Lead throughout a journey up Skidaw from our B&B in Keswick to the Summit. I had planned the route prior to the trip. The group included my son Haz, and friends Andy, Ian and Pete. It was a long walk in and out from the B&B in Keswick. As the day progressed the cloud level dropped to reduce visibility to 100m, wind increased to a point where we were being blowed side ways, and deep snow. The deep snow required a change of the front person to break the way through the snow. What makes an easy mountain walk in the summer completely changes in the winter and poor visibility but a great challenge and lots of learning lessons.
We first ascended Lonsdale Fell, next Little Man and then onto Skiddaw. As we ascended the slopes of Skiddaw the cloud came in, along with the Snow. We continued on and navigation skills were tested to full. I was using a combination of map / compass / and gps to keep our location. Visibility was down to less than 50 to 100 yards at times. The higher and higher we went the wind got worse - our tracks were being filled very quickly as we progressed up the mountain. We had to break snow as we ascended but we were fine. We were all kitted out in winter gear… Ice Axes and Crampons were not necessary on Skiddaw, however winter boots and walking poles with snow buckets were a must. Also, we were all wearing ski googles with the cross winds and snow hitting us side ways. We eventually reached the summit made the customary hand shakes and started our descent. The descent seemed to go on for ever with the poor visibility. We descended via Carl Side and Slades Beck to Millbeck… At lower levels the conditions did start to improve and we walked back into Keswick, a quick pint in the George before returning to the B&B was definitely required...
Area :
Northern Fells
Generally this is the area to the north of the A66 which runs from Penrith to Cockermouth and the town of Keswick.
