So the following is a little taster of the trip. I managed to get to Seathwaite Farm at 8.45 last night. It was chucking it down. A beer in the car later and it had stopped enough for me to get out, up the side of Sour Milk Ghyll and pitch up with the tarp on a small platform near the top waterfall.
The camp spot just behind the top waterfall (taken the next day)
The tarp in the dark. It was 11pm before I was safely tucked in my sleeping bag.
The forecast was for a clear night and bright sunny day. It chucked it down for the majority of the night, with the delightful surprise of the slight breeze changing direction. This resulted in a good test of my water resistant bivi bag. On two or three occasions I woke up with rain on my face and head, the bivi resisted. I retreated into the foot end of the tarp, as you may be able to tell from the following pictures there wasn't all that much room...
I realised during the night that it was remembrance Sunday and that I had read about a service that takes place on Great Gable so with no other plan I decided I'd plod up there the next day. As per the forecast is was chucking it down, the cloud was down and it was miserable. However... higher up this had fell as snow. The first snow I'd seen this winter. This made for a much more enjoyable and atmospheric walk.
The service was very brief and the sun made a brief appearance and then the cloud rolled in and the temperature really dropped. Forty minutes of standing around had took it's toll on my fingers so it was a quick descent to Sty Head Tarn and then back to the car.
A lovely little winter adventure to start the snowy season off. Maybe commentary to follow...
