Howgill's 1,500fters

Mike Nelson and I had a trip to the Howgills Hills, Cumbria on Saturday 10th April 2010. We left home at 6.15am and were setting off from the Cross Keys Inn near Cautley Spout by 8.30am to attempt the 31 x 1.500ft hills in the Howgills (details of the route on the gofar.org.uk website at http://gofar.rwimbush.purplecloud.net/Hugh%20Symonds%20Original.pdf).

It was the best day of the year so far: wall-to-wall sunshine and temperatures of 16C being forecast. T-shirts, shorts and suntan lotion were the order of the day. All in all it took us 6h 47m to get from the first summit of Wandle Hill (SD 705 990) to the last summit of Winder (SD 654 933) above Sedbergh. We sat down for a few minutes by the trig to re-fuel then made our way back to the car via Calders and Great Drammacks - a top day out and c. 24 miles and 3,000m+ of ascent.

Running from Greenbell (#4) towards Stockless














A view of the deep gullies on Stockless' NW flank from Hooksey














The steep descent from Yarlside (#8) and the steep ascent to Hazelgill Knot (#9)














The spectacular Bowderdale valley














The steepest descent on the whole trip from Langdale Knott (#11) heading towards Middleton (#12)



















Descending from Blease Fell (#19), by the M6, looking at the next objectives of Linghaw (#20) and Fell Head (#20)



















At last, #31, Winder trigpoint above Sedbergh.














Descending from Great Drammacks (#26) into the Cautley Valley and back to the start and our car by the Cross Keys pub.














View from Great Drammacks towards Yarlside (#8) and down the Bowderdale Valley