No money, no ticky!

"No money, no ticky (ticket)" is what I got told when I tried to park today at Patterdale YHA. I thought I'd be able to convince them to let me park - no such luck. Patterdale is a bind to park anyway, and because its Easter too it wasn't happening, so I detoured back to Troutbeck instead.

Where I'm heading (from the right) - Yoke, Ill Bell and Frostwick

Just love the patterns man!

From Troutbeck I headed up to Garburn Pass (classic mountain bike route - see earlier post!) and then up onto Yoke (706m), Ill Bell (757m), Frostwick (720m) and Thornthwaite Crag (784m) - basically the western half of the Kentmere horseshoe.


Various local media had issued an avalanche warning for the Lakes (no particular detail, just watch out!). They warned of dangerous conditions, lots of windslab and snow build up.

On top - Windermere to the right

The next objective! And beyond (slightly right) is Highstreet

Well.... Great weather, snowy, cold (-5 C on top), with a sharp Easterly wind. I encountered some snow drifts on Westerly aspects and sure some windslab, but very low risk of slides here at least (today).
 
Two girls were walking the same way as me, they were very friendly 'hikers', but didn't have any crampons/spikes. At a couple of points they were unsure whether to carry on, but did so, bypassing, and 'bum' sliding the steeper bits. Again I found my microspikes great today.

The long valley back to the car beckons...

On the descent a few small snow drifts. My two new pals following

I slowed down so that they could see the way off the hill, as they admitted to being a bit 'rattled', when the weather (wind) was at its worst. It made me think that the media are only trying to stop people like this from getting out of their depth and into trouble (or worse). I remember doing some foolish stuff when I first discovered the outdoors, such as going up Tryfran in a winter storm without proper clothing or equipment, just following some guys who said they knew the way - its a fine line we tread between experience and adventure........

Looking back to where I'd dropped down (right hand side)

Nice barn - very spring like in the valley