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I fancied starting my own little blog and an easy one for me to do is of all the mountains and routes we have been tackling recently as there seem to be loads, and the stories along the way. It's also a good way to keep track of what I climbed when!
Jan
NYE We got away from it all (except for 2 other tents!) by driving to Ingleton in Yorkshire then climbing up Ingleborough by night vision and headtorches laden with the tent and midnight fesat goodies. We got to the top, pitched the tent and had the kettle on at midnight. We climbed up through the cloud and it was beautiful on top - frozen ground but really clear, lots of stars and fireworks reflected off the clouds below. One of our 'summit sharers' lit a Chinese lantern which just went up and up as it was so still. Jason claimed to have forgotton his whisky so shared my homemade sloe vodka...then found his whisky...hmm...
Geochaching We took the kids geocaching - plug co-ordinates into your GPS, drag them up a hill, then find the buried treasure. Leave a note and a small piece of your own treasure, exchange it for more treasure - brilliant! A proper treasure hunt and makes it much more interesting walking for them too.
Snowdon 'Lets go up Snowdon'.....'not again?'...'yes, we're going a more interesting way' It was brilliant - huge apologies to Jason, I had a fab day out! I donned my shiny new 4 season mountain boots and off we ambled up the Miners track then headed up a Grade I scramble up the Gribin Ridge. Got to the top of that, donned crampons and set off upwards to pop out on the 'other side' of the summit - first crampon wearing experience and lots of snow to try it out on! Saw only 6 other people on top - hooray! They appear to have finished building the cafe on top but it was rather buried by snowdrifts. and there are now posh steps to the summt - very odd! It should be a joy when the summit cafe opens and even more people flock to it...... A brilliant route back down the Pyg track - much easier when it is covered in snow, and some practise ice axe arrests aka sliding in the snow - great fun!
Feb
Catstycam (nr Helvellyn in the Lakes). I now have crampons of my very own!! So we nipped up to the lakes pulled on the salopettes, mountain boots, crampons, climbing harness and ropes, helmets, ice axe and nerves of steel (ok so the nerves of steel deserted me to start with but then caught up again) and off we went up a beautiful and superb grade one winter climb - beautiful snow, a lovely blue sky sunny day and a massive sense of achievement coupled with a lovely walk back down, including a comedy moment when my right leg disappeared into a stream a whole leg's length below the snow that I was walking on - fortunatley the rest of my body didn't follow! Photos not yet added...
Old Man of Coniston Quick lets nip back up to the Lake District while there is still snow - no snow at the bottom but plenty of snow and ice and reason for crampons and ice axe on the top once we eventually got there with no thanks to the low cloud or my compass which did a 180 degree flip which meant we walked around in a big circle for a while!! So after the fourth time of visiting I finally managed to get on to the summit, I'm not bothered about doing it again although it was great fun at the top sauntering past people sliding around and we had our crampons on - although we did 'sledge' on our bottoms down some of it!!
next stop...the Caringorms in 2 weekends time!!
March:
The Cairngorms are an amazing set of mountains and an achievable driving distance away although we didn't arrive till half past midnight at the hostel where the rest of preston Mounatineering Club was staying. Saturday was a lie in then a bit of a recce to see what the conditions were like. it was really clear, you could wsee all of it, which apparantly is very rare! lots of snow in the gullies and on top but none on the approach. Sunday did a fantastic route called... really liked it, very variable and good weather. Sunday, was quite tired, a few false starts and quite a lot of spindrift being blown down. A different gully called... and a straight up. Found it much harder work but Jason kept on going. Pendle mountain rescue was at the top (not for me!) doing a practise in the not so great conditions. walked back down via the ridge... then chippy lunch followed by huge drive back in the rain. WOuld liek to go out again! Lake District - Red Screes. Had a lovely walk with Alison and Helen. Was really hot - Helen even got her legs out. Really lucky with the weather, clear and sunny, tiny patches of snow here and there and of course a visit to the apple ppie shop in Ambleside for coffee and cake!
April:
Only got out the once - took the kids up Catbells in the Lake District. Easily achievale, great views, feels liek a mountain but isn't quite (<600m). Nice day and they loved it
May:
Again only one day out and that involved the kids again(too busy redesigning the boat!)! Parked at Kirkstone Pass Inn and nice easy walk up to Stoney Cove Pike with great views of high Street - must do that one day!
June:
Met Dad ad Corinne and went for a walk / scramble
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