Keith had suggested the Langdales the previous evening and I'd thought that maybe I'd get them to drop me off in Elterwater on their way and I'd then find a route back to Ambleside across the fields, a distance of about 6 miles or so. In the end Paul persuaded me to go with them, although I very much doubted my skills on what was now snow with a layer of ice on the top.
We parked up at the Dungeon Ghyll Hotel with some difficulty. Pete immediately got his car stuck because it dropped through the ice layer on top of pristine snow. Keith used his ice axe to break the ice layer up and he was then able to move the car again. Then we had the fun of finding £5.40 to pay for each car (and none of us had any change), but luckily there are change machines in the hotel toilets - how organised is that!!? The temperature seemed even lower than it had the previous two days and I had to put my big jacket on over my other walking gear while we were kitting up.
We started off across the fields up the valley, stopping to take photos...
pet horses...
put on crampons, take off jackets, take off crampons, stop for a pee and generally faff about a lot. I wasn’t terribly keen on the whole idea and I could feel Keith's frustration, so when we got to the start of the steeper section and Pete said that he wasn’t going any further because his back was killing him, I said I’d go back with him and Paul went on with Keith.
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