High Street via Kidsty Pike....

Claire and I went for a lovely walk today on High Street and Kidsty Pike....descending over Mardale Ill Bell and down the Nan Bield Pass....

dets to follow - pix on Picassa

http://picasaweb.google.com/simon.bigair/HighStreetViaKidstyPike#

So, we got not quite as early start as we would have liked due to having hard weeks at work couple with the fun and games of moving....nevertheless the glorious morning got us out by 8.15am and driving on still icy roads to Mardale Head.

The original plan was to go up Rough Crag ridge to High Street and thence down to Nan Bield Pass....giving us plenty of time in the afternoon to do some sorting out and Claire's portfolio. However it seemed that everyone who was parked down at Mardale (and there were a LOT more cars than at xmas eve) was going that way so we carried on a little further and climbed onto Kidsty Pike. By this simple ploy we had the whole of the first part of the walk to ourselves.....being a grumpy old bugger who likes the company of other mountaineers in the pub not on the hill this was a good thing.....

Anyway; we climbed up the ridge and got to the top of Kidsty Pike before joining the main High Street ridge....the closer we got to the top the more people we saw....not surprising given the amazing views over all of Lakeland. The mist was swirling around slightly (as you can see from the pictures) but it stayed away from High Street. The summit view was superb; Ingleborough rising from a sea of cloud as was the Cross Fell range to our East. Lunch (very tasty too) was sampled before we wandered off over Mardale Ill Bell to the head of the Nan Bield Pass. There was a deep frost on the hills and some ice in places..we took crampons (although we didn't end up using them) but no ice axes. Taking the heavier boots was a decided advantage on the first part of the Nan Bield descent...which was not surprisingly quite icy. The top of the Nan Bield Pass is deep and enclosed on its Mardale side (a total contrast to the Kentmere side) and thus gets very little sun. The warm temperatures of the past couple of weeks meant that Smallwater was not as frozen solid as it could have been....and we were soon back at the car.

Today was about a good a day as I have had in the Lakes for a while...very different to the days under deep snow of pre-xmas and last January; but with the whole of the Lakes diffused in amazing conditions with the bare minimum of snow....the temperature has plummeted again tonight and tomorrow looks good...however a thaw is forecast for Scotland this week...really hope not.

The trip that never was.....Morocco at xmas...

given that I am still sitting here racked with a gruesome cold it might be time to review what didn't happen at xmas when snow stopped play on the Mt. Toubkal expedition...

Having broken up from school at 18th December, I headed up to Claire's and we did the final packing so we could get away early for the drive to near Gatwick airport...mindful of the roads in the south east and the weather....coupled with personal knowledge that a snowflake in the south east means that the world is going to end.....

The first 3 1/2hrs of the trip were totally uneventful - until we got to just above Milton Keynes where everything ground to a halt...suffice to say that the next stage of the trip (at a guess a journey of about 50miles) took nearly 9 hrs. Admittedly we did stop for a meal in St.Albans (I think!!) but that was after a journey down the motorway during which I would have been much faster in ski's...

We had gone in Claire's car so that we could have two drivers; however the snow meant that I drove pretty much all of this...which was very trying on pretty bad roads - which for reasons that pass understanding where reducing people to about 4mph, despite being eminently driveable to anyone with experience of driving in Cumbria or Scotland...

We finally got to our hotel at about 9.30 - very tired and stiff.....unbeknownst to us the fun was only just beginning....

Where has winter gone...

not though it matters too much at the moment given I am off work today feeling utterly awful and in no state to teach anyone anything.....

It has got a bit colder in the last couple of days and the incessant rain of last week has stopped....can it really be a little over a month since (so it seemed) the whole country was ground to a halt by the deep snows......

Then again - it is still mid/late Jan, hopefully there is still some time left for some more snow and half-term is 4 weeks away.

The end of winter already...

in Cumbria at least with 4 days of pretty much non-stop rain and spring like temperatures that will have stripped any vestiges of snow off the hills....and to think 6 days ago Ben and I were descending St. Sunday Crag in shin deep snow....

