Just back from a great weekend in the Lake District snow. It'll take me a while to write up the report and sort all the pics, but here's a taster of what the weather had to offer:
Sheffield Pike
Archive for the 'Great Escapes' Category
Looks good, Flight
A section of The Gospel according to St. MWIS of the Lakes:
The usual rules will be applied with rigour (the first one to fall over buys the beers).
The game is afoot
After the mania of the Christmas and New Year period, and the family crises that have been brought under a semblance of control, things have calmed down to the point where we can begin to function normally again.
I've even managed to book a weekend away in Patterdale, so that I can introduce Ella to a few more Wainwrights. For what they're worth, advance forecasts are for a return to wintry conditions, so let's hope that the forecasters have got their predictions correct.
Furthermore, I've arranged to go for a crafty beer (or two) with a fellow blogger a few days afterwards.
My titanium cup runneth over 😀
Reports will follow in due course.
UMapper updated
UMapper's now got quite a few more features, the best one is the (beta) ability to import data in GPX, KML and geoRSS formats. Preliminary mucking-about has resulted in me importing a whole load of my Lake District walking routes from the Memory-Map installation on my lappy. Be warned - it takes a while to load. Later on, I'll get around to adding some notes/markers/lines etc., but for now, WYSIWYG.
Plans on ice
Events have conspired to force the cancellation of this weekend's intended wildcamping trip. Mike Bell was going to accompany me on a leisurely round of the Coniston Fells (from Dow Crag round to a pub in Coniston via Holme Fell) but he's got a bad back and needs to rest up. I was going to do the route with or without him, but there are things I need to get done here this weekend, things that I should have got done during the week but never did. It's a shame, because the weather up there's going to be excellent, according to the forecasts. Never mind, the route (and hopefully the snow) will still be there next month.
I'll leave you with something for Halloween, courtesy of Colonel Blimp:
Our Weekend at Buttermere – Part 2
Sunday morning was dry and even brighter than Saturday. I was up and about well before breakfast, outside with the camera taking some pics in the low rays of the early sunlight:
After another satisfying breakfast we packed our gear, cleared the dorm and said our farewells to the hostel staff. We would have only a half-day to walk the fells, so I opted to take our party up onto one of my favourite places, High Snockrigg, to see the impressive views into the Buttermere Valley. We parked up at Newlands Hause, where there is a fine view down Keskadale and the Newlands Valley towards Keswick:
The Hause was strangely quiet except for the sound of Moss Force:
The view to the north of the Hause included Knott Rigg and Ard Crags:
The track up the fellside is steep but eventually reaches the relative flatness of Buttermere Moss, where the view starts to open out a bit more:
A short while later we reached the top, and we sat there for a while surveying the scenery before us. I rattled off a few shots with the 18-55mm kit lens:
before changing to the 70-300mm for a few more:
Chris and Anna stayed at the summit for a while longer:
while the others went off to worry some sheep:
Soon it was time to head back down the long and winding road to the car:
On the way back down, Anna said that she could see a big man on the hillside over the valley. It took us some time to figure out what she meant:
Back at the car we packed away the gear and made ready for our reluctant return home. Just after setting off, I managed to delay proceedings for a few minutes more while nabbing the last shot of the weekend:
The drive back was interrupted by a couple of shopping sessions at Windermere and a bucket of KFC at one of the M6 service-stations, but was otherwise uneventful.
So, to sum up, it was another great weekend. One fellwalking novice introduced to the hills, two reintroduced after a half-year lay-off, two more Wainwrights ticked off the to-do list and a favourite place revisited for the umpteenth time - all that and good weather to boot. Brilliant stuff!
