2 days lakeland walking

For the past two days a good friend of mine has been revisiting the Lakes.  
Richard was the lead teacher on the expediton I was working on to Borneo.  We've had two really good days out, Monday saw us take in (I won't name the first mountain as Richard is running a small competition on his blog,) and Robinson with Tuesday doing a full circuit of Blencathra complete with Steak and Blackpudding pies from The cottage pie shop.  One of the best pie shops in Cumbria, IMHO.
The ground is still frozen above 600m but the thaw is definately underway.  On Blencathra the paths have consolidated snow and ice with the ridge line still having snow although it is avoidable by choosing to walk a little further to the side of it.
Should you wish to have a led days walking in the Lakes with a qualified Mountain Leader then please just get in touch.

Lovely day in the Lakes

A bright and lovely day in the Lakes today with good conditions around the central lakes.  I was up in the Great Tongue and Grisedale Hause area looking at some snow analysis. 

There were some cracking views to be had today especially earlier in the day with the fog down in the valley.  Paths have alot of consolidated ice and snow.

In trying to understand more about the snow pack I dug some pits to try and learn the various layers etc.  The PDF is an attempt at providing a summary of my findings at that location but bear in mind I am no SAIS reporter.  Snow pack can change from area to area so this is only specific to the slope I was working on. Snow pack PDF

A lakes winter outing



Summit of Grag Hill

Well I thought I'd get the chance, so today I went out and had a jaunt up Eel Crag Main ridge (I), listed as a plesant winter scramble, pretty much fitted the bill.  Conditions remain very powdery and there was a lot of windslab sat on top.  A good freeze/thaw cycle is needed so see what this weekend brings, there are lots of varied views about what is going to happen so it's a case of wait and see.  One of the guys from Cotswold was out last night on Great End so there is stuff out there to be done.

I took a couple of bits of video as well to show conditions.  This first one is just below the start of the ridge.  Height 550m on an Eastern slope. 

The second video is about 50m higher again on an Eastern slope but a slightly steeper gradient.  I found a couple of hard layers interspersed by powder the bottom layer is about 4" of powder.