The forecast is for the weather to abate tomorrow...thus allowing Claire and I to get out for a walk - today we are focused on moving with a load going to storage and having purchased a flat pack wardrobe which we'll take back to the flat and assemble in a minute.....

Pinnacle Ridge

http://picasaweb.google.com/simon.bigair/PinnacleRidge#

this contains the pictures of Pinnacle Ridge that I took...I'll upload Ben's later and add these as well.

Woke up on Sunday morning to a couple of cm of new snow in Carlisle and the conditions were the same in Penrith when I met Ben at 8am in Morrisons car-park. We drove down to Patterdale and started the walk up Grizedale. It's been a long time since I had been this way but we were soon plodding up the valley. All was going swimmingly until we arrived under St. Sunday Crag and had to work out exactly where the route went!! From the valley floor it looks a mass of gullies and ridges which seem to slope a different way to the picture in the guide - which, it must be said, could be a little clearer!

In the end we decided to ascend towards the crag to try and locate the route...it was at this point that I realised that spending 6 days in Scotland recently was a good idea as plodding up a steep slope was hard graft but not as hard as it was before that trip.

About 45 mins later we encountered another person gearing up below what we thought might be Pinnacle Ridge...he confirmed that it was as two more people arrived over the horizon. To be fair, the lots of snow over the past two days and the snow on Sunday meant that only somewhat with terminal levels of stupidity would be in a gully and Pinnacle Ridge is supposed to be a good route. At this point it should possibly be noted that my only ascent had been a summer ascent about 20 years ago so I could not remember much of it.

Ben, who had done a lot more winter climbing than me this season (not too hard!!) lead off for the first two pitches and then I took over to get us under the crux corner. This is the bit that causes issues in the summer - its either a grade III scramble or Easy rock-climb depending on how one views such things....either way Ben provided a blinding lead that was not at all easy to second. Looking back in hindsight I am not convinced that he went the easiest way - however there is no way that I could have lead that pitch...MUCH respect is due. I had a graunchy pitch to follow and then we lowered off the pinnacle - leaving a sling and carabiner to join the manky rope that was there....luckily Ben belongs to the school of thought (as do I) that gear is easier to replace than body parts....

A final couple of rope lengths suddenly saw us deposited on top of the ridge with only a steep slope between us and the summit ridge and the descent. As it was now 3.30 this was a good thing indeed and after a de-gearing and bite to eat we set off. The descent was not the joyous romp anticipated - a lovely mix of shin deep snow interspersed with sheet black ice providing much fun and amusement for 1 1/4 hours until we hit the road in near total darkness...with only 1km back to Patterdale to do....then arriving to find my phone has no signal so I borrowed Ben's to give Claire a quick call before heading back....

This is being written over 24 hrs when I have just about stopped aching!! Winter climbing is seriously tough but also very good.......roll on half-term!!

The snow is back...

and hoping to get out for a play in it tomorrow....quite fancy Pinnacle Ridge on St. Sunday crag which is probably good as its NW facing.....gullies are probably not the best place to be right now with more snow forecast - which is a shame as its been nice and cold to consolidate the snowpack.

Sorting out.....

the flat today so that Claire can move more and more of her stuff here.....it's actually a bank holiday but luckily it's also overcast as well so I don't feel too guilty about not being on the hills.....

Newlands

Today's photos...from a fantastic time on the Newlands Horseshoe....the comparison with last year and the snow on Blencathra is stark..

http://picasaweb.google.com/simon.bigair/NewlandsHorseshoe02#

Squelching by the Eden...

First off; happy new year to one and all - hope 2011 is a good year.

Claire and I are having a day of sorting today; trying to combine two lots of stuff into one house-load, or, more likely, one and a garage somewhere if we can rent one!!

We did find time to go for a quick stroll along the river, and were very glad of our wellies; the thaw is total and complete here and the area is a mudbath. The temperature is nuts today; it must be at least 5 degrees...so much so that I am not at all sure about taking even an ice axe when we do Newlands Horseshoe tomorrow....

Luckily, there is a little more snow for the tops forecast for later in the week....hopefully we have not had all of winter.