Grasmere wild camp,Jan 18

So with xmas done and dusted i looked to the yrs first camp, my normal companions being Oscar and Lee,sadly Oscar cant make the hills now and Lees had a nasty bug since xmas
So it was a nice suprise to get a message from James Boulter,saying he was up for a few nights and would i like to meet up on Saturday night..we agreed an area to meet 

I was away from home early and left Grasmere just gone 7-30 am i followed James route at first and headed up the quiet Far Easdale track,the snow soon started to deepen 

It was a very steep uphill,but it was a route of my own making 

I followed the path way up then after Deer Bields crags made a sharp turn South and upwards, it was a steep ascent made harder by the knee deep snow, sadly just before gaining the ridge i hit an area of thigh deep snow...hard work was needed 

Once i got higher the clag came in for a while but then beautifuly dropped back down filling the valleys, the result was a lovely inversion

It was a very monochrome sort of day but lovely all the same a quick check on the phone and a few texts and i agreed to meet James on High Raise

Luckily for me some people met me on Coldale head and they then broke trial over to High Raise i was happy to follow there tracks over

As i waited the mist rolled over Rosset and then filled the long Langscarth valley, it was lovely to watch as i waited for James to appear,he had found deep snow too 

                                                       The beard hill master approaches 

Checking the forecast we could see that the weather was due to change with the wind swinging round to the South and increasing in strength, a mix of snow was in the mix too....Sunday morning wasnt going to be nice 

Photo credit James Boulter

So after High Riase we walked back over to Sergeant man and then made our way along towards Tarn crag,we looked at a spot id used before but it was still cathcing the wind so we pushed on a bit more 

James had said he'd had a bit of a struggle to sort a flat piece to camp on,on Friday night. So he was happy to use my shovel to sort himself out a flat pitch,but not before id had to dig out a good foot and a half of snow to get a nice level pitch for myself first

Shelters up we searched out some water and were soon walking back to camp with litres of fresh water 

Photo credit James Boulter

 

Brews were made and we settled in to our respective shelters

James choose to stay in his shelter most of the evening,not a bad decision as the wind was blowing hard and the windchill was brutal on my fingers, every time i took my mitts off to alter settings on my camera

The wind died off around 10 pm and the rest of the night was ok, but the wind arrived at 6 am ish followed an hour later by the snow and spindrift 

It was a bit harsh packing away the shelters and once were we done we soon made our way off..james wanted to bag Tarn crag and what with the strong wind spindrift and snow/clag it was a bit of a challenge

But James has a Mountain beard and is made of tuff stuff 😅 So as soon as we found the summit we left it, constantly checking our position as we avoided the crags till we made the valley bottom 

The snow was falling hard as we chatted our way down the valley and was settling well even in Grasmere village...all to soon we said goodbye and i quickly got changed and set off in the car for home...a good trip with good company ......safe travels Peter 

https://youtu.be/41Bhc_j-Xiw