A Blustery Weekend in the Lakes

We headed south on Friday for a weekend in the Lakes with friends from www.outdoorsmagic.com. Accommodation for the weekend was in the excellent Bury Outdoor Pursuits Centre near Glenridding.

A good night was had on Friday evening with a variety of Tesco Curries. There may also have been the odd bottle of beer consumed also!

The forecast for the weekend wasn’t too bad, a few wintry showers and a bit breezy. Elaina is still building up her hill fitness so we decided to do a relatively easy day doing Catstye Cam next to Helvellyn. However it turned out to be a bit more challenging than anticipated. The walk up towards Red Tarn was easy enough but as we headed up the east ridge of Catsty Cam the wind started to pick up. By the time we got to the summit we were literally on all fours crawling. I’ve been in some pretty windy conditions but the difference this time was the sheer strength of the gusts interspersed with lulls. We had planned to head off the north ridge but quickly decided to head southwest to the bottom of Swirral Edge and down to Red Tarn. From there we had a leisurely walk back to the bunkhouse. Thankfully the only casualties were two lost hats! Later that evening we found out that a woman had been airlifted from near Coniston.

As we were back a lot earlier than planned we headed to Ambleside for a well earned hot chocolate and cheesecake. An entertaining evening again followed with excellent home made lasagne and rice pudding.

An absolutely cracking weekend, looking forward to meeting up with the same folk at Black Sail in March!

I didn’t take many photos so here’s some taken by Maria and Robin.