David was completely right to miss out on this walk after aggravating his foot injury last weekend whilst walking with Rod but that wasn't to say that he and Jennifer weren't kind enough to let me stay over providing me with a hand cooked meal and a bed for the night meaning I got a good nights sleep and even a lie before meeting Rod at Cockley Beck at 08:30am.

I slept well and left Davids at 07:00am. David went off to walk High Seat from Ashness Bridge and we shook hands agreeing to meet up next Saturday for another Birkett walk. I arrived first soon followed by Rod and we managed to secure two places in the 'cut out' close to Cockley Beck. It's a rather murky start but feeling humid and warm so we kit up accordingly in earnest for the brighter weather which was forecast from midday onwards but for now we'd have took those blue chinks in the sky as a bonus.

Yesterday for some unknown reason I'd picked up a blister on my left heel and this morning I'd covered it with a heel plaster, I only hope it wouldn't trouble me too much on such an excursion.

It was staggeringly humid and I was dripping in sweat by the time we reached the head of Mosedale. It wasn't spoke of but I knew we both were wishing we'd get a view of the Scafells and instead we were treated to the same stagnant cloud we'd seen from Mosedale earlier. Our route will see us cross Lingcove Beck below then ascend steeply flanking Pianet Crag, Long Crag and Low Gait Crags to our left before reaching todays first summit of High Gait Crags.

If anything was going to stretch the legs gaining High Gait Crags over sometimes pathless ground will.

We are both familiar with the Yeastyrigg Crags ridge which is best ascended via the right which avoids the steep scrambles, a good footpath can be found but in such conditions as we had today we managed to miss the summit cairn of Yeastyriggs Crags in the low cloud. It was only after we had ascended this rocky buttress did we realise our mistake but thankfully there was no need to go back as visiting the summit was a personal choice and isn't included in Birketts version of this walk.

Just for fun we ascend the rock buttress via the scree gully seen separating the two crags.

The cloud was trapping the cool air which thankfully helped to cool things down which made the ascent of Esk Pike that bit more comfortable. We hadn't seen a soul with the exception of a wild camper in Great Moss. We clambered our way over the summit rocks and one by one arrived at the summit and were soon joined by a group of fell runners who appeared through the murk from the direction of Ore Gap.

We'd been in our own company since setting off which was all about to change with more and more fell runners heading towards Esk Pike.

We descended Crinkle One and made a direct line towards an outcrop of rock around fifty yards north of Stonesty Pike summit which offered better shelter than what Stonesty Pike could, here we broke out lunch within the murk and rain but it didn't matter, it was 14:30pm and the pair of us had been complaining how hungry we were since lunch time, rain or not we would eat in shelter.

The cloud dropped and thickened considerabley until the summit rocks of Stonesty Pike disappeared in the murk by which time we had fed our bellies and were ready to leave our shelter stopping only to take this photo of Stonesty Pike summit as we passed.

The cloud was probably at the lowest we had seen all day and reaching Little Stand via the south ridge took some navigating, on reaching this depression the cloud cleared enough for us to spot Little Stand in the distance.

On every occasion I have visited Little Stand it's been a glorious day and by now I'd be on the brink of running out of hydration and cracked lips to boot, today the contrast couldn't have been further apart.

We had located the gully and began the steep descent while negotiating rock and boulder which was slow but easier underfoot than that of the south nose of the fell which is made up of a series of rock ledges, some of which require four point contact to descend by. The gully plateaued westwards along a fine grassy shelf which over looked Mosedale, we spotted a Rescue Helicopter flying so low we were actually looking down on its rotors as it flew the length of the Mosedale valley then pulled up over Slight Side and out of sight.

Our descent still wasn't over with a second steep descent where again boulders were negotiated most of which were hidden beneath carpets of Bracken, even though this descent was still slow we still rated it higher than the rock shelf route via the south nose.

With the best part of the descent behind us we traced through Bracken while 'eyes rolled' at our unfolding views and even though we were less than half a mile from the cars we down packs and de-layered allowing the mid afternoon sun to 'air us out' while walking back to our cars. The grass is gentle underfoot and with Cockley Beck Bridge just yards away we cross Mosedale Beck while giving our boots a swill at the same time. Three cyclists roll to a stop while Rod and I look up at the traffic jam forming on the Wrynose side of the Hard Knott Pass "any idea what's happened lads?" "aye, a car has broken down on one of the bends and a tow truck has jammed the pass trying to recover it, it's trying to reverse down right now"

And we thought we'd had some bad luck today...