Where's that patch, john2? My spies tell me that there was a decent amount here recently: [streetmap.co.uk]

That is that exact spot Firefly. I would think the last Welsh Snow will belong to Llewelyn though. May return to Carnedds in a couple of weeks.

East side of Shunner Fell, Swaledale. Taken from near Muker. 21st April 2015



Attachments: snowblob shunner.JPG (76kB)  

Got a bit of a backlog of pictures which I will get round to, unfortunately none from the last week. Hence the descriptive version - guess who's got a bit too much time at the moment.

This is a bit of a general round up of trips to and around the North Pennines over the past week or so. Mostly from the car.

Sunday 19th April 2015 - large snow patches visible on the N side of Cross Fell from the A689. Not exactly news but it's 34km away in places.

Monday 20th April 2015 - snow patch in West quarry at Harthope Head now broken. Ends remain with middle section gone. No measurements but nearest road looks to be 40m+ Western patch looked to be 5-10m in length. Patches visible on Three Pikes in the area of Three Comb NY842 338. Tow patches in the hollow - 1 large, 1 small. One patch (small) to the 100m (ish) SE.

Single patch visible on N side of Micklefell, can't give an accurate location so NY 808 252 should be taken as centre of a circle with a 0.5km radius for approx location. There is a slight plateau in this location but the patch looked to be above it. Viewed from Harthope Head the patch seemed in line with the summit cairn of Mickle Fell. Later in day travelled B6276 - two patches were seen on the SE side of the summit between (slightly lower than) Kings Pot Fold and Boot of Mickle. These patches unlikely to last to the weekend.

Upper Weardale - not patches visible from summit of Harthope.

Small patch in the roadside quarry (West) below the summit of Harthope Head, NY860348. This patch was sub 2 sq m and had melted by late afternoon on the 22nd April.

Long Crag area to the North of Arngill Head Brocks NY 844 858 (estimated when viewed from Harthope Head). Single wreath remnant possibly 150m in length. This had broken 4/5th distance from E end by the 22nd April. Two small patches seen to the E, probably 1km distant, guess within a 500m radius of Crag Well.

Forest in Teesdale - Snow patch on former Harwood Ski Club site in area of former club hut site in Long Gill visible from Langdon Beck. Driving along B6277 from Langdon Beck to Harwood Ski Club carpark one snow patch becomes visible in the upper reaches of Peter Gill Sike NY803 303. All other patches in the upper reaches of Harwood Beck catchment had melted by the 22nd April 2014. Harwood Ski Club patch is actually three patches - above, below and at the former ski club hut site.

County boundary on B6277. Footpath junction at NY 783 353 less than 1 sq m of extensive snow patch remained on the 20th April, melted by the 22nd.

Cross Fell SE flank - numerous small patches (10-15) in two distinct bands, From Teeshead to Penny Moor Bogs. Upper band estimated at 840m and lower at 790m. Penny Moor Bogs area has a wreath remnant rest seem to be in hollows. The wreath patch was visible from Folly Top nr Eggleston on the B6278 (again 34km distant).

One patch visible on Little Dun Fell approx 750m SE of Teeshead, alt prob around 760m. Two patches visible on Great Dun Fell - one looks to be Dun Fell Hush area other in the area of the un-named hush / head of Swath Beck.

Away from the main tops Round Hill still had patches on the 22nd April in the area of Calvert Burn NY748 360. Viewed from county boundary.

Cross Fell - North Face, not much to add from other reports. 22nd April viewed from A686 patches still present in abundance. Patches from about 300m S of Raehow End to Rake Moss.

22nd April - Upper Teesdale, single patch remains on Green Fell. Guessing in the area NW of Comb Stones NY882 260

22nd April - Weardale Ski Club, seen from A689. Large wreath on Chapel Fell, just out of view / west of the F1 web cam. Several patches also visible in the area of Swinhope Burn Head. NY880 336.

Three main patches of snow left on Great Whernside this morning with a few other smaller remnants alongside. One looked thin and could go in the next couple of days. The two others (see photos) might make it until May if cooler and frosty conditions continue, as seems likely.

Attachments: GreatWhernside26April.jpg (157kB)   GreatWhernside26April2.jpg (163kB)  

Snowdonia patches today .Crib-y-ddysgl and llewelyn.

Attachments: DSC_2969.jpg (190kB)   DSC_2970.jpg (241kB)  

Although probably more blob than patch status two of the patches around Kings Pot on Mickle Fell were still visible on Sunday afternoon from B6276 nr Lune Head Farm. Forgot to put down in the midweek round that there is atleast one patch in Upper Weardale - Copt Hill. Seen from the A686 nr Lanehead (where the Durham County Council Weather station is). Cloud was down to 600m ish, there may have been more patches hidden from view.

Update and photos from a general trip round the roads on Saturday to follow.

Fantastic as usual, chaps. Many thanks.

I walked a good circuit of Great Dun Fell, Little Dun Fell and Cross Fell yesterday and visited most of the remaining patches on these hills.

Great Dun Fell had 5 patches: 1 in a deep shake hole next to the radar station road at 760m; 1 in Dunfell hush at 780m and the rest in hidden hollows on the NE slope. I would imagine that these all should last until May even the shake hole patch which although small was very sheltered from the sun. There are also 2 small patches just below the summit which are significant because they appear to be the only snow left west of the watershed. They are located in the strean gully that becomes Middle Tongue Beck and are both c.1 x 3 x 0.5m. There was a tiny 3rd patch that has probably already gone.

Little Dun Fell had a few shallow patches at Tees Head.

Cross Fell amazingly still has a dozen or more patches on the Southern flank. I observed these 10 days ago and although quite large seemed fairly shallow, but despite the warm weather they have hung in there. Some of them will last until May. On the East and North slopes there is still a band of patches stretching for over a kilometer from c. GR 697348 to 686352 - altough quite a lot has gone from my last visit some of the patches are up 2m deep and up 100m long. I found a nice patch that I have not seen before at GR 699348. Cross Fell Well is still deep (2m) and large and probably will last longest. The patch just below the main track at the Yad Stone is still c.10m across. There are still a couple of patches to the north on Green Fell near Raehow End.

The Cross Fell patches will make it well into May but I think June survival is unlikely this year. I will return later next month.



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 10.45hrs Mon 27 Apr 15 by Stringy.

Attachments: 1. Dun Fell shake hole patch 26.4.15.JPG (309kB)   2. Dun Fell hush patch 26.4.15.JPG (248kB)   3. Cross Fell SE slope 26.4.15.JPG (192kB)   4. Cross Fell N slope 26.4.15.JPG (267kB)   6. Cross Fell N slope long patch 26.4.15.JPG (259kB)  

Here are a few more pictures from yesterday (Cross Fell etc).

Plus: I also made a good observation of the Eastern Lake District Fells on Saturday from Beacon Edge above Penrith. From the North, Great Dodd has 1 big patch at Lurge Gill Head, Stybarrow Dodd has a few patches, There is still snow on the slope above Glencoyne, Brown Cove and Helvellyn headwall both look good and snowy still, Fairfield to Dove Crag has a number of decent patches.

From near home I can see the East side of High Street and there are still patches on Racecourse Hill, Low Raise and in stream gullies on High Raise.

Attachments: 7. Crevasse patch 16.4.15.JPG (176kB)   8. Cross Fell Well 26.4.15.JPG (198kB)   10. Great Dun Fell 16.4.15.JPG (197kB)  

Looked like there was still a patch on the NW side of Blencathra - estimating in the NW quarter of grid square NY 31 27. Viewed from the A591 about 1mile before Bewaldeth. There was a very long burn line snow field of which this was the last remnants of. On the East face of Blencathra there were about four or five patches. As per earlier post, the largest is visible from Hartside, a further two become visible around Penrith and from the A66 at Troutbeck you can see all of them. They are in the area of Tarn Crags.

There are still patches in the Haweswater Valley visible from Penrith. Not been to investigate further. Have decided the ones on high street are patches not lift bags for moorland restoration.

One for the history books - last night's Countryfile featured some old black and white footage of Cross Fell complete with extensive summit snow patches. Unfortunately no indication of time of year.

Quite a bit of fresh in the North Pennines over the last couple of days so it's difficult to tell what is and isn't still there. Just been over Harthope and it looks like only the NW (furthest from road) end of the quarry patch remains. The larger of the Three Comb patches is there. Harwood ski club middle patch could be seen from the road but deposits of fresh mean it's not possible to say if the others are. Peters Gill Syke looked to still be there. Too much fresh on GDF, LDF and Cross Fell to comment on patches. Same for Long Crag / Arngill Head Brocks and Round Hill patches.

Great Shunner Fell yesterday afternoon, with what seems to be two old patches just to the left of centre of the picture partly covered by newly drifted snow.

Attachments: GreatShunner2.jpg (168kB)  

Helvellyn has survived into May as well as on most other Lakes Fells. The snow falls of last week have made sure we have a few more weeks yet. The Pennines, Cross Fell, don't seem to have received much.

pics

Attachments: Helvelly 1 May compressed.jpg (159kB)