- Car park at kirkland and start of footpath
We parked up at Kirkland Hall were theres a comfortable amount of parking available and headed up the track that continued from were the road dead ended, as we walked out of the small wood on to the open of the lower slopes the wind and more noticeably wind chill hit us, a constant 20mph or so, hands went darting into pockets searching for hats and gloves as the wind chill took us into the minuses
- Out onto the lower slopes of Cross Fell
Following the marked footpath for a short while we then deviated off onto a well used track not marked on the map and took a more direct approach up onto Wildboar nab towards Grey scar and made good and rapid height increase into the start of the main snow line and the start of the cloud base around 550 metres, as we were to find to our cost staying with the marked footpath may have been the better option as we struggled to make headway in what essentially was a bog with a thin crust of semi frozen snow over it which our feet broke straight through into the bog and with the wind bearing straight down at us it made for a slow and demanding struggle to our first top Cross Fell,once on top we had a well deserved cup of coffee a bite to eat and added another layer.
- Into the snow and bog
- Summit Shelter,Cross Fell
After checking our map and heading we descended down towards Tees Head and the saddle between Cross and Little Dun Fells occasionally getting caught out by a solid icy patch here and there and trying with little success to stay in touch with the cairn markers en route due to the cloud out,eventually we picked up the stile and the footpath beyond which was well buried in a coat of ice, but just visible enough to keep us on it although tentatively with the coating of ice on it,this still made for much better traction and a lot less exertion as we started to ascend again.
- Saddle Between Cross Fell and Little Dun Fell
The climb upto the summit from here was straightfoward enough and the cloud was breaking now and again to allow us a brief glimpse across into the lakes to our west and the other Pennine Fells to our east,we decided after a brief pause at the top that we would have to leave out Knock Fell as it was too late in the day and we would be descending in the dark as it was, so we carried onto towards Great Dun Fell and thankfully not as far to reascend after the saddle to the top of our next summit,having seen photos prior to the walk we wondered when the golf ball would reveal itself to us out of the clag,but not until we were about 200metres away did it edge into view looking like something out of Ice Station Zebra with icicles and frozen snow stuck fast to great parts of the building exterior, after skirting what seemed to be an electrified fence, we walked around its buildings and masts, a surreal experience at nearly 3000ft and after a quick nose bag we retraced our steps and made our way towards our escape route at Tees Head.
- Radar Station at Great Dun Fell
On our return leg the cloud lifted more substantially and in time to watch the Sunset over the Lake District we took a pause on Little Dun Fell for some sunset photos before making our way in the gathering darkness towards Wildboar Scar and the slog down,we had dug out our headtorches earlier in the walk not expecting the full moon which appeared and lit up the mountainside to aid our descent back to the car finishing off a great day out in the hills.
- Sunset over the lakes from Little Dun Fell
