Wednesday 10 April 2013

Cow Green and Upper Teesdale - Plenty of snow left.

A few (mainly record shots) from Upper Teesdale, grabbed during a wander down to Cow Green reservoir with Al last week. The one of the Grouse is from a few weeks ago when many of us thought spring was just around the corner.


06D-4176 The B6277 from the car
The B6277 road still had decent sized drifts.

The other day when I came down it had blown in quite badly and it was just one lane in places.



06D-4161 Digging out part of the B6277 road.
Today they were widening the road



06D-4181 Walker Walking between walls of snow on the road alongside Cow Green reservoir in Upper Teesdale County Durham UK.
The road down to the dam



06D-4170 Snow Drifts Around Ashgill Head Harwood in Upper Teesdale County Durham UK
Drifts at Ashgill Head


Cow Green Reservoir was well frozen with excellent views of the high Pennine mountains of Cross Fell, Little Dun Fell and Great Dun Fell. The place where Red Sike enters seemed to be the only area that was not frozen.



06D-4321 The Snow Covered High Pennine Mountains of Cross Fell Little Dun Fell and Great Dun Fell Viewed Across a Frozen Cow Green Reservoir
From right to left Cross Fell, Little Dun Fell and Great Dun Fell.



06D-4484 The Snow Covered High Pennine Mountains of Cross Fell Little Dun Fell and Great Dun Fell Viewed Across a Frozen Cow Green Reservoir Upper Teesdale
I thought this was an iceberg but on closer inspection turned out to be an ice coated boulder .



06D-2493 Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus Surrounded by Snow Teesdale County Durham UK.
The poor old Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus must be finding it hard

Trip date 04/04/13 All text/images copyright David Forster

8 comments:

  1. Looks good, is this in the last few days? I can remember going to upper Teesdale a couple of years ago after a major freeze and seeing huge blocks of ice that had been dumped by the river, an impressive sight.

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    1. Hi James. Sorry I should have added a date. It was just before the weekend so Thursday 4th Apri 2013. I have added the date for clarification.

      I have seen blocks of ice washed up on the banks before, but did not see the huge ones from a couple of years ago. I bet it was impressive, hope you managed to get a few pics?

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    2. I did not get any photos from the Tees itself (spotted whilst I was driving) but the first photo in this post shows some on Troutbeck.

      http://backpackingbongos.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/a-winter-backpack-across-the-roof-of-the-pennines/

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    3. Wow thanks for that, to get ice that thick takes a prolonged freeze, it really is a different world up there.

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  2. Blimey, you're not joking - plenty of snow! I love your photo of the red grouse in the snow.
    I was out in the Lakes the day before yesterday and although it was sunny and felt quite warm there wasn't a very rapid thaw underway. I suppose it's possible that some of these really large drifts will cling on for quite some time.

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    1. I suspect you are right Mark the snow may well cling on in some places for good while. I have some video footage from 2012 of it snowing in May up there so who knows how long it will last. I am ready for some warmer weather now though.

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  3. Now THAT'S snow. None down here, though, on the middle stretch of the Tees. Like the iceberg picture.
    Cheers, Alen

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    1. I noticed there wasn't much snow over your way. I think the latest heavy snowfall has been pretty localised across the northeast. We had a struggle getting home one night along the A66 so diverted up the A1 to Darlington and was surprised to see only a dusting of snow there. At home it was level with the wall tops in places. It all gone now though - good old British weather. Cheers, David

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