Walla Crag (10/01/10)

My plan today was to park up at Watendlarth and walk from there.  However the road up there was covered in snow and ice.  I made up to view point where I had a great view of the frozen Derwent Water.

Derwent Water frozen over with a overing of snow

There was a brave couple camping at the back of the car park and looked rather surprised to see someone!  As I know the road from there is narrow with little room to turn around, I decided not to risk it so went back down and headed for the Great Wood car park.  From there I headed up Cat Gill where I got to see this frozen waterfall

Frozen water fall (not a great pic as light wasn't great)

The plan to go up Bleaberry Fell, however, the wind picked up and the snow was being blown into my face, which wasn't all the pleasant!  decided to forget this and headed for Walla Crag.  There was plenty of snow and ice about up there.  The sun did make a brief appearance which allowed me to get the shot below.

Bleaberry Fell from Walla Crag

From Walla Crag I headed down towards Keswick then cutting though Great Wood back to the car.  So not what I had planned to do, but another fun day out in the snow :-)

Ling Fell

Only a little one today.  Didn't get up as early as planned! The drive to Ling Fell was interesting, with the overnight snow and little traffic made the roads fun :-)

The Road below Ling Fell

The Land Rover earning its keep!

I took the corpse road to the top, which had a good covering of snow as well as plenty of sheep

The Corpse Road

The Trig point on the top of Ling Fell

The wind picked whilst at the top, making it very bitter. But it didn't effect the wonderful views.

Trying to look warm!

It was a good chance to try out the new Paramo Torres gilet.  Really noticed the difference when put this on over my Aspira smock.  Allowed me to be comfortable whilst enjoying the views and some soup.  Also decided to put on the crampons for the walk back down as there were some icy patches to get down.

View from the top

Nice and sunny view from the top

Skiddaw in the distance and Sale Fell in the foreground

Broom Fell in the distance

Another great day out.  Only one more Wainwright ticked off the list, but enjoyed this little stroll.

Lord's Seat and Broom Fell

Well what a day!!  I don't think you could ask for better winter conditions.  It was -7 driving through Lorton heading to the Spout Force car park. Great to see some red squirrels in the trees on the way there too.

It was great to see the sun coming over the fells as I walked along past Darling How.

Sun coming up over Broom Fell

Sun coming up over Broom Fell

I then went through Aiken Plantation and up through the trees, which looked spectacular covered in snow.  I got a good showering of snow down my neck as I walked under to branches, one disadvantage of being tall, but it helped out later!

Path though the tress on the way to Lords Seat

The final push to the top of the Lords Seat was entertaining, with some very deep drifts to walk through.  Here being tall was helpful, as I was close to being waist deep at times!!

Lords Seat summit with Solway and Robin Rigg off-shore wind farm in the distance

Not a bad view!!

Barf and Skiddaw from Lords Seat

From Lords Seat I put on the crampons and headed over to Broom Fell.

Heading over to Broom Fell

Te views were just amazing.  I also noticed that the north end of Bassenthwaite Lake was frozen - it was cold!

Stunning view across to Grisedale Pike

The views from the summit of Broom Fell were just as good

Me at the cairn on Broom Fell

Broom Fell cairn

I won't apologise for the number of photos in this post.  The views were just so good!  From the top of Broom Fell I retraced my steps back over Lords Seat and back to the car.  This was a cracking day out.  Sadly you don't get too many days like this, so I was so pleased to be able to get out today.

So that is another of couple off the list.  But it was the sort of day that is was just great to be out.  Anything else was just a bonus.