Wintry Weather

Well, I went and did Ingleborough yesterday afternoon: parked at the Hill Inn at 2.30 and all went well until I reached the really steep section up The Arks after Humphrey Bottoms, and found it to be much more wintry than I'd expected. I had to cut steps in the snow - a few people had been up but not that many - and then the final steep section to the summit plateau was really icy. Despite this I reached the top in an hour and a quarter, but then coming back down to the top of The Arks I had to do a lot of it backwards! So I decided to avoid the steep section and do a detour along the flank of Simon Fell to Park Fell and came down a much easier slope there, which just meant a half-mile trek back along the road to reach the car. Full marks to the guy I met wearing crampons, even though he did look a bit too smug. Seven miles, 1500', 2h 50m, so no great worries there. To save petrol I'll do my next training on Pendle, although to get the same height and ascent means going up and down three times, which might get a bit boring.