Winter starts...

A fabbo day out on Pike O'Blisco today.
Langdale looked resplendent as I drove in first thing, I knew today would be special.
Ascending from the East the steep gully of Redacre Gill doesn't see the sun at this time of the year, so a little care had to be taken from the off to avoid patches of ice. Around the 500m mark we emerged into glorious sunshine and found the snow..
actually much much less than we'd had at home. But the clear skies meant anywhere not warmed by the sun was treacherous (everywhere else you could mostly wander, no need for pointy things). Those of you who know this hill will also know its a series of rocky steep bluffs... all but the very last of which can be avoided with a little forethought.
We sat and had a snack and watched a couple of blokes who clearly hadn't made a plan spend a long long time working out they couldn't get down the main bluff... Eventually they headed North*.... further in the shade, we left them to it and contoured Southwards and upwards, finding ice free rock to ascend all the way to the South Summit.
Knowing time would be the enemy we took in the North (slightly higher) summit, then I headed us down quick to make the most of the warmer conditions. When we got to the steep bluff we took the steep descent. The rock mostly covered in bullet hard ice, but just enough stlll free for me to shepherd G step by step, hand hold by handhold, down 20ft or so and saving ourselves a longer detour, though I did have to explain to a family of six that they shouldn't follow us! The plan worked and we were able to get right to the valley floor in daylight - essential to be able to avoid the ice sat on every other step of yet another badly built stone path!
We even had time to stop a while and appreciate the fantastic frozen shapes of water seen in today's extra, if you look closely you can see the ice has formed around blades of grass. Beautiful.

*We saw them get down to the plateau