It was like Piccadilly Circus on Saturday

We went for great walk up Easdale from Grasmere on Saturday, heading for Sergeant Man, we were in good company with the two Alans; the tarns and felltops were bathed in winter sunlight. 

So first up we have a photo of the gang going along the side of Easedale Tarn and at this point it looks like we have the place to ourselves but that is just Pete's clever angling of the photo. In reality we seemed to have overtaken quite a few walkers on the way up and then a few were obviously only heading for the tarn where they stopped. On my right is Alan and on my left is another Alan who are good walkers and both are regular visitors to Keswick and participate in our guided walks during the season and now are coming off season too.That is dedication for you, and you know its quite touching when you realise that people can't wait to come back on the walks with us again. It 's the best compliment you could have.

This is the view ahead of us and our path took us past this wonderful little mini Matterhorn called Belles Knott.

Here we're climbing towards Belles Knott  from Easdale Tarn, far below us now.  

Our two Alans are making their way towards the top of Sergeant Man with a wonderful cloud formation above their heads, the snow was thicker now, not crampon conditions yet but there were areas of hard frozen snow that you needed to kick steps into with your boots. Bella, despite her built in crampons, does not always use them and sometimes slides about much to everyone's amusement except hers.

She is learning  that some ice is very slippery.

Soon we left the snow line and descended towards Blea Rigg; this photo shows the wonderful vista that opened up to us... fascinating, undulating ground with lots of interesting rocky knolls. But where was the top? We spent some time deciding which of these knolls really was the top of Blea Rigg; eventually resorting to taking a back bearing with the compass and checking it against the map; a very useful navigation skill for confirming where you are. This is also a blatant plug for our navigation courses which we run every Summer folks.