Real Skiing

A sunny start to the day with the tops covered in snow. Picture near Troutbeck enroute.

Headed up to the Lake District Ski Club hut on Raise after parking at the Greenside Mine car park.  Definitely not straight out onto the piste here.  It's a long walk up and you are nackered by the time you get there.  The cloud was down and it was windy.  No corrugated piste bashing either.  The snow was terrible boiler plate frozen sleet by the looks of it.  The lumps and bumps were unspottable in the flat light. After  three runs down, 2 falls and a long "rest" in the club hut I heded down out of the cloud into Keppel Cove.

Keppel Cove is a bleak spot on a wild day and Catseycam is a fine mountain from here.

Circled  [click on to enlarge] a person on the north west ridge of Catseycam.

The cloud started to blow away and a hint of blue arrived as the sun was going down.

Well no chips in Keswick on the way home,  but a grand coffee in the Square Orange.

Eurostar and Belle Plagne

Like quite a lot of people I was poorly on the lead up to Christmas and couldn't shake off a nasty hacking cough.  We had booked seats on Eurostar leaving from Ashford, Kent at 10 am Boxing Day.  The weather was still ice age and the all night journey from Cumbria was made worse by having to go via Peterborough.  Eurostar is an efficient way to get to the Alps and the booked taxi was there at Aime La Plagne to whizz us up the mountain.  Oh, and  motorway service stations are shut at Christmas.

View from apartment next morning.

Anyway I was finally shaking off the cold and by Tuesday of the holiday it was wall to wall  sunshine.  I seem to have been skiing for a number of years now but never get any better.  The French whizz past as if they were born on skis.

Anyway we had a great week  and some of the scenery is stunning.  Eurostar is a good way to get to the Alps the only down side if you live up north is the 8 or 10 hours it takes to get down to Kent.  Still at least I dont live down south.

Deja Vu

Sunday we had an early start, but when we got to the Thirlmere lay-by beneath Brown Cove it looked like everyone else had had an even earlier one.  The lay-by was full of snow so cars were parked all along the verges. We squeezed in and joined the coach party and heading for Brown Cove.

There were similar queues at the bottom of the gully.  Anyone following this blog will have realised that we did the same gully last year.

I did not take any photos in the gully but kept the camera in the sack until  the top.

 Greg at the top.  There was some ice in the gully but the snow was unconsolidated powder.

After a knee aching descent , guess what,  Keswick for chips.  I can report that the Kingfisher portions are bigger that the Old Keswickian portions we had last week.

Nearly skiing

 After a dusting of snow I headed for the Lake District  Ski Club.  I was late, the roads were covered, I had to go via Rhegged to defrost the windscreen.  I was later.  The Skoda is the worst car I've had for coping with snow so I parked in the main car park rather than risk the lane to Greenside  Mine.

Just as well as there was a Landrover in the ditch on the first hill.

By the time I was climbing the hill behind the mine I was nackered, carrying the heavy skiis and wearing the boots.

I got as far as the first plateau,  I told myself it was still a long way, conditions looked marginal to say the least.  Headed down for the car and Keswick for chips.

Yewbarrow

A strong, cold north easterly was forecast with cloud on the eastern fells. So we headed south west for , hopefully, the best weather. It clouded over but we did stay out of the cloud.

Scafell, across the valley, was also out of the clouds but everything further north was cloud capped.

We did not linger on the summit but scooted along the top until there was an "off road " escape to the valley and somewhere warm to eat the sandwiches.

Beda Fell

This must be my least visited area of the Lakes. It's quite a drive and I've never liked the narrow lane down the side of Ullswater. I parked on the hill above Martindale walked across the bridge and up onto the ridge.

This is an attractive ridge with good all round views. Martindale forest across the valley looks worth exploring.

After the summit and a few sandwiches I descended to Dale Head farm and the road. There's a gate just north of here with a track across the valley. If you wanted to explore the forest or climb Gowk Hill you would cross the valley here. Unfortunately walkers are forbidden.

The excuse seems to be that it's a deer park. The real reason seems to be that the Bungalow is a Holiday cottage. So the cottage occupants don't seem to be upsetting the deer.

I guess if you went up the valley past the Bungalow deer might be encounterted, but to cross the valley north of the bungalow to climb Gowk hill would disturb nothing.

Interesting door lintel spotted on road side.

Winter Preparation

I had a bad cold at the weekend so took the opportunity to put the new cover on the campervan. I dont know how well these work , but we sustained frost damage to the water system last year. I've drained it more thoroughly this time.