The Best Wrong Mountain climb ever Dec 2nd 2012 pt1

Well it was the day of another Twitteratti walk, i drove up to the lakes to meet friends for a walk around the Coledale Horseshoe, or at least i thought we were! 

 driving along the a66 towards Keswick the view of Blencathra came into view, snow capped and lit up in early morning sun , as i stopped to take an image a flock of seagulls appeared and what a super image it made :D     view large  HERE

 we all met in the car park in Braithwaite near to Keswick early on sunday morning. Gina had sent us all an e mail with the route ,including which path to take out of the car park.   so we all knew roughly where we where going:)
so after a group photo

 what did we all do?    yes you guessed it, took the wrong path out of car park  lol   instead of the small path behind the cars we started walking along the very good wide flat track down the valley!  Ooops
but we didnt realise this fact for another half hour!

walking along the path, chatting and taking some images of the snow capped mountains of Skiddaw behind us , i mention to Jimmy pointing up at Grisedale pike and said " arnt we supposed to be up there? "  he said the others know which route we are taking.

                                                       looking behind us to Skiddaw

i have just taken this image above and having caught up with Tanya ,she has informed me we have gone the wrong way!   Ooops,  Dave did suggest we climb straight up the fell side, but one look and everyone said  No way   haha    it appears everyone followed each other even though a few had already walked this route.   pity Ray wasnt with us , he would have known, and in reply to a txt someone sent him, his reply was " you didnt make that mistake did you? "     Doh

we are carrying on walking down the low valley track alongside the coledale beck  towards the Force Crag mine workings

coming to this stream we found the very smooth wet stepping stones very slippery and it was quite difficult to get across safely without falling in , Sian actually tumbled twice but was unscathed fortunatly, it would be so easy to twist an ankle or worse!

the path is at last taking us upwards , i stop briefly to shoot this image of the sun lighting up a pool of water, the oily surface reflecting the snow capped mountains and tinging the colour

                              and a panorama looking behind us towards Skiddaw again.

looking back towards our intended summit , Grisedale Pike. it soon became clear we were NOT going to climb it!    after a quick discussion it was decided to head towards Grasmoor which appears to be covered in snow  yay :)

gaining height rapidy we have now just past Coledale Hause and here is the view!   what a sight to behold, snow and blue sky ,what an amazing view.

walking along towards Grasmoor the snow is getting deeper and deeper, the surface frozen into a crust which is making walking far easier than soft powdery snow. 
                     Grisedale Pike with a slight covering of snow with Skiddaw in the distance.

                       here are the two"Glam walkers"  Tanya and Gina with Grasmoor behind.
                             please take a look at Tanyas blog HERE  & Ginas blog HERE

                       now loads of snowy shots as we make our way up to the base of Grasmoor :)

          i love how the snow folds across the landscape with the light catching all the bumps :D

      Time for a group shot, at the base of the climb up to Grasmoor summit , i got my silhouette in too

The amazing day will continue in part two , a tale of sledging i-phones,dangerous edge walk and views to die for  :D   which could have happened!