I've completed this one on two previous occasions in reasonable time and in good weather but doing the same walk in Jan / Feb can be both very challenging and very rewarding. I'd been watching Metcheck and the forums. Someone posted these two pics on the 20th so was eager to get back up there.

Come Thursday the 25th with reports of continuing snow I decided that it would be now or never and made arrangements with walking buddy James to set off the next day, regardless of conditions at home on waking. You have to get some luck at some point, right?

Initially I wasn't disappointed. Got to car park in Ambleside for about 9:30. Could see snow on the tops although there was light rain/sleet and it was pretty damn chilly. Got kitted and booted and set off down Nook Lane. By the time we where on the route proper we saw 3 walkers in the opposite direction, and from then on in, not one other person. I wonder why? Metcheck had shown large snow symbols and by the time we got to Hart Crag just after a short break for egg butties it looked like a fair old snow storm was heading our way.

The truth is I hadn't seen a build up of snow on the tops like this for a number of years and was starting to get concerned about the increasing loss of light from cloud cover and increasing snow fall. Here's me stood next to a wall leading up to Hart Crag.

I'm about 5'10" and you can see the snow behind me building up to the height of the wall [about 6 foot!]

We continued to battle against the prevailing wind and icy snow / sleet whilst being slowed by increasing depth of tread to about 1 and half foot. This sapped your energy and made it difficult to keep looking ahead.

As we came round the curve of the horseshoe the snow reached the height of the boundary wall and in some places was over knee depth before reaching compacted traction.

I'm actually stood right next to the top of the wall, further round the Horseshoe than in prev pic.

We continued to push towards the Fairfield summit but found progress was very slow, like walking up a steep bank of soft sand [well, like walking up a steep incline over knee deep in snow !!!]

Approximately 20 minutes after that pic, all discernable points of reference had disappeared from view, the thick snow cloud met the powder white blanket on the tops and we where emerged in a total white out. Our maps and compass had become virtually useless and we had lost track of time and our progress. After a further 10 minutes of flailing around trying to best guess our posi we took the decision to turn back. Whilst it felt like we had been defeated, we soon realised  that at 2:50 in the afternoon, we would have had no chance of completing the Horseshoe let alone navigate. And we felt lucky to have made that decision because retracing, our own foot prints had all but disappeared. Yes, there where a few minutes where I began to wonder if I would be able to find our outbound path at all !!! But find it we did and soon regained some energy and light relief from what could have been a rather tricky situation!

By the time we got back to the base of Hart Crag, some of the cloud have lifted and we started to get brief views of the tops in the distance. It was still very cold and a break was cut short due to hand numbness [i.e. trying to eat a sandwich with gloves in isn't easy!] and lowering body temp / energy levels!

This was a stark reminder of the difference between an enjoyable day walk and a difficult mountain challenge. One which I surely needed!

http://www.lakedistrictwalks.com/fairho.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfield_horseshoe