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.