So Easter Sunday we set off quite handy and headed for Grassmere, it was a lovely sunny day, freezing cold but lovely and sunny with blue skies. First of all we had to have breakfast in Baldry's, now if you ever in Grassmere you really need to pay a visit to Baldry's Tea Rooms, they do the best bread and butter pudding I have ever tasted. Of course we didn't have that for breakfast we were good and had Rarebit with poached egg and bacon and it was yummy. This set us up for the day :-)
We decided to walk up Helm Cragg, then do the extended version of the walk, along the ridge edge and over the next Peak. Off course with us nothing is that simple and straight forward. The climb up to Helm Cragg was very steep, all the climb was in one go, we have never climbed this steep before so that was a challenge and we did it, with only a couple of little stops for a few minutes, my excuse is I'm taking in the scenery. Clive seems to fall for that one. Once we were at the top, the views are stunning well worth the effort of the climb.
When we got over the ridge we were greeted with snow, yes snow lots of it it came from nowhere, one side of the Cragg was green, the other white over! strange. So me and snow do not go together very well, anyone who knows me well enough will know that I am not the safest person on dry ground never mind on snow. But we had 2 choices, to carry on or turn back, the thought of that steep climb, it was bad enough going up but going down would be twice as bad, so we decided best to plod on. We came to a fairly steep bit, which was icy, I did my usual I can't do this!! Clive gave me the usual pep talk and trying to tell me the best way to get down, on your bum he said, no way!!!! I went to sit on a rock for a minute just so I could think of a plan, the next thing I go whizzing down past Clive on my bum, what a site I must have been, my arms waving everywhere trying to stop! of course Clive thought it was highly amusing and is gutted he couldn't get his phone out in time to video me!
When I eventually came to a halt, up I got and carried on wishing no one had seen me :-( but I wasn't the only one that came down that way, there were a few others that followed my lead. In some parts we were knee deep in snow and of course as usual we went off track, and had to try and re-track our steps, this added at least 2 to 3 miles on. Walking in the snow and ice is hard work, if anyone ever suggests doing Everest think I might jut give it a miss.
We'd been walked for nearly 6 hours, when we came to a point on the map we recognised, yay we were back on track, panic over :-) then we were met with a narrow footpath, and it was narrow and full of snow, rocks on one side and a drop the other, not a big drop but big enough to do a bit of damage if you slipped, now in the summer this would be easy, but in the snow, well that's a different story, I froze, I was on the verge of crying, I can't do this!!! again 2 options turn back, bearing in mind its taken nearly 6 hours to get to this point or just go for it, of course we went for it. Poor Clive had to walk across backwards, it was only a short part of the path, approx. 150 yards, but god it felt like miles, we did it a step at a time, all I could see out the of corner of my eye was the steep slope and sheep at the bottom, even the sheep moved out of the way!! we did it and were very proud of ourselves, after that we were safely on more or less lower ground.
In total we walked for 7 hours and 45 minutes, our legs were even aching at the end, which is good. I think we are now well and truly ready for Petra. After we were in the pub for a well earned Crabbies ginger beer and Clive confessed that a few times over the day he was getting a bit panicky and worried, so glad he left that till after to tell me.
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