Paintedrunner, INVINCIBLE until proven otherwise: Attempt at Shunner Fell

Sunday 6 March 2016

Attempt at Shunner Fell

06/03/2016

Today is Mothering Sunday, my boys are grown ups now and I want to run up a big hill.

The closer we got to Hawes, the more the weather deteriorated and the snow started to fall, the surrounding hills were already covered I'm a thick blanket of it.

We drove through Bainbridge and the Archemedes Screw was working. Love that.

On to Hawes, we went to the Ropemaker car park, nearly £5, gosh that's steeper than Shunner fell so we drove into town and parked for free in front of the bank. It's the first time in ages that I've been to Hawes and there's been no bunting, it looked strange.

We set off at a jog, there was no snow on the ground at this level but there was a lot of water.

We ran into Hardraw

and started the upward journey, it was a good wide track, but uneven and wet.

We climbed rapidly and soon warmed up. We stopped to take our jackets off, even though there was snow on the ground, the sun was shining and we were moving quick enough to keep warm.

An old friend Lewi, who lives in Hawes was out running with his dog.

Billy ran with him a while and I took it steady as the snow thickened and the track got icy and slippy.

A few pics were a good excuse for a break, the views were stunning.

Even though the sun was shining and I could feel the heat of it on my back, the air temperature was actually quite chilly.

As we got higher the snow got even deeper, Lewi said the summit was still quite a way away. He then took a different route. Billy and I carried on, but it was a real effort. The frozen crust on the snow meant that sometimes we could jog on top, but randomly a foot would go through, leaving us knee deep in snow.