After leaving work on Friday a little early I took my rucksack and headed for the Lake District stopping off in Milton Keynes and Leamington Spa to pick up some mates. Thankfully Mother Nature was on our side, the forecast was for strong winds but mainly dry.
Having done Snowdon and Ben Nevis a few months prior, Scafell the smallest of the three seemed an easy stroll…we were wrong. As soon as we got above 700m into the cloud cover the snow below our feet became half a meter thick. A few hundred yards from the top the snow turned to ice and we could no longer continue without better equipment……GUTTED!
So we headed for some cover from the wind and made some tea (much to the jealousy of other Scafell hopefuls that day). Do you like a spoonful of sugar with your tea? Well as it turns out boiling mountain snow made our tea strangely sweeter. Even though I don’t take sugar it was still delicious and a big moral boost. It couldn’t have got more British! Teapigs tea, pork pies, scotch eggs, cheese and pickle sandwiches on top of a snowy mountain. (by the way, waterproof trousers + your bottom + a snowy mountain side = simple toboggan, the quickest way down a mountain!!)
