The snow this morning stopped us going for our planned bike ride. Mark, Jacob and Lauren were headed out for a walk and so we joined them. After a few changes of plan we decided on Middle Fell in Wasdale. The drive was sedate on ungritted roads and at some time after 11 we set off from Greendale.

The views of the valley were spectacular, everywhere had received an inch or two of snow last night and as temperatures have been sub-zero for a few days now it had settled. We followed the beck up Greendale towards the tarn. As we gained height the amount of ice in the beck increased and Jacob found it harder to knock the ice off with his axe.

After a gentle climb we reached the tarn where we took a few photos and then got into Mark’s 4-6 person group shelter (soon to be known as a bivi tent since that’s what WMRT call it). A relaxed lunch followed and Lauren, Penny and I decided to head up to the summit whilst Mark and Jacob would play on the ice and return the way we came. The hot spicy berry cordial was a success.

The ground was frozen solid and some patches of ice came as a surprise under a covering of snow. However, it was drier than usual passing the partially ice-covered tarn. Once we reached the col between Seatallan and Middle Fell we turned and no longer had the wind on our faces. A further few minutes of gentle ascent saw us at the summit and fantastic views in all directions of the Wasdale valley. On the top we passed Tony and Alison who were doing the reverse of our route.

The descent was a little slippery and Penny ended up on her bum twice and Lauren had a minor ankle twisting incident when almost down (whist saying how stable she was with two poles). We got back to the car at 14:50 to find Mark and Jacob had been back for half an hour. On the way back the team called into the Doom and Gloom for a pint before then having to stop at Lauren’s for a cup of tea.