On Christmas Day, the very last thing I did before heading to bed was to check the weather forecast. I didn’t expect to see winter conditions due to the warmer temperatures but then I read ‘blizzard conditions’ for Boxing Day and knew I needed to head out one more time. So I packed my bags and set my alarm for an early start. It would be a one day ‘raid’ again.

So why the Langdale Pikes at such short notice? Well, I am of the opinion that a quality mountain day is one that is the result of lots of experience in the area you are hiking in. I think it should be the type of day you log only when you have done some hiking in summer conditions in that same area before and you have built up a feel for what might make a super challenging and fun day. This does mean lots of days where you walk in the mountains and they’re not ‘Quality’ but that’s is just a logbook problem. I know the Langdale Pikes better than any other place in the Lake District but I had never done them in winter before, so now was the time. I had a circuit in mind which would test me. Here is the map below:

Remember the end goal with this is to have fun outside, and I had a lot of fun developing the route at short notice, and even more fun hiking it. Conditions gave me gale force westerly winds and spindrift but no blizzard. It seems as though the Scafell Massif a little further and higher received the blizzard. Although you cannot see this on the OS map above, I had marked this route on a paper map as well and made circles around features I wanted to find en route. This was not just me ticking off summits in winter, that would be too easy and not a good practice for a future assessment. Instead, I made myself navigate to small features in tough conditions. I finished with an easy descent, down to Stake Pass and the Cumbria Way to the car. Check out some more photos and a YouTube video below!