Blue Bird Day
Hard work in deep snow
https://www.strava.com/activities/240968290
We had 15 inches of snow over night but the day seemed bright and dry so we decided to have a little walk up craigellachie to the view point. The snow was very deep. We met a couple of people on skis and one on snow blades. Lovely views from the top.
Was it fun, Yes it was…but hard work!
There was a fair bit if snow lost overnight and although the forecast was for winds we decided to go out and see what is was like. We drove up to the ciste car park and set carrying our skis (a first) to the beginning of the snow. We skinned up to towards the top of the day lodge and then continued up the M2 to the ptarmigan. Then we skied back down. Great fun going down but hard work going up! The wind never got up at all. I wore my new thermals and woollen fleece and was nice and toasty
Dow Crag and Coniston
Brown Pike 682m Buck Pike – Seathwaithe 744m Dow Crag 778m Coniston The Old Man 803m
4 1/2 hours
We parked up at the car park at the beginning of the Walna Scar road and carried on walking up the road to the col and then headed up Brown Pike and went along the ridge to Dow Crag. the light was lovely and sunny. As we got to Dow Crag it got a bit claggy and a bit snowy. fantastic day we wore our stiff boots with the yeti gaiters. After the walk we headed back to kendal for a McDonalds. It was nice to be back on the lakeland fells.
The Bell
Dow Crag
Brown Pike and Dow Crag
Walna Scar Road
Dow Crag – where Roger and I spent our first day together ever.
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Harter Fell
We think that this is Bow Fell
Brown Crag Summit 
Brown Crag summit Cairn and Buck Pike
Looking back at Brown Crag
Dow Crag Summit
Coniston Water from Dow Crag
The trek up to Old Man with Dow Crag behind
Coniston Summit Cairn with Brim Fell behind
Not a reccy to Pen y Ghent
Pen y Ghent 694m
Joe was working today so Kai, Roger and I decided to blow the cop webs out of our selves but having a wee jaunt up Pen y Ghent. As you can see it was a tad misty but luckily the rain stayed off. We enjoyed a mince pie at the summit. Later we had a bit of an epic trying to find somewhere open for lunch. We ended up at wether stones in Kendal for fish and chips. A great day. Feel a bit as as we won’t see Kai again before we go home.
Christmas Day
The Helm 159m
Christmas Day with Joe. We went for a walk up the helm. I hill I have always wanted to go up but never got round to. We saw a lovely rainbow from the top and Kai rang us when we were at the top. We then came down and we had a lovely nut roast dinner and watched the telly
Pre Christmas Beef Dinner
Our pre Christmas beef dinner is becoming a bit of a tradition. Kai is laughing so so much because I set the timer and couldn’t get I to the photo!
Second day of the season – Cairngorm Mountain
We had an afternoon on the hill the on the 13th which was the first day of the season, today the weather was lovely and sunny but very icy. Too icy for tree zone so when Roger came home mid morning there w no second thinking….off we went.
The conditions were pretty icy with lots of death cookies. One did trip me up! No harm done!
There was just the train for uplift but we managed 4 runs top to bottom, taking in the M105, Zig Zags, The Travese, Burnside, Car Park and the Home Run.
Lovely
An Icy ride along the Spey way to Boat and back
D: 21.3km. T: 2hr 15mins. El: 88m Av Sp9.4km/hr
http://www.strava.com/activities/227474547
It was definitely much more icy than we thought but it was good to be on our bikes again. We called in at the 1896 galley for a coffee and soup. And then came back along the river to pick up the Spey way to Aviemore. 1896 gallery looks great and my jewellery looks well in their cabinet. Soup was excellent.
A night in the car park
We thought that there might be a display of the northern lights so we went up to the car park in the van and spent the night checking! Unfortunately we saw nothing! Even if there had been any we would not have seen them as there was a full moon! Still you live and learn. In the morning we went down to the mountain cafe for a smashing kiwi breakfast.
Mountain Days and Photo Nights 