Seat Sandal

We headed up Little Tongue Gill and caught the first blast of a very cold wind. It wasn't long before we had jackets, headbands and gloves on. We made our way up to the ridge path that takes you to the top of Seat Sandal. It was tempting to keep turning around to see the  great views down into Grasmere, over to Coniston and the Langdales. The sun kept disappearing behind a cloud and it got colder and colder. We eventually reached the snow line. The snow was surprisingly soft given how cold it felt. It wasn't long before we were on the top of Seat Sandal admiring the Fairfield and Helvellyn ranges.

Grisedale Tarn

Rather than take the steep, direct route down to Grisedale Tarn, we followed the broken stone wall that goes in a northerly direction. I diverted from the wall to get a better view of Grisedale Tarn from above. It really is a superb view with Fairfield, St Sunday Crag and Dollywagon Pike completing the panorama. 

The north side of Seat Sandal had quite deep snow and we went up to our knees in places. It was still soft though and so we were able to make our way down to the tarn fairly easily.  Nobody had broken the snow on the path to Grisedale Hause and so it was hard work to get there. Grisedale Tarn to our left, kept diverting our gaze.

At Grisedale Hause we stopped for our lunch. My original intention was to go up Fairfield and down by Stone Arthur, but the snowy conditions was making it hard for everybody. We agreed to go back to Grasmere taking the path down the valley by Tongue Gill.

Tongue Gill Waterfalls And Sheep

The waterfalls along Tongue Gill were very impressive. The first one of note is where the path crossed the beck. I wandered over to the gorge on the right of the path. This was quite deep, had waterfalls and was equally impressive.

A good way down the valley, we noticed that some sheep were coming up the path. Interestingly they didn't divert off the path on to the fell. We stood still, they stood still, and a staring match ensued. In the end, they backed down and trotted off uphill into the bracken.

A few minutes later, it became apparent why the sheep were keen to come up the valley. Farmers had collected sheep down near the footbridges across Tongue Gill and they were driving them into a nearby field. The sheep we had seen, must have 'escaped' and were on the run.

Jet And Robins

I'm usually too late to get a photo of the military jets that fly down the Thirlmere Valley. I was lucky in that I had the camera out taking a photo of something else, and caught a reasonable photo of a Royal Navy jet. 

Back near the car we found a Robin looking resplendent in the afternoon sun. We gave him some bird seed and it didn't take him long to tuck in.

Although this had been a shortish walk it had had some great views from Seat Sandal and the waterfalls had been spectacular.