Froswick, Ill Bell & Yoke from Troutbeck

I parked on the roadside near the church today, as it was not possible to park alongside the river at the nearby Church Bridge due to inconsiderate parking by other walkers wanting two spaces for themselves. No real hardship though to be honest.

Jesus Church Troutbeck looking stunning with the white surrounds.

Taking the bridleway as we head northwards through the Troutbeck countryside.

A mild and peaceful valley walk along Ing Lane - little did we know that the calm would not last all day. This is the danger of the lakes. All peaceful at the start but wild higher up.

Crossing Trout Beck at Ing Bridge.

A right turn at the signpost near Troutbeck Farm (High Street path).

Troutbeck Park Farm and Troutbeck Tongue itself were purchased by Beatrix Potter in 1923 and bequeathed by her to the National Trust.

Deciding against climbing up and over Troutbeck Tongue we stayed on the High Street path and headed further up the valley.

Looking back down towards Troutbeck Tongue as the going began to get slightly steeper as we gained height.

The snow depth also increased with height and so did the wind speed. We stopped to take a breather and look over to Stoney Cove Pike and Threshthwaite Mouth.

A photo cannot capture the strength of the wind unfortunately, but believe me the exposed parts of skin felt very cold indeed, such that I'd wished I'd brought my proper goggles.

Deep snow meant the climb up Froswick was had work - we tried to stick to the areas where long grass poked through, but it was certainly a tricky and arduous ascent.

Froswick summit in blizzard conditions.

Now for a down and back up to Ill Bell which can be seen in the distance.

Brutal, but a stunning environment - I can't stress how beautiful it was up here and how exhilarating it was to be walking along this wide ridge.

As we approached Ill Bell summit, the wind whipped up another notch and we knew it would be even more exposed on the top.

It certainly was - We sheltered for a few minutes behind one of the cairns and we waved over to another lone walker who was doing the same behind the other one. The summit of Ill Bell was not a place for polite conversation, as all we could manage was the occasional wave - it felt like we had 'summited' Everest!

After 5 minutes the wind and spindrift eased slightly and we set off on our way to Yoke.

Cornices were present along the eastern ridge - we kept well away from these for obvious reasons.

After another spindrift battering, we made the easy ascent of Yoke.

Yoke summit.

Heading down to the Garburn Pass, we decide to have our well overdue lunch break (at 2:30pm) in that small copse by the track. As Davy correctly observed "we haven't really had any other place to really stop and have a bite to eat yet anyway" So it was time to finally sit down and have a warm drink.

As we gradually descend down in the direction of Troutbeck, we both noted that all that snow that was previously packed into the top of our boots from the ordeal much higher up (no point in trying to get it out as no sooner had you done that, more would replace it), was now well and truly warmed up and the resulting water could be felt squelching around in our boots and socks. Never mind - a change was available back at the car. Gaiters would have probably been handy for once.

It amazed us how quickly the conditions turned mild and still as we reached the low levels - who would have thought that up there was a world apart.

As we drove home, we both agreed that it had been a truly brilliant day - hard work, but great fun.