing and then it was a short slug back to the car by the quad track.
The descent route
Saddle Yoke and Under-Saddle Yoke viewed from where we descended
It really was a cracking day and I would advise anyone to get out and give these hills a go. I was surprised that I wasnt overly tired after this walk. I put this down to my recent hard work and training that I have been doing. This has set me up great for my first Munro which I hope to climb in the next few weeks
