Two white camps above the Langdale valley,Dec 2020

 

With the first good fall of snow, i was keen to get out,trying to leave this crazy year behind.Leaving the car in Langdale i walked through Jillys campsite then up the steep path to Side pike

This lead onto the snow and after a Side Pike,it was a nice walk out to Lingmoor fell,but by the time we had doubled back to the road,the weather had started to change but believing the forcast i was happy we would be walking under fresh falling snow flakes !

Crossing the road we started up the long steep climb up to Pike of Blisco as the rain continued i thought more hieght and will it will turn to snow ! There was some good depth higher on the hill too

Sadly as i left the summit of Blisco i could feel the weather worsening on reaching the tarn it came in hard.Lashing it down with big cold wet drops and the wind increased to 20,s with gusts up over 35mph

Collecting and filtering water was unpleasant as was the slog across to Cold pike summit, but we found a spot that was slightly more sheltered and got started tramping down the deep damp snow to get our shelters pitched up  

Once a brew and some snacks had been eaten things were better,but it stayed wet and gusty all nights the highlight was this lovely tea, from Basecamp foods 

Saturdays dawn was at least dry and the signs were there for a much better days tramping 

     Dawn briefly gave some nice colour as we finished packing up

The Crinkles have to be the best mile of Lakeland ridge we have and it always looks so good from the view point of Cold pike 

The temp was around 1c,so the snow was not that soft and it was a great crossing,as we met the first of the days walkers 

                               Did i say how good the Crinkles are in winter ?

After yesterdays wet & windy finish,it was nice to take a slow crossing and enjoy the views on a near perfect winters day.It was then onto Bowfell with its stuninng views, before a return to Three tarns to camp,as we could already see it was going to be a good sunset

The sunset was good and as the sun sank so did the temp, sadly it warmed up after 10 pm,with cloud coming in

Theres always something about that first hot brew after getting camp set up

I asked a friendly photgrapher friend to process ,the above and two below pics,for me as i dont have the software and possible skills to get the RAW data out of these pics 

                                                  Sleeping Lakeland giants 

Sunday morning was cloudy again but it cleared as we left to walk back down the Band to the valley,sadly the views showed just how much had melted since Friday morning 

                            Thanks for looking and safe travels   

Two Duomids pitched on Hart crag summit,Aug 2020

Two messages over the week had me booking a Friday off to meeting Darron again plus Matt Holland who nipped over for a quick overnight camp

We thought the weather was going to cool but sadly that didnt arrive till late Saturday/Sunday.So it was nice to stay in the shade for a bit as we admired the lovely houses as we left the tarmac behind and followed the path upto Alcock tarn

Even by 9 am it was warm so we had 26 c in the shade by 10 am and directly left in the sun,some strange numbers !

Luckily we had filled up with water from below the tarn,once on the ridge we had an early lunch on Heron pike before we seeked out the small amounts of breeze as we headed round the horseshoe 

  

We had pitched early ,3pm ,on a nice spot on Hart crag,me and Matt then offered to collect Darrons water from a source a few 100 ft below us,while he looked after our shelters.I forgot how heavy 7 litres is !

Darron had just found himself a Tarptent Notch in new condition,a fine shelter it looks too,Matt and myself were both in Duomids 

Luckily my home made Damson vodka didnt blind me to much 

We had great views all around and a nice breeze blew ever so slightly which made things much nicer,even so it was 24c still at 6 pm even at 800m

Sunset gave a bit of nice light and the sky wasnt to bad either, saw a few shooting stars while laying in my shelter,caught one on the edge of one of my pics too

Think we all slept with doors fully open,sadly this time of year..star pics are 11-12 pm or later and then pre-dawn light had started by just gone 4 am 😒

But as id seen the evening before and during the night an inversion was building and a cracker it was too 

Early early moring brew, product placement for my favourite food suppliers Basecamp foods 

Mr Holland enjoying his breakfast 

LEAVE NO TRACE CAMPING 

By 8 am we were on our way back too Farfield and the walk back down it was warm already by this time

Some great views as we dropped back down towards the car,the heat increasing as we dropped 

A video of the trip, best viewed on larger than a phone screen,with HD selected from top right corner

Matt Holland kindly let me use 3 of his pictures from our camp, two of which are from the Drone he brought with him

Here are some from the photgrapher Darron Linney...makes me fell like im using a box brownie 😞

Thanks for looking,safe travels Peter