Winter Hill Walking - or was it?

As there has been a lot of snow on the fells I though I'd go and try out my early christmas present. Boots and Crampons. I found it quite hard to find any B2 rated boots in a size 14, in fact I never found any, but instead I saw a pair of (B3)  La Sportiva Nepal Extremes in my size. With a pair of Grivel G12 XL Crampons and a DMM Cirque Ice axe, I am fully equipped for winter hillwalking and mountaineering.

Murton Crag

My Dad was quite busy today and although he was quite happy to take me to the Lake District I decided it would be a bit too much to ask of him. Instead I headed for the nearest fells, the north Pennines. In just 10-15 minutes I was in Murton Car Park ready to set of up the Pike! Any previous readers will probably be thoroughly sick of hearing about my regular ventures around High Cup Nick; I wasn't going to even write about this outing, but it was a bit too special to miss out.

Murton Pike Summit

I set off towards Murton Pike. I had a wonderful feeling. For the first time I was a mountaineer! It didn't matter that I had little knowledge of crampon and Ice axe technique, and I hadn't yet even used them, now I had the right equipment I knew I had the whole day to get to know it! I was gazing up at the summit, my first objective of the day. I looked at the ground I was currently walking on, a thin blanket of white with many intrusive splodges of grass poking out of it. This was certainly too low a level to even consider the use of crampons, a good hundred metres would have to be gained before the snow was even close to ready. I had set myself a point and went for it, Murton Crag. By the time I was there I would be half way up already. It wasn't long before I was there. The snow was now thick, but powdery, crampons would do very little and an Ice axe would only damage the turf lying under the snow. I continued towards the summit without the aid of crampons. Kicking steps and occasionally punching a fist through the snow for the extra stability. On reaching the summit the fog poured in. I took a few photo's of the trig point and then went to put my camera in my rucksack only to find the whole of Eden Valley sitting patiently below me when I looked back up. The fog had cleared! I got my camera back out again and after taking several more shots, at long last I donned my crampons and got out my ice axe. The north face of the hill would surely be in the right condition. But what was the right condition? I didn't really know. I was hoping for good hard snow, but there was none. It wasn't even worth carving a bollard out in the snow to test it's strength. I knew for sure it would give way. I decided I could at least try some techniques out and I wasn't going to come to any harm on such a gentle slope. After 10 minutes I realised today wasn't going to be a great day for Ice Axe and Crampon practice. I put them both away and got out my poles instead. This was the set up I used for the rest of the day. After working my way down to the valley, I gently made my way towards High Cup Nick.

High Cup Valley with Murton Pike in the Distance

After a while my heels were starting to get blisters on them. I sat down in the snow and took my boots off.  The whole process took about 5-10 minutes my bum was getting quite cold but I didn't really care, I knew it would easily warm up again. However when I did finally get up I had a feeling something was missing. I couldn't think what though? My arse! I prodded at my buttocks countless times, unable to register any feeling in them what so ever. I continued walking knowing that they would thaw out the moment I started on a bit of ascent. Throughout the day certain parts of my body went numb my fingers were the obvious one and my nose, which reminded me of the anaesthetic the dentist gave me when he pulled my teeth out. Because the of the soft snow, I decided I would concentrate on getting some descent photo's instead of practicing winter skills. High Cup Nick was beautifully lit by the sun and I was sure to get some good shots. As the day went on I was getting more and more into finding good camera angles and I was becoming increasingly glad I had come to such a unique place, where the sun and the snow complemented every inch of the amazing whin sill valley. The day was drawing to a close and in order to get back before daylight I attempted a glissade down one of the steep slopes. I had my Ice Axe out in order to use as an ice brake. On the powdery snow I didn't pick up that much speed, so I'm not sure how much time it saved but it was definitely fun and an efficient way of getting down a steep slope. Dad arrived at out meeting spot at exactly the same time as I did, often I miss time my walks and my nice relaxing day out turns into one of those Top Gear style races where I have to sprint down a mountain to beat the car. 

Despite not having used my new gear much, I now feel much more comfortable about using it when the ground conditions are right. I will hopefully be learning more skills on a course at Glenmore Lodge in February, but before then I will try and get out and about in the snow, to get used to using my gear.