Dog Blog – High Days and Coldydays Sunday 30 March

April Fools’ Day seemed to arrive early this year…….I was a complete fool for thinking that a good, bracing mountain walk was all good news.

My pal Al had taken me on three big mountain bashes in a week, the last one being a delightful 2-hour trot up one of his favourite Lakeland hills, Black Coombe. No views but lots of boring Herdwick sheep wandering around in the mist. I’m afraid he’d lulled me into a false sense of security.

Mum (Judy) said she wanted to go up Scafell Pike, England’s highest mountain but a mere tourist trophy after some of my Scottish ascents…..I naively thought. Well, wash my chops out with dog shampoo!

It just got worse and worse. By the time we reached the summit I could barely see a Herdwick at 10 yards, there was a howling gale, I was up to my shoulders in snow and a real blizzard had set in. Just fine – but they’d forgotten to put my coat on. Anyway, Dad led us expertly off the top…….for 10 minutes. At which point, he said with great confidence: ‘Sorry, we’re off course.’ We were in full retreat on a compass bearing when things suddenly got a lot more ‘interesting’ (one of Dad’s favourite words).

Out of the mist loomed: two nice lads clutching a global positioning system who patted my cold wet back and a confused couple who were clutching each other. They were all lost. The poor woman looked even colder than me and kept falling over.

Dad slipped into command mode and got quite bossy. We were all ushered behind a large rock out of the wind, told to put on extra clothes and get some food down us. I got my fleecy coat on and was given a load of dog biscuits. We all set off into the storm with me and Dad leading the way and breaking trail. Anyway, we had them back on the path in about 20 minutes and we were on our way downhill.

Hmm, I’ve had a nice rest in the sun today back home and I’ve been pondering my new snow technique – standing on three legs in rotation so one paw keeps warm.