With low cloud plagueing the Lakeland fells on Saturday Sunday looked the better day more so in the south of the county but my plans laid on the north western fells imparticular around Stonycroft Gill. I can be found guilty of chasing the best of the weather, there's now't wrong with that especially at this time of year and no doubt I could have enjoyed a brighter day in south Lakeland but I'd had a hankering for Causey Pike since mid-week and nothing was going to change my mind.

The last time I climbed Causey Pike from Stair was my first ascent which was an incredible seventeen years ago and even without referring to my diary my lasting memory of that day was feeling nauseous during the acsent after eating something the day before that hadn't agreed with me, I remembered almost throwing up and well, I only just recovered the walk. Seventeen years on I'm back on Stair except unlike that Spring day today it's trying its best to snow and the the cloud is only just clearing the tree tops but if the forecast is to be believed its gonna brighten up later.

Despite my later than normal arrival, I'd been up since 8:00am taking Holly and Brad out on an early morning dog walk just as the sun was coming up. It was a pity that the forecast wasn't similar to back home when I arrived in Lakeland, where it was drizzling and trying to snow. According to the experts it was forecast to stop around 11:00am so I wouldn't have to put up with it for much longer. I parked with ease at the large layby outside the hamlet of Stair next to an idling motorhome. As the rain pelted my windscreen any long distant views were virtually nonexistent, with Skiddaw and Blencathra below cloud but between the grey, chinks of blue sky were beginning to appear.

I kitted up for the forecast and not the present, which meant I left my waterproof over trousers in my pack, but I was wise enough to add a waterproof jacket. The rain had almost stopped by the time I was ready to leave the layby as I gazed up at Rowling End, soon locating the path up the nose of the fell as it weaved between the dead bracken. With Stonycroft Cottages to my right, I passed over Stonycroft Gill before turning right onto the fellside at a signpost aptly named Stonycroft Gill. 

Two walkers had been standing on the summit who began their descent the same time as I began my ascent, they were in good spirits and looked like they'd been on the fell all morning judging by how much snow had settled onto the lids of their packs, we passed with 'mornings' and a brief 'you ok?' which is just common fell courtesy given the conditions. Soon after a third guy appeared who was descending mostly on his backside, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that I thought to myself, in fact I'd probably do the same passing with another 'morning' unaware that midday had just passed.

Under a warming winter sun, I continued my descent, passing half a dozen day trippers, some of whom were pulling their sleeves down over their hands to shield them from the biting wind, others using their hands to shield their eyes from the low winter sun which sat directly above Barrow's summit. I could just about hear the traffic on the A66 below, but the wind was still dominant as it scuttled a never-ending layer of cloud across Skiddaw's summit.