Eel Crag Sunday 18.1.09

[Stuart R]

Ian brewster and myself.
Blown out for the Cairngorms.....We headed to the lakes.

Left rammy at 7.15 am and with a clear run to Braithwaite we were soon heading up towards Street How and Grisedale Pike, at the summit the wind picked up from next to nothing with a bit of sun to a steady blow and the ice axes came out.
Headed off on a slight Northerly detour to Hopegill head, Ski goggles on, Ian and I decided to try the crampons as the ground became a little more icey, these stayed on until we reached the col below Eel Crag, declined to scramble it because of increasing wind, and heading into a bit of a blizzard we made slow progress (thanks to me,that is- Ian is still as fit as a butchers dog despite having a cold) and approached the back of Crag Hill without going up a misty Grasmoor. At the Summit the wind increased to about 70-80 mph and we stumbled on to the trig point regretting not having the crampons on, before deciding standing was getting a bit difficult, at the Trig point I found myself stuck to it like a fly on a windscreen and in putting my camera away lost a glove which shot off horizontally and was instantly lost in the grey. (Luckily I had a back up pair.) Crawling at first, we got upright and headed down towards Sail and along the long ridge to Causey Pike, with lots of wind blown snow.

About 6 hrs 6 ish peaks and about 10.5 miles we reckon.
Rating 8/10, best when the wind was strong. worst slow plods uphill against the wind.

Stuart