High Cup Nick

I've headed up to the Lake District for a few days.  The day started early trying to beat the traffic on the M6 and generally it worked, although there is now a 50mph limit from Stoke to Tatton.  I took a slight diversion, heading across the the Pennines to walk up to the natural phenomenon of High Cup Nick.  

My walk started from the delightful village of Dufton and climbed up the western flank of the Pennines.  I had some concerns that it might be a wasted effort as the tops of the fells were in cloud.  As I climbed higher I entered the cloud well below the final height of the ascent.  I was already 3/4s of the way there, so kept going despite the possibility of not seeing anything.

As can be seen from the image, I was lucky.  Initially the cloud kept obscuring the view but as I reached the end of the glacial valley it lifted sufficiently to give this view.  I could even see sunshine in the Eden Valley as I was buffeted by the strong winds coursing up the deep cleft in the earth.  I couldn't get everything in the frame it was that wide.  I wasn't going   to bother to unpack the tripod, it would probably have blown over, so I did a fast a dirty series of images to stitch together later.

On the way down the weather kept improving with blue sky soon breaking through.  I took the first extra on the descent, before returning to the car and heading on the Keswick.  

I had a bit of time to kill before I could book in to the hotel so visited Buttermere and it's lonely tree (extra).

Tomorrow I plan to return to the scene of my fall last year, hopefully to complete the planned walk.  I'm steering clear of wet rocks (well as much as you can!) and even have my grippers for my boots ready, just in case.