It would seem that Rod and Michael faced the same difficulties with the wind last weekend on what should have been a traverse of the Dodds via High Rigg, but they were forced to abandon the walk due to the winds and instead, headed over to the less loftier Raven Crag. Rod and Michael didn't give up their Dodd walk and had gone back today. I just hope they weren't affected by the hill cloud we could see from our position on Hopegill Head, which spanned the Dodd ridge from north to south.

I originally walked the Hope Gill Horseshoe as part of my Walking the Birketts project back in April 2018 in similar conditions to those that I had today. It wasn't my first walk from Hope Gill, but I remembered enjoying it so much that I vowed to return. I'd been scratching that particular itch for the last few weeks, yet given how wet and windy it has been, I told myself the walk deserved a better forecast. 

Checking the forecast, Saturday looked like the best day, in particular the morning, which should allow me enough time to complete the walk. It was only around 9pm last night that I received a phone call from David, who asked if I would mind having him join me as he'd had a last-minute change of plan, adding that five of the eight summits we'd be visiting today were on a list he compiled that he hadn't walked for over a year. Great, I replied, I'll see you at Hope Gill about 8:00am.

David had chosen to park his car at Darling How, just off Whinlatter Pass. The last time he parked at Hope Beck, he was forced to reverse the narrow lane for what felt like half a mile to let a car pass. Once the road widened enough for the two cars to pass, he continued back towards Hope Beck, only to have to do the exact same when he met a tractor coming in the opposite direction. Scalded by the events of that day, David informed me that he'd rather walk the mile in than risk going through all that again.

The skies cleared north of Lancaster, and by the time I'd reached the A66 travelling west towards Keswick, the skies were completely cloudless revealing Blencathra and Skiddaw in all their glory. Sadly, it wasn't the same further south where despite blue skies a cloud inversion shrouded the Borrowdale Fells, but I was sure it would lift at some point. The Hope Beck valley was shaded by low sun which hadn't climbed high enough to let the light penetrate the valley but we knew once the Swinside Ridge was gained, we'd be in direct sunlight.

David was already there when I arrived at the empty parking spaces, and not wanting to keep him waiting any longer, I kitted up as quickly as I could while remembering to check that I'd packed everything.  It was a frosty start, which could have potentially caused the flooded road surface to freeze. We encountered the odd frozen puddle as we walked back up the lane towards the gate from where the steep ascent on Swinside begins.

Within a few minutes we'd arrived at Sand Hill, from where we could see around half a dozen walkers on Grisedale Pike and further down half a dozen more descending towards Hobcarton Head. The wind had picked up, causing me to put my beanie back on and slide my hands into a pair of gloves.

We felt incredibly lucky that so far we had escaped the inversion which was beginning to break up north-east of our position while to the south, the skies were darkening with high-level cloud. We decided to head over to Hobcarton Head from where we'll access the cloud and decide if we're to include Grisedale Pike..

We had spotted a pair of walkers descending the Dodd ridge from the summit cairn and although they were a good twenty minutes behind us we decided to leave choosing our line of descent between the two summit outcrops before arriving on a narrow path on the steep flank of the hillside. I could see my car now, and beyond the Solway Firth, Criffel.

The wind had dropped, and any extra layers were removed as the gradient eased through an obvious path, which in a couple of months will be lost to the bracken. Continuing descent to the sound of Hope Beck, whose origins begin below the summit of Hopegill Head which by now was set against the grey of a pastel sky